Milestones of Science Books

MALPIGHI, Marcello.

Dissertatio epistolica de bombyce.

London: John Martyn & Jacob Allestry, 1669.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #003214

4to (249 x 185 mm). [10], 100 pp., 12 folding engraved plates, including initial blank. Pages of main text uncut and unopened. Bound in near contemporary half calf, gilt-lettered spine (wear to extremities, corners scuffed, boards rubbed and soiled). Text leaves with light marginal browning and soiling, preliminary leaves including title with cut edges, praefatio ad lectorem leaf with small cut-out at blank upper margin not affecting text, plates I-III misbound after plate XII, slight offsetting to some folding plates. Provenance: Marquis de Vichy (armorial bookplate to front pastedown), inscription in ink on first flyleaf. A very good, largely unsophisticated copy. ----

Garrison-M. 293; NLM/Krivatsy 7334; Norman 1428; DSB IX, p.65; Wing M-349; Wellcome, IV 38. - First edition. "Malpighi's work on the silkworm represents the first monograph on an invertebrate and records one of the most striking pieces of research work on his part. He dissected the silkworm under the microscope with great skill and observed its intricate structure; before the appearance of this work the silkworm was believed not to have internal organs" (Garrison-M). "In de bombyce Malpighi had carefully observed the artisan nature construct each of the three stages - larva, chrysalis, and moth - through which the silkworm is formed. He further remarked on the specific apparatuses with which the silkworm is provided, among them the air ducts (tracheae) and the blood duct with a number of pulsating centers (corcula)" (DSB IX, p.65). - Visit our website for additional images and information.

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