The complete Morée conchology including the fossils

Deshayes, G. P.

Expédition scientifique de Morée. Section des sciences physiques. Tome III. Première partie. Zoologie. Première section. Mollusques.

Published 1833-1835
Item ID 74980
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Paris and Strasbourg, 1833-[1835]. 4to (35.0 x 26.2 cm). 123 pp. [numbered 81-203]; nine double-sized plates, of which two finely hand-coloured. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards, borders with intricate patterned gilt lines. Spines with five gilt-lined bands and gilt title. Marbled endpapers. Speckled edges.

The very rare malacological-conchological results of a scientific expedition to the Peloponnese (Greece) lead by Jean Baptiste Georges Geneviève Marcellin Bory de Saint-Vincent (1780-1846). The voyage was made on behalf of the French government following a military operation to eradicate the Egyptian army of Ibrahim Pasha, in the wake of the Greek war of independence. The whole operation, including the scientific researches, was modelled on Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, 25 years earlier. This is a part of Volume III, Zoologie, with the addition of the essential palaeontological plates from the part on geology (the text refers to both the zoological and the geological plates). The area was surprisingly understudied by zoologists, which resulted in the discovery and descriptions of many new species. All parts were written by specialists in each field. Gérard Paul Deshayes (1796-1875) described the Mollusca, and Bory added a six-page Notice sur les polypiers de la Grèce, in the rear. This work illustrates all the molluscs - fossil and Recent, marine and continental - obtained during the expedition. The plates, by Jean Gabriel Prêtre, arguably one of the best French natural history illustrators of the 19th century, are of an outstanding quality, rich in detail, and those depicting Recent shells are beautifully hand-coloured. One vignette, being the tailpiece of the Mollusca section, shows Chama brocchii Deshayes, described in this work. Plate numbering is very "Deshayesian". Someone has corrected the plate numbers (in pencil, in an old hand), as follows: Géologie Mollusques Plate VII as Plate 24; Zoologie Plate XVIII, as Plate 18; Géologie Mollusques Plate VI as Plate 20; idem Plate 2 as 22; idem Plate III as 23; idem Plate 5 as 21; idem Plate 4 as 26; idem Plate1 as 25; and Zoologie Plate XIX as Plate 19. Originally, the plates were available either in a separate, folio atlas, or bound in with the text, folded, such as in this copy. A title page was never issued. Provenance: full colour bookplate of William Alexandre Ooster (1816-after 1870) on the first blank; stamp of the American malacologist Richard Irwin Johnson (1925-2020) above the drophead title. Two collations (in photocopy) tipped in in front. Some rubbing to spine and board edges; a few, isolated spots. Otherwise a very good copy. Caprotti II, p. 21 [185]; Nissen ZBI, 4628.

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