Lot 636: [PERRAULT, Claude (1613-1688)]. Mémoires pour servir l'histoire naturelle des animaux . - [Jean PICARD (1620-1682)]. Mesure de la terre . - [PERRAULT]. Suite des mémoires pour servir l'histoire naturelle des animaux . Paris: Sébastien

[PERRAULT, Claude (1613-1688)]. Mémoires pour servir l'histoire naturelle des animaux. - [Jean PICARD (1620-1682)]. Mesure de la terre. - [PERRAULT]. Suite des mémoires pour servir l'histoire naturelle des animaux. Paris: Sébastien Mabre-Cramoisy for the Imprimerie Royale, 1671-76. Two volumes, large 2o (563 x 418 mm). Volume I with engraved frontispiece by Goyton after Sebastien Le Clerc, engraved title-vignettes incorporating the royal arms of Louis XIV, numerous engraved head- and tail-pieces by Le Clerc, together 34 engraved plates and one half-page engraved illustration. (Some pale dampstaining to a few lower margins in first volume, some occasional spotting.) Contemporary French mottled calf, with gilt arms of Louis XIV (Olivier 2494 fer 7) on sides (rebacked). Provenance: unidentified armorial bookplate; C.E. Kenney (his sale, sixth portion, Sotheby's 23 May 1967, lot 3280); acquired via Arthur Freeman. FIRST EDITION of "one of the most sumptuously produced of all early biological works" (Garrison-Morton). This important text contains descriptions of twenty-nine species, most covered in earlier publications of a team of comparative anatomists headed by Perrault and including Duverney, Pecquet, Moyse Charas and Philippe de la Hire, referred to as the "Parisians" in contemporary scientific literature because of their membership in the Académie Royale des Sciences. "Among the new species described are the lynx, the porcupine, the eagle, the cormorant and the ostrich" (Norman). The present copy includes Jean Picard's important work on measuring the earth's radius, Mesure de la terre, containing five plates, not found in all copies. The increased precision that he achieved compared to earlier scientists made possible a great advance in the determination of geographical coordinates and in cartography, and enabled Newton in 1684 to arrive at a striking confirmation of the accuracy of his principle of gravitation. This is one of the first publications of the Académie Royale des Sciences. The engraved frontispiece, the first illustration of the meeting of a learned society, shows a meeting of the Academy in the Royal Library at Versailles, with Louis XIV and his minister Colbert present. Eales I, 673 (also with the arms of Louis XIV); Garrison-Morton 295; Nissen ZBI 3123-3124; Norman 1687. (2)

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