Norimbergae [Nuremberg], Wolfgang Moritz Endter, 1687-1688. Small, thick 4to (19.7 x 15.6 x 10.0 cm). Half-titles, frontispieces, titles; [xxii], 478 206, [xxiv], [blank]; [xxx]; 572, 245, [xxix] pp.; numerous engraved plates (several larger, folded). Contemporary full vellum. Spine with gilt title. All edges red.

A rarely seen collection of medical, botanical, zoological, and mineralogical observations and discoveries published in one of the earliest scientific journals. Among the teratological articles there is a multi-winged bird, a woman with three nipples on each breast, a curious anomaly of a creature described here as a monstrosity, resembling Doby the elf from Harry Potter and much more. One of the best illustrated works is one by Georg Everhard Rumphius on cowries and allied marine gastropods (Cypraeidae and Ovulidae), using a binominal nomenclature, and one of the earliest works on the anatomy of lobsters by the Italian philosopher Lucantonio Porzio (1639-1723). A work by the physician, botanist, and sinologist Christan Mentzel (1622-1701) deals with ginseng and contains illustrations of the plant and roots, as well as descriptions in Chinese. Included are several medical treatises dealing with human teratology, with illustrations of "monsters". Bound in the rear is a large and important work on the panacea myrrh written by the German medical doctor Gottfried Samuel Polisius (1636-1700) and published by Endter in the same year (1688), Myrrhologia seu Myrrhae Disquisitio Curiosa. This includes a separate half-title, title page, and 356 pp. ([xii], 339, [iv]). Apparently, this is an annex to the Miscellanea Curiosa. Other papers are on subterranean mining, on Chinese herbs (including Chinese texts), another on hydrocephalus, yet another on the badger and its skeleton (all four with a fine illustration), etc. The first volume lacks one text leaf and several plates (probably 13, with 23 present). Those works mentioned are complete. Some light wear to the boards and spine, otherwise very good, clean, unmarked.