RIEDEL (Gottlieb Friedrich). [Tabulæ regni animalis]. Augsburg, Negot. Academia Cæs. Franc. [Kaiserlich Franziskische Akademie], s.d. [1780]. In-folio, red morocco, triple gilt fillet, central coat of arms, spine decorated with a crowned numeral, inner lace, gilt edges (period binding). Very rare suite of 47 large natural history plates drawn and engraved in intaglio by Gottlieb Friedrich Riedel (1724-1784) and published under the auspices of the Augsburg Academy. Each plate contains sixteen vignettes depicting one or more specimens of an animal species with a bilingual Latin-German caption. The first section describes the six classes of the animal kingdom and the class of mammals on 23 plates (numbers I-XXIV [plate XXIII numbered XXIV]). The second describes the class of birds on 24 plates (num. I-XXIV). Nissen describes a collection of 83 plates comprising the two sections here and two others, dated 1786, devoted to fish (28 plates) and amphibians, reptiles and turtles (8 plates). Copy in red morocco with the royal arms girded with the Louvre lace, with the figure of Louis XVI repeated on the spine. Crowned B.R. stamp on the first plate (Bibliotheca regia ?). Hinges, headpieces and corners roughly restored. Nissen, ZBI, n°3421.