Descrizione

With 4 engraved plates. (2) ff., 68 pp., (2) ff. Sm.-4to. Contemporary calf, spine gilt. Leipzig, Friedrich Groschuff, 1714. First edition of a landmark of science. This is one of the first scientific treatise on corals based on the original observations of the celebrated naturalist David-Sigismund Büttner (1660-1719). His work examines every aspect of the corals, and deals with brief descriptions and figures of several fossil corals from, a.o. Sachsen-Anhalt (Germany), which are obviously coralla of Favosites, Halysites and some solitary and colonial Rugosa, for example mentioned as Lithostrotion. He also discusses the formation of coral skeleton. Büttner stands in a line with Scheuchzer, both are precursors of Neptunism. - A fine and rare copy. - Nissen, ZBI, 671; see Hölder, Geologie und Paläontologie (1989). SCIENCE:NATURAL HISTORY ; Coral ; FOSSIL ; evalu ;