St. Petersburg, Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1848. 4to (30.0 x 22.2 cm). 40 pp.; ten lithographed plates. Contemporary pebbled cloth. Gilt-ornamented spine.

A fine and rare monograph by the German medical doctor and zoologist - principally interested in crustaceans - Sebastian Fischer (1806-1871). With detailed plates of common, lesser known and several new species. Offprint from the Academy's Mémoires des savans étrangers, volume 6. With a nice bookplate (with double-headed eagle) of Fischer's employer, Maximilian Joseph Eugene Auguste Napoleon de Beauharnais, third Duke of Leuchtenberg, Prince Romanowsky (1817-1852). He was the husband of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolayevna of Russia and first cousin of Emperors Napoleon III of France and Francis Joseph I of Austria. He was a grandson of Napoleon I's first wife, the Empress Josephine, by her prior marriage to Alexandre de Beauharnais. He was president of the Russian mining institute. On the travels to the various mining districts, Fischer who accompanied the Duke, collected numerous crustaceans on which he published several papers. Apparently, Fischer donated this copy to the Duke. A few light spots, otherwise a very good, clean copy. Rare.