Pavia, Galeazzi, 1817. Large 4to (21.0 x 26.5 cm). 49 pp. (including title page), one hand-coloured engraved plate. Period-style blue half morocco over blue-marbled boards. Gilt title and ornaments on the spine. Endpapers renewed.

The first and rarest work on salamanders by the Italian anatomist Mauro Rusconi (1776-1849). It deals with the blood circulation of salamanders and has very precise and detailed illustrations, mostly finely coloured images of living juvenile, subadult and adult specimens. The beauty of these illustrations show that Rusconi was both a fine zoologist and an artist. "He drew and personally hand colored the highly detailed plates in each copy" (Adler). This paper was communicated in a letter to the famous Italian mineralogist, palaeontologist, and malacologist Giovanni Battista Brocchi (1772-1826). Brocchi is not a co-author, as sometimes suggested. The rarity of this and most other works by Rusconi is underscored by Wilhelm Junk in his Rara: "...alle, wissenschaftlich so grundgelegen Werke R.'s [sind] von einer solchen Seltenheit...dass sie als unauffindbar gelten können. Keines - mit Ausnahme der ersten - is nämlich (ganz unbegreiflicherweise) in einer höheren Auflage als 100, einzige sogar bloss 25 Exemplaren gedruckt. So ist auch der Preis eines jeden Werkes, wenn wirklich eines einmal auftaucht, trotz des geringen Umfanges 100 bis 200 M[ar]k". Cancelled stamp on title; some scattered, mostly marginal spotting, the plate rather foxed. In all still a very good copy. Adler II, pp. 44-46; Junk Rara, p. 156; Nissen ZBI, 3524. Not in the Crane library.