Amsterdam, J. C. Sepp & Zoon, 1818. 8vo (20.5 x 12.6 cm) ii, 64 pp.; seven plates including one hand-coloured frontispiece of a "heavy girl", one large, triple-folded engraved plate of a remarkably large shoe size, and five hand-coloured engraved plates, showing individual adult humans of an unusual size in their contemporary clothes. Contemporary blind marbled boards.

A very nicely illustrated early work on auxology, or the study of of human physical growth, by the Dutch medical doctor Wilhelmus Greve (1762-1819). The shoe size shown is that of Gerrit Bastiaansz, or the Lekkerkerkschen farmer age 21, who had size 52 (34.8 cm), which nowadays is not nearly as peculiar as it was in the early 19th century, when the average Dutchman's length was only about 163 cm, or 5'5". The size of both the "giants" and "dwarfs", however, were as extraordinary as they are today. For instance, the largest female, Trijntje Cornelisdochter Keever, stood 8 foot and one inch tall; Nicolas de Ferry, third smallest man shown, stood only 2'5" tall, both measures in Rijnlandse voeten and duimen (Rhineland feet and inches, measuring 31.4 and 2.62 cm). So Trijntje was 2.54 meter tall - she is the tallest woman who ever lived - and Nicolas was just under 76 centimetres. The illustrations are charming. Rubbing to the boards, spine a bit worn and slightly split, but holding fine, otherwise a very good, clean copy. Rare. Landwehr, 70.