Venetiis (Venice), J. Baptista Pasqual, 1739. 4to (28.1 x 20.1 cm). 88 pp.; wood-engraved title vignette and five folded engraved plates. Period style half calf over marbled boards, later endpapers.

Rare, wide-margined copy of the first edition of this early important description and illustration of shells and (living) molluscs, starfish, crabs and other invertebrates, mostly from the Adriatic Sea at Rimini, where the author lived. The author, the physician, anatomist, and zoologist Giovanni Paolo Simon Bianchi (1693-1775) used the pseudonym Janus Plancus, or Jano Planco. The first two plates depict Foraminifera. This might well be the first work dealing extensively with these microscopic organisms. Among the illustrated living gastropods, we also find some smaller species, for instance of the genera Tritia[ Cyclope] and Epitonium [wentletrap]. The book has a very well executed binding in contemporary style. The plates have been professionally cleaned, the impression is strong. Nice, crisp and clean copy. Nissen ZBI, 356.