GESNER, Conrad (1516-1565). Historiae animalium liber IIII. qui est de piscium & aquatilium animantium natura. Zurich: Conrad Froschauer, 1558.

First edition, with fine publisher's hand-coloring, of Gesner's great encyclopedia of aquatic life, in a contemporary German binding. This work—teeming with striking illustrations of fish, crustaceans, mollusks, and more—is the fourth volume of his exhaustive treatment of the animal kingdom, the first systematic treatise on zoology in the Renaissance. Gesner, "one of the great polymaths of the Renaissance" (PMM), gathered data from antiquity, contemporary authors, and his own observations to provide the first accurate descriptions of many aquatic and marina animals, from the beaver to the sea cucumber. The sensitively colored woodcuts are based on original drawings, which were recently rediscovered and can now be found at the Amsterdam University Library. In a contemporary binding with fine, accurate coloring, this is an exceptional copy of a work which "remained the most authoritative zoological book between Aristotle and the publication of Ray's classification of fauna in 1693" (PMM). Adams G-538;Horblit 39; Nissen ZBI 1553 PMM 77; Wellisch 26.1.

Folio (397 x 246mm). Printer's device on title and 737 woodcuts in text, with contemporary publisher’s hand-coloring (a few minor tears in blank margins repaired, some minute wormholes occasionally touching a letter of text, faint dampstaining on upper corner of some gatherings). Contemporary German blind-stamped pigskin over wooden boards, clasps.