{"product_id":"praun-abbildung-und-beschreibung-1859","title":"Schmetterlinge u. Raupen. Abbildung und Beschreibung europäischer Schmetterlinge.","description":"\u003cp\u003e1859 First Edition\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 4to. Papiliones: [9] leaves, 78 pp., 41 plates (2 b\/w; 39 colored). Bombyces: [3], [25] leaves, 25 plates (1 b\/w, 24 colored). Sphinges: [4], [11], 11 plates (1 b\/w, 10 colored). Noctuae: [4], [41], 41 plates (1 b\/w, 40 colored). Geometrae: [4], [21], 21 plates (21 colored). Microlepidoptera: [3] leaves, 69 pp., 32 plates (32 colored). Prospectus: pp. 12.\u003cbr\u003e\nNürnberg\u003cbr\u003e\nBauer \u0026amp; Raspe\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOriginal publisher's half-cloth cartonnage, with black cloth spines over gray cardboard boards; yellow paper mounted on the covers, printed with editorial information and completed in manuscript with the title of each of the six volumes. Some rubbing and soiling; joints generally a little loosened and in some cases carefully restored in modern times to avoid further damage. The plates are fresh, with strong color, minimal offsetting, and generous margins. The prospectus carries twice the violet oval handstamp of K. Schimmelpfeng's Buchhandlung, Mülheim-Ruhr, Viktoriastrasse. Very good.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFirst and only edition of a great illustrated work of the nineteenth-century European entomology. Devoted to the butterflies and moths of Europe, Praun's work has a layered publication story: it began publication in fascicles in 1858 and grew into a substantial large-quarto undertaking comprising 42 parts, 166 finely colored plates, and representations and descriptions of more than 2,300 species. Publication extended over more than a decade, with the individual taxonomic families also offered separately by the publisher as self-contained units, accounting for the complex sectional organization of surviving sets and the present six-volume arrangement. A complementary work devoted to the caterpillars, revised and completed after Praun's death by Ernst Hofmann, eventually followed separately in 1874-75; the appearance of \"Schmetterlinge u. Raupen\" on the present title page, suggests that the caterpillars had already been envisaged within the broader scope of the project.\u003cbr\u003e\nCombining encyclopedic scholarship with sumptuous illustration, Praun conceived the work as a practical reference for identifying and comparing butterflies and moths. Working as both compiler and systematist, he drew upon an extensive network of collectors and correspondents, acknowledging among his collaborators Freiherr von Welser zu Neuhof and the schoolmaster Fehr of Gunzenhausen. In his preface, dated Nuremberg, November 1857, Praun laments that the study of butterflies and moths still remained too much the province of amateurs because reliable illustrated references were either incomplete, prohibitively expensive, or difficult to use. His ambition was to produce a comprehensive, systematic, and accessible iconography of the European Lepidoptera. The publishing history, preserved in the successive title pages, traces the project through the Nuremberg firm of Julius Merz, Ludwig Korn, and Emil Küster between 1859 and 1869, year of Praun's death.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe work, organized in 6 lean volumes, comprises 171 plates, of which 5 steel engravings in black\/white and 166 beautifully hand-colored plates, illustrating more than 2,300 species, accompanied by detailed systematic descriptions. An additional small pamphlet represents the Prospectus to guide through the volumes organization.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe first book opens with a dedication to G. J. K. Freiherr von Welser von und zu Neuhof, whom Praun acknowledges as both friend and patron of natural-scientific research. A preliminary essay on classification (Bemerkungen zur Systematik) sets out a remarkably modern view of taxonomy, arguing that only individual organisms exist in nature, while genera are human constructions based upon shared structure and habits, and that climate, nourishment, migration, cultivation, and hybridization continually produce new forms. An explanation of abbreviations follows, citing the principal authorities of European entomology (such as Linné, Fabricius, Esper, and Hübner to Boisduval, Ochsenheimer, Treitschke, and Zeller) and identifying anatomical terminology and figures borrowed from earlier works. The systematic catalogue begins with the Papiliones genus by genus, each species treated with synonymy, food plant, flight period, and geographical distribution. It continues with Bombyces, Sphinges, Geometrae and Microlepidoptera.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe magnificent hand-colored plates form the heart of the work, portraying specimens with exceptional scientific precision and artistic refinement: over 2,300 delicate and vivid butterflies and moths come to life through the pages.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCataloguing this magnificent work took us several sessions, not because it is particularly complicated, but because we kept losing count of the plates... and track of time. More than 2,300 butterflies and moths, each hand-colored with astonishing precision, have a way of distracting even the most disciplined bibliographer. A masterpiece of nineteenth-century science, but also a glorious excuse to stop working and simply look.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Fenice Antiquaria","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49385892610283,"sku":"151-1859--4000.00-1564.00-2026","price":5908000.0,"currency_code":"KRW","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0766\/2000\/5611\/files\/00151_IMG_8715-2_2.jpg?v=1788991293","url":"https:\/\/fenicebooks.com\/en-kr\/products\/praun-abbildung-und-beschreibung-1859","provider":"La Fenice Antiquaria","version":"1.0","type":"link"}