Paris, P. Bertrand; Strasbourg, V. Levrault, 1842. Folio (34.0 x 25.9 cm). Title page, half-title, 182 pp.; 22 finely lithographed plates. Spine with gilt lines and title. Later blind linen spine over contemporary boards. Marbled endpapers. Speckled edges.

This is the complete palaeontology section, including all the plates, of Alcide d'Orbigny's magnum opus. A complete set of the scientific results of d'Orbigny's seven years of travel and exploration in South America is a true rarity. Even the individual parts are very rare because the production of this work, which started two years after his return in 1835, took 15 years to complete. Most plates show fossil molluscs. Many species are new and all are recognizable from these original illustrations. The first 13 plates are captioned " Géologie"; plates 14-15 are captioned " Paleontologie", and 16-22, correctly, " Paléontologie". Included: on the last blank, verso and recto is a written copy in an old hand, of the paper he published in the Journal de Conchyliologie of 1853 (pp. 206-208) in which he describes three new ammonites from South America, apparently in addition to this publication. Provenance: bookplate of the French-American geologist and palaeontologist Jules Marcou (1824-1898) mounted on the front pastedown. Decomission stamp of an American museum on the front free endpaper recto, and in the top margin of the title page a pencilled annotation by the Australian palaeontologist and malacologist Jeffrey Darl Stilwell. Rather spotted and toned, as usual. Binding of the plates weak; rear endpaper chipped at edges and detached. Nevertheless a good copy of this fabulous work. Cat. BM(NH) pp. 603, 1473; Nissen ZBI, 3021; Sabin, 57457. Not in Ward and Carozzi.