Palermo, Librairie International L. Pedone Lauriel (Charles Clausen), 1890. Folio (33.2 x 24.0 cm). 316 pp.; 46 fine lithographed plates. Original printed boards.

Monumental treatise of this important and well-preserved fauna - actually the best-preserved Eocene molluscan fauna in North America. With descriptions and illustrations of a great many new gastropods and bivalves (and some foraminifers, corals, Echinodermata, etc., figured on the last eight plates of the main work). More or less privately published by the Marchese Antoine de Gregorio (1855-1930) in his Annales de Géologie et de Paléontologie, livraisons 7 and 8. Provenance: inscribed M. A. Whyte in the lower margin of the front board (most probably the British geologist Martin Andrew Whyte [1945-2013]); tiny stamp of the University of Edinburgh Library on the front board with a small script stamp - "Presented by Arch. Geikie". Sir Archibald Geikie (1835-1924) was one of the foremost geologists and palaeontologists of Scotland and beyond. The same library stamp on front free endpaper recto, a few plate margins, and title to the Annales; the half-title and title to the work itself clean. Text uncut. Boards a bit soiled, edges with shelf wear, hinges starting, plates vaguely spotted, a few toned, or with some, mostly marginal foxing. A very good copy of this very rare work. Neither in Cat. BM(NH) nor in Nissen.