Milano, P. Hugues, 1822. Two volumes in one. Large folio (45.0 x 32.5 cm). First volume with engraved title page in sepia, engraved plate " Confronti di alcuni tratti di decrescente analogia nel profilo e nelle fisica constituzione del cranio dell' uomo e delle scimie", [vi, preface and systematics]; 73 (numbered III-V, and I-LXX) fine stipple engraved plates of apes and monkeys, each with descriptive captions in Italian. Several additional half-titles; the second volume on makis is titled " Dei lemuriani ossia maki propriamente detti", and has three introductory pages numbered ii-iv, a first half-title; ten plates, a second half-title (to the loris), a one-page introduction; three plates; a third half title (to the makis), an unnumbered text leaf; another two plates, a fourth half-title (to the genus Galago), another one-page introduction; and the final two plates, for a total of 15 plates, and an index page numbered xvi, and a GRAND TOTAL - for both volumes combined - of 88 plates. Contemporary blind half vellum over plain boards.

A splendidly illustrated monograph on apes and monkeys by the talented French painter Nicholas Henri Jacob (1782-1871), whose name is not to be found here. Second, entirely Italian edition with 88 beautiful stipple-engraved plates, made by Luigi Rados after Jacob's drawings, with printed captions in French and German on each plate. The book discusses species of apes, and monkeys from both the Old and New Worlds. The text gives details on their origin, habits, etc. The engraved title page shows a temple with the name Buffon in the tympanum, and those of Cuvier, Geoffroy, Daubenton, Lacépède, Latreille and Audebert in the frieze. Indeed, the work is modelled after the great encyclopedia by Buffon, but the engravings are very much superior, being more detailed and more lively. In contrast to many of Buffon's illustrations these are clearly drawn from living animals. The work also contains a dedication on the title page to Eugenio di Beauharnais, replacing the first edition dedication page to Eugène Napoléon, viceroy of Italy. The first plates, which are separately numbered, but also in Roman numerals, show comparisons between the human and ape skeleton and fetuses, and even these are thought-provoking, if not charming. The second volume, is entirely in Italian and deals exclusively with the makis (Lemuroidea) of Madagascar, not including true monkeys. The plate numbering is erratic; the work starts with an unnumbered title, which some may count as a plate, then five engravings numbered II-VI of which only the numbers III-V have illustrations, as described above, followed by 70 plates of apes and monkeys. After plate 70, the text pages are still titled "tavola", up to lxxxviii, without (large) illustrations, and there are two index pages, each with a blank verso. Untrimmed, complete copy with the broadest possible margins. Rare. Nissen ZBI, 2080; Wood, p. 402.