Paris, l'Imprimerie Royale, 1755. 4to (25.1 x 18.9 cm). 738 [202, 536] pp.; 23 mostly large, folded plates. Contemporary full tree-calf. Spine with five raised bands, gilt title and gilt vignettes. Marbled endpapers. Red edges.

A complete volume, with text and plates, containing many original scientific contributions, the most important of which is the work by the renowned early French geologist and palaeontologist Jean Étienne Guettard (1715-1786): Mémoire sur les granits de France, comparés a ceux d'Égypte, with the FIRST mineralogical / geological map of the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. This map precedes the earliest such map recorded by Sharief and Naji ( Bibliography of the Geology of the Arabian Gulf and Adjacent Areas, 1989) by nearly 100 years. Other contributors include botanists such as Du Hamel, Daubenton, etc., etc. Bindings very worn at spine ends and board edges, but contents very good, without foxing. Ward and Carozzi, 971.