ZOOLOGY - Seba, Albertus. Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata descriptio, et iconibus artificiosissimis expressio, per universam physices historiam. Volumes 3 and 4 (of 4). Each with 1 eng. Title and head vignette and 224 (116, 108) partly double-page copper plates in splendid old colour under tissue-guard. Amsterdam, Janssonius-Waesberge (III) and Arkstee, Merkus & Schouten (IV), 1758-1765. large folio (54 × 36 cm). [13] pp., 212 (recte 216) pp.; [2] pp., 42, 226 pp. Midnight blue French half morocco bindings circa 1820 with gilt-stamped spine titles, punched gilt spine in quatrefoils and leaf wreaths, and marbled endpapers (spine slightly lightened and rubbed). Landwehr 179 - Nissen ZBI 3793 - Anker 454 - Fine Bird Books, p. 106 - Second, posthumous half of the catalogue of Seba's second collection, even more spectacular than the first, which was acquired by Tsar Peter the Great in 1717. The "Thesaurus", published from 1734, two years before Seba's death, is the most famous and richest Wunderkammer catalogue of the Baroque period. The present volumes could only be financed by the heirs through the sale of the collection, here a printed version with a French-Latin parallel text (also published in Dutch-Latin). A few copies were coloured in a typically colourful rather than scholarly manner, occasionally only partially. Except for the vignettes, the present one is complete, uniform and carefully coloured. Volume III contains the marine fauna (fish, conchylia, corals), volume IV butterflies, dragonflies, beetles, on the last nine plates also minerals. - On strong paper, completely uncut and with wide margins, apart from occasional foxing remarkably fresh.