The rare first book on Greenland's marine molluscs

Möller, H. P. C.

Index molluscorum Groenlandiae.

Published 1842
Item ID 74868
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Hafnia [Copenhagen], I. G. Salomon, 1842. 8vo (20.3 x 13.0 cm). Title page (verso blank), pp. 3-24. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards. Spine with gilt ornaments and black leather label with gilt title. Pink endpapers.

The first paper dealing exclusively with the marine Mollusca (and Brachiopoda) of Greenland, with, unsurprisingly, many new species. Written by the Danish naturalist Hans Peter Christian Møller (1810-1845). Møller studied theology and graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1830. In the meantime, he prepared a manuscript, illustrated by himself, called Danmarks Mollusker, which was completed in 1835 but never published. After the theological master's examination in 1837, Møller devoted all his time to malacology, and was inspired by his friends and colleagues to go on a self-funded expedition to South Greenland in 1838-1839. In 1840, Møller returned to Greenland where he compiled his Index Molluscorum Groenlandiæ. In the summer of 1845, the young malacologist travelled south to the 7th International Congress of Sciences in Naples, held in September. Along the way, he visited other natural scientists to exchange information and species. Around the 10th of October he travelled further to Rome, where he died of fever on the 18th. This copy is the original, separately printed edition, not an excerpt from the Naturhistorisk Tidsskrift. Dedication by Möller to Doctor Th. Müller handwritten in the top margin of the front wrapper; and in a different old hand in the top margin of the first blank "Th. Müller. Dcmbr. 1842. Berolini"; perhaps the Theodor Müller who wrote a Synopsis novorum generum, specierum et varieta tum testaceorum viventium anno 1834 promulgatorum, adjectis iis quae in diariis societatis zoologicae Londinensis ab anno 1830 editis relata sunt(1836), who in turn may be the German-Brazilian naturalist Johann Friedrich Theodor Müller (1821-1897), [later?] known as Fritz Müller. Also, in light pencil on the front free endpaper recto, "Jeffrey D. Stilwell ... 4/[19]97". Spine much rubbed, otherwise good. Rare.

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