The inauguration of vertebrate paleontology

CUVIER, Georges L.C., Baron.

Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles de quadrupèdes, ou l'on rétablit les caractères de plusieurs espèces d'animaux que les révolutions du globe paroissent avoir détruites.

Paris: Deterville, 1812.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. Item #001944

4to. (252x200 mm). 4 volumes. Vol. I: [8], vi, 120 pp.; 20 pp. 3 pls.; viii, 278 [2] pp.; 23 [1] pp. 2 pls. 1 map. - Vol. II: [4], 10; 12 pp. 2 pls.; 21 [1] pp. 4 pls.; 33 [1] pp. 4 pls.; 30 pp. 3 pls.; 24 pp. 3 pls.; 20 pp.; 6 pp. 7 pls.; 140 pp. 8 pls.; 43 [1] pp. 8 pls.; 20 pp. 4 pls.; 4 pp. - Vol. III: [4], 3 [1], 8 pp.; 174 pp. 34 pls.; 21 [1] pp. 3 pls.; 14 pp. 2 pls.; 75 [1] pp. 17 pls.; 20 pp., 7 [1] pp. 3 pls.; 8, 2 pp. 4 pls.; 16 pp. 1 pl.; 21 [1] pp. 2 pls.; 4 pp. 1 pl.; 20 pp. 1 pl. - Vol. IV: 7 [1] pp.; 5 [1], [2], 66 pp. 3 pls.; 38 pp. 2 pls.; 10 pp.; [2], 72 pp. 7 pls.; 18 pp. 1 pl.; 20 pp. 2 pls.; 30 pp. 2 pls.; 9 [1] pp. 1 pl.; 27 [1] pp. 4 pls.; 43 [1] pp. 3 pls.; 40 pp. 1 pl.; [2], 59 [1] pp. 2 pls.; 26 pp. 2 pls.; 38 pp. 2 pls.; 32 pp. 2 pls.; 37 [1] pp. 2 pls.; 16 pp. 2 pls. Including half-titles to each volume, large folding hand-coloured engraved map to vol. I and in total 154 engraved plates (many folding). The large folding plate in vol. I frayed in margins and with tears to folds, hole in title of vol. III affecting one letter of imprint, title pages with old ink library stamp, few plates trimmed close affecting footer or headlines, little occasional spotting, vol. IV damp-stained towards end, contemporary half green roan, spines gilt, a little rubbed, vol. IV with boards repapered. Good copy, complete. ----

Horblit 20b; Nissen ZBI 1011; Norman 566 - FIRST EDITION. "Cuvier was considered by the public to be a bit of a wizard, a man who had brought to life animals that had long since become extinct... Cuvier knew how to make great strides in studying these creatures and could endow this study with new accuracy. His famous paleontological reconstructions had the living being as their point of departure... before witnesses he removed from a stone block the marsupial bones of a small opossum fossil, bones whose existence he had surmised on the basis of the conformation of the visible part of the skeleton. As early as 1804 Cuvier had the idea of reconstructing the musculature of extinct animals from imprints left by the muscles on the bones; then he merely had to imagine the skin over the muscles and the animal was practically brought back to life" (DSB).

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