Nürnberg, Gabriel Nicolaus Raspe, 1777-1779. Four volumes in four. 8vo (19.3 x 12.0 cm). Title pages, 2274 pp. (I [1777]: [ii], 652; II [1778]: [xiv], 496, [viii]; III [1778]: [xiv], 486; IV [1779]: lxiv, 528, [x]); 57 finely engraved plates [1-5; 1-9; 1-9, 5B, 5C, 6B, 7B; 10-36, 16b, 20b, 21b]. Contemporary boards with two, burgundy and near-uniform brownish morocco labels with gilt or black, embossed title and volume number. Edges red. One volume with a contemporary binding in half-vellum-over-speckled-boards beneath.

This work is based on the mineralogy part of Linnaeus's Systema Naturae (12th edition), and was completely rewritten by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin (1748-1804), an 'apostle' of Linnaeus, who also wrote the very much enlarged 13th edition of Linnaeus's Systema Naturae, which, like the original edition, was entirely written in Latin. The plates in the first two volumes are mineralogical, mainly showing crystals; the plates in the last two volumes show mostly fossils. A few plates deal with volcanology. Figure numbering in Volume I starts anew on each plate; in Volume II figures are numbered consecutively; plate numbering and figure numbering in Volume III and IV are consecutive. In total there are 626 [ 20, 20, 20, 18, 4; 141; 109, 110-397] numbered illustrations. A few plates are combined on one sheet; most plates are large to very large, multi-folded. A remarkable set, as all volumes are bound in the same plain boards, with a near-identical burgundy title label, but with more variation in the second, volume-number labels: although all ornamental elements are identical, and identically positioned, they were made using slightly different stamps, and on different pieces of morocco leather. Moreover, in the first volume, the cover is in fact a jacket, covering a contemporary half-vellum binding. This is a very early example of the use of a dust jacket. On the foot of each spine, a library marking in an old hand. A very fine, clean set. Cat. BM(NH), pp. 684, 1128; Sinkankas, 2415; Soulsby, 100. Not in Ward and Carozzi.