Nissen, ZBI, 2227; Brunet, III, col. 682; Graesse, IV, p.35.<\/i><\/p>\n
First edition published posthumously of this magnificent work, illustrated with 91 superb plates, engraved and coloured at the time. This work was produced based on original specimens preserved in several of the major 18th-century cabinets of curiosities.<\/span><\/p>\n Knorr\u2019s interest in natural history began whilst he was working with other artists on the engravings for Scheuchzer\u2019s Physica Sacra<\/i>, published between 1731 and 1735 in Augsburg.<\/p>\n Knorr was a pioneer of palaeontology, an extremely accomplished engraver and art dealer who, during his lifetime, assembled a fine collection of drawings based on cabinets of curiosities and other collections of natural history specimens held by amateurs in Holland and Germany in the early 18th century (Muller, Houttyn, Schadeloock and others). Many specimens described in this book come from the collection of Christoph Jacob Trew (1708\u20131770), author of the Hortus Nitidissimus<\/i>. The collectors \u201cwere kind enough to provide the means to produce lifelike illustrations from them, thereby rescuing them from oblivion, and thus facilitating the advancement of human knowledge into the marvellous secrets of Nature. It was all the more fitting to make such a noble study accessible to everyone in this way, as the Originals & Masterpieces of Nature, which we are here sharing with the public, are rare, & are scarcely ever found gathered together in a single Cabinet<\/i>” (translated from the preface).<\/p>\n Knorr was also one of the proto-geologists of the 18th century who first used fossils for the identification and mapping of the stratigraphic succession. It was this generation that finally established the organic origin of fossils and accumulated sufficient descriptive material to classify its discoveries within the biological kingdom, thereby providing the palaeontological basis for the law of faunal succession. The extraordinary quality of the plates led to the expansion of Walch\u2019s work, as well as to French and Dutch editions. It is no exaggeration to say that the beauty of some of Knorr\u2019s illustrations surpasses that of their models and that, in all cases, the artist\u2019s eye transformed neutral, natural objects into enduring, formal aspects of humanism. The detail and precision of Knorr\u2019s engravings not only made zoological classification possible, but also firmly established the distinction between fossils of organic origin.<\/p>\n The work contains the following engravings: corals (15 plates), shells (7), butterflies (6), sea urchins (4), minerals (6), crustaceans and spiders (7), starfish (4), fish (9), birds (7), quadrupeds (14), reptiles and amphibians (12).<\/p>\n A superb copy containing the very rare engraved portrait that is always missing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2 volumes, large folio (513 x 357 mm) 13 nn.ll. (title in German, title in French, 7 nn.ll. dedication, 4 nn.ll. bibliography) engraved portrait frontispiece by Schweikart after Ihle, VIII, 132 pp., engraved and colored title dated 1754, 38 engraved and colored plates for volume I; 2 nn.ll. (title in German, title in French) XX, 144 pp., 53 engraved and colored plates for volume II. Contemporary mottled sheep, spine gilt with raised bands, red edges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":85468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[540],"product_tag":[1240],"class_list":{"0":"post-85523","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-natural-history","7":"product_tag-18th-century-illustrations","8":"pa_auteur-knorr-georg-wolfgang-2","10":"first","11":"instock","12":"shipping-taxable","13":"purchasable","14":"product-type-simple"},"acf":{"artist":" Georg Wolfgang KNORR","chapeau":"Complete with its 91 plates, the rare engraved portrait, and the engraved title","adresse_bibliographique":"Nuremberg, George Wolfgang Knorr, 1766-1767","book_type":"","provenance":"","afficher_prix":"oui"},"yoast_head":"\n