Various authors
Der Naturforscher. Funfzehntes Stück.
Halle, Johann Jacob Gebauer, 1781. 8vo (20.0 x 12.2 cm). Title pages with engraved allegorical vignettes. [ii], 256 pp.; five engraved plates of which plates I, III, and IV finely hand-coloured; several fine, wood-engraved head and tailpieces. Contemporary speckled boards. Spine with paper label with script title. Specked edges.
Rare part of one of the earliest and rarest German natural history journals. Deals mainly with zoology. Especially nice are the hand-coloured fossil molluscs (Trigoniidae), recent fresh water snails, and butterflies and moth plates. Founded by the German naturalist Johann Ernst Immanuel Walch (1725-1778). Authors include, e.g., the malacologist O. F. Muller, the pupil of Linnaeus, Schreber, and the malacologist Hermann. Inscribed on the rear pastedown by the palaeontologist and malacologist Dr. Jeffrey D. Stilwell, with date and place of acquisition. A very good, clean copy. Cat. BM(NH) Serial Titles, p. 1104; Horn-Schenkling 23029; Nissen ZBI, 4709.