LINNAEUS, Carolus (1707-1778). Fundamenta testaceologiae. Uppsala: Edmann, 1771.

Fine, unpressed copy of the strangely pornographic thesis on mollusks defended by Adolph Murray, a pupil of Linnaeus. As was the custom at the time, this doctoral thesis was written by Linnaeus and defended by his student. It outlines the otherwise innocent Linnaean taxonomy of the phylum Mollusca, but the passage on clams begins "with one of the most remarkable paragraphs in the history of systematics. He regards the hinge between the two valves (cardo) as a defining character, and he then writes: Protuberantiae insigniores extra cardinem vocantur Nates—or 'the notable protuberances above the hinge are called buttocks.' He then names all the adjacent parts for every prominent feature of sexual anatomy in human females—ut metaphora continuetur ('so that the metaphor may be continued')" (Gould).

The image of a clamshell—which he dubs Venus dione—on plate 2 completes the joke, presenting a rather suggestive perforation. This did not escape the notice of his contemporaries; the English naturalist Emanuel Mendes da Costa wrote of this passage that "Ribaldry at times has been passed for wit; but Linnaeus alone passes it for terms of science." Soulsby 2405; Cobres p 433 n 41. Stephen Jay Gould, Leonardo’s Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms (1998).

Quarto (200 x 155mm). 2 folding plates. Contemporary marbled wrappers, paper label with title in manuscript on front. Provenance: The Royal Observatory at Gotha (printed library label and stamp, as well as deaccession stamps).