Lot 13: BELON, PIERRE.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

L'Histoire de la nature des oyseaux, avec leurs descriptions, & naïfs portraicts retirez du naturel. Paris: Gilles Corrozet, 1555

Small folio (315 x 205mm.), general title and 6 divisional titles with woodcut devices, portrait woodcut of the author on title verso, 160 woodcut illustrations in the text, woodcut initials, the bird illustrations, main title device and some initials all in fine old hand-colour, contemporary calf, general title restored at head

Anker 9; Nissen IVB 86; Ronsil, p.189; Zimmer, p.52

Abraham Viell, ownership inscription on title; Daines Barrington, signature on title; John Moore Paget, armorial bookplate; Arthur Paget, ownership inscription on flyleaf

a fine copy of "one of the earliest books dealing entirely with birds" (Zimmer).

According to Ronsil, "Avec Pierre Belon, du Mans, pionnier de l'ornithologie, commence l'observation directe". Belon's work was intended as a compendium of ornithology and contains his important comparison of human and avian skeletons, which became the foundation of the science of comparative anatomy.

The colouring in the present copy is beautiful and is of some age, possibly contemporary. Arthur Paget, who acquired the book in 1852, has written on the fly-leaf "coloured plates, rare". Another owner of the book, who has signed the title-page, was the distinguished naturalist and antiquary Daines Barrington (1727-1800).