Paris, G. Dufour et Ed. d'Ocagne, 1823. 4to (29.8 x 22.0 cm). Half-title, title page, 30 pp.; 30 engraved plates by E. Piquenot with explanatory text leaves. Later green quarter cloth over plain boards. Gilt title on the spine. Original blind wrappers bound in.

Important conchological work by the great French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck (1744-1829), especially in regards of his view on palaeontology. "His description of the fossil fauna of the Paris Basin... led to his being accepted as the 'founder of modern invertebrate palaeontology'. The problem of extinction encountered in his research is thought to have been crucial in the formulation of the theories on evolution" (Cleevely). The offered work is a re-edition of Lamarck's Mémoire sur les fossiles des environs de Paris, initially published in the Mémoires of the Paris Natural History Museum, with new additions, partly by Cyprien Prosper Brard, who engraved the plates himself. Brard (1786-1838) is known for his Histoire des coquilles terrestres et fluviatiles qui vivent aux environs de Paris (1815). Original 1955 invoice bound in, the inferior paper offsetting on the adjacent leaves; some light, marginal foxing on the plates, which are rather curiously numbered, as in the Mémoires. Apparently, they were not re-engraved. The last two pages contain a list of other natural history books from the same publishers. Rare. Only two auction records since WWII. Cleevely, R. J. (1983) World Palaeontology Collections, p. 177; Nissen ZBI, 2365. Not in Caprotti.