Geology - Fossils Knorr, Georg Wolfgang and Johann Ernst Walch Recueil des monumens des catastrophes que le globe terretre a éssuiées, contenant des pétrifications dessinées, gravées et enluminées d'après les originaaux ... 6 parts in 4 volumes. With an aquatint portrait of Walch by Augst Vind after J. Elias Haid, a copper portrait of Knorr by I.A. Schweikert after I.E. Ihle, a col. Folding copper with view of the Solnhofen quarry and 272 coloured, partly folded and double-page copper plates. Nuremberg, (P.J. Felssecker for Knorr's heirs), 1768-1778. 3 vols. 156 pp. - 3 vols., 59 p. - 3 vols., 159 p. - 3 vols, 268 (recte 266) p. - 4 vols, 203 p. - 1 leaf, 124 p. Folio. Marbled boards. Calf leather bindings on 6 bands, each with 2 gilt-stamped spine labels in red and red. Spine labels in red and green and rich floral spine gilt, red edges, marble endpapers (slightly rubbed, one upper capital with small tear). Splendid copy of the extremely rare French edition. Complete with the rare index volume by the Thuringian naturalist J. S. Schröter and the plate with the coloured illustration of the marble quarry of Solnhofen in Bavaria, set in a rocaille frame. - Nissen, ZBI 2232. Landwehr, books with col. plates 95 (holl. A.). DSB VII, 411 ff. Engelmann 596. Ward/Carozzi, Geol. emerging 1284 - Our copy with the often missing impressive double-page view of a quarry, but without the engraved titles of the first three volumes, which are sometimes found together with the plates due to the publication history, although there are no references to engraved title pages in any of the four volumes. The plates are known to have been printed in several colours and then reworked by hand. - The most beautiful and comprehensive work on fossils in the century of enlightenment. The fossils illustrated on the plates are mostly labelled with the provenance of the respective collections and natural history cabinets from which the objects originate (including Gessner, Schmidel, Walch, Andreae and d'Anone). In the present copy, part 1 was bound twice: first in the expanded edition of 1777 and in the first edition of 1768 - Partly somewhat yellowed and minimally stained, occasional faint, small water stains in the outer margin of volume II/2 and in the head margin of volume III, overall a fresh and wide-margined copy in very good condition in splendid contemporary bindings. Wonderful broadmargined and clean copy in a splendid contemporary binding. - 6 pts. in 4 vols. With two engraved portraits, 273 (many folding or doublepage) handcoloured engraved plates. Contemp. marbled calf, two gilt labels and rich floral gilt decoration on spine (slightly rubbed, one upper capital with slight tear). Folio. - Part 1 bound in duplicate of the first edition of 1768 and the second improved edition of 1777. - A beautiful copy in a fine contemporary binding of the French, and most desirable and complete, edition of Knorr's 'Sammlung', his monumental work on fossils, the greatest work of its kind and an outstanding piece of book production and colour printing. As DSB notes, Knorr was one of the protogeologists of the eighteenth century who is intermediate between the collectors of cabinets of natural history and those who first made use of fossils for the identification and mapping of stratigraphic succession. - "... the extraordinary quality of the plates ...led to the expansion of the work by Walch, as well as to French and Dutch editions. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the beauty of some of Knorr's illustrations exceeds that of their models and that in all cases the artist's eye has transformed neutral, natural objects into permanent, formal aspects of humanism. The detail and accuracy of Knorr's engravings not only made possible zoological classification but firmly established the distinction between fossils of organic origin and sports of nature" (DSB). * This work is taxed. The hammer price is subject to a premium of 23.95% and the final invoice amount to 7% (books only) or 19% VAT in the European Union. This work is subject to the regular margin scheme. There is a 23.95% buyer's premium on the hammer price and 7% (Books only) or 19% VAT on the final invoice amount in the European Union. 18000