Düsseldorf, Arnz, 1826-1844. Two parts (text and atlas) in two. Folio (45.7 x 29.1 cm). Title page to the work, three title pages to the parts. 704 pp. [I (vi), 252; II: (ii) 312; III: iv, 128]; 201 lithographed plates [I-CIXC; two without number]; plate part with several extra blanks in the rear. Uniform contemporary gilt-bordered half-morocco over grained boards. Spines with four trebled, gilt-rolled bands; compartments with gilt arabesques and titles. Marbled endpapers.

A very rare complete copy of the first edition. Published in three parts. The first part deals with sponges, corals, bryozoans, echinoderms and annelids (plates 1-71). The second covers bivalves and brachiopods (plates 72-165). The third is entirely dedicated to gastropods, and scaphopods (then still not regarded as a separate class). Especially the two later, molluscan parts are very rare. This copy suggests an undescribed state, as, according to Nissen, plate numbering starts anew with each of in total nine "Heften" (separately published parts). However, here plate numbering is consecutive, but this is most certainly not the second edition, which was published in 1866, long after the author's death. Georg August Goldfuß (1782-1848) was a German palaeontologist, zoologist and botanist. He became a professor of zoology at the University of Erlangen and later at the University of Bonn. He coined both the terms "Protozoa" and "Pelecypoda", the latter now replaced by Bivalvia. He was assisted by another German palaeontologist, Count Georg Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm zu Münster (1776-1844). The British Museum Library catalogue provides a detailed collation, with publication dates, but lists only eight Lieferungen, combining the end of the first volume, and the beginning of the second volume, whereas they were probably issued separately. Some annotations in an old hand in light pencil; scattered, very mild, and mostly marginal spotting throughout, a few plates with minimal damp-staining to the lowermost part of the lower margin but most plates clean. The Jura plate lightly toned, and with a small, old, marginal repair; another old repair to the lower gutter of Plate XXI, well outside the figures. The text section mostly mildly foxed, but stronger on the second title and dedication leaf. In all an excellent set, and very rare in this superior state indeed. Cat. BM(NH) p. 693; Nissen ZBI, 1619. Not in Ward and Carozzi.