GUALTIERI Niccolo Index testarum Conchyliorum qua adservantur in Museo Nicolai Gualtieri.

Nissen, ZBI, 1736.

First edition of one of the most beautiful 18th century books on shells.

Niccolo Gualtieri (1688-1744), a medical doctor, botanist and malacologist under Cosimo III de’ Medici, built an impressive collection of specimens that are held at the Museo Storia Naturale di Pisa. A beautifully engraved work featuring hundreds of examples from the author’s collection. The plates, engraved by P.A. Pazzi after drawings by Joseph Menabu depict most of the specimen balancing on their spikes; the divisional titles printed in red and black are often decorated with vignettes depicting corals. Complete copy, entirely uncut, and including the author’s portrait (often missing).

This copy has an added allegorical frontispiece (slightly shorter and mounted on a stubb) engraved by Pietro Antonio Pazzi after Campiglia, and bears the caption Musei Nicolai Gualtieri.