Augustae Vindelicorum [Augsburg], Sumtibus editoris, 1784. 8vo (20.4 x 13.3 cm). [xxiv], 117 pp.; six engraved plates depicting several "species" of monks and their clothes and shoes. Later half calf over marbled boards. Gilt title on the spine. Original or contemporary endpapers.

This is the second, rare edition of the Monachologia, an anticlerical parody on monks; a human species of "deceivingly human appearance, but vastly different from a man". Von Born introduces his satire with a passage from Linnaeus' De noxa insectorum. The author applies hilarious pseudo-scholarly pretentiousness in his dealings with exterior and interior qualities defining a monk as an anthropomorphic animal, hooded, lamenting at night and starving himself. This was the first time the Linnaean system was used outside the field of natural history - a philosophical novelty. The title suggests that this was the work of a Joannes Physiophylus, edited by a certain Aloysius Martius. Ignaz von Born (1742-1791), a freemason (an oil painting portrait of von Born is in the Freemason's Hall in London) and, for a short time, a member of the Jesuits, is better known for his scientific work, mainly in the field of mineralogy, and conchology. His most famous books are: Ueber das Anquicken von Gold und Silberhältige Erze... (1775) and Index Fossilium (1775). He also described the conchological collection of Maria Theresia (now in the Zoological Museum in Vienna) in two works, viz. the Index rerum naturalium Musei Caesarei Vindobonensis (1778) and the Testacea Musei Caesarei Vindobonensis (1780). Some evenly distributed light spotting and browning, otherwise a very good copy. Soulsby, 3732.