Milne Edwards – Le règne animal distribué d’après son organisation – 1840

Description

Henri Milne-Edwards was the 27th child of William Edwards, an English planter and colonel of the militia in Jamaica and Elisabeth Vaux, a Frenchwoman. Henri was born in Bruges, in present-day Belgium, where his parents had retired; Bruges was then a part of the newborn French Republic. His father had been jailed for several years for helping some Englishmen in their escape to their country. Henri spent most of his life in France. He was brought up in Paris by his older brother Guillaume Frederic Edwards(1777–1842), a distinguished physiologist and ethnologist. His father was released after the fall of Napoleon. The whole family then moved to Paris.

At first he turned his attention to medicine, in which he graduated as an MD at Paris in 1823. His passion for natural history soon prevailed, and he gave himself up to the study of the lower forms of animal life. He became a student of Georges Cuvier and befriended Jean Victoire Audouin.

The book forms a part of the celebrated “Disciples edition” of G. Cuvier’s “Le règne animal”. This is part of the text (all but the six last pages), and all the plates on annelid worms. The fine plates are made by the famous printer Rémond, who used a unique technique of early colour printing. The plates are very beautiful. Plate 16 was never published. Nissen errs in listing plates 1a-e, the latter is a typographical error for c. A few plates a bit age-toned. Title page and most text pages spotted, most plates clean.

RARE! with many great chromolithographed illustrations

Provenanve: Collection Taugourdeau [Small stamp on first blank]