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SCHEUCHZER, Jean-Jacques. PFEFFEL, Jean-André.
Sacred Physics, or The Natural History of the Bible.
Amsterdam, Schenk & Mortier, 1732–1737.
Sacred Physics, or The Natural History of the Bible.
Amsterdam, Schenk & Mortier, 1732–1737.
8 folio volumes. Contemporary speckled fawn calfskin, ribbed spine, red title label and green volume number, panels decorated with gilt fleurons, double gilt line on the panels and fillets, triple gilt line framing the covers, gilt scrolls on the cap bands, red edges (signs of wear on the bindings including worn corners, some damaged caps, slight rubbing on the covers, occasionally split joints of a few cm, very slight oxidation, more pronounced in volume VIII, marginal defects including stains and creases, small stains on plate CCCL).
A copy belonging to Chevalier Claret de Fleurieu (1738–1810), with his bookplate, engraved with his coat of arms, on the back of each endpaper.
Brunet, V, 198. Nissen, 3662.
First French edition of this remarkable natural history inspired by biblical accounts.
Adorned with splendid Baroque engravings.
Translation attributed to Jacques de Varenne, featuring the same engravings as the Latin and German editions from Augsburg and Ulm, and as the Dutch edition published simultaneously in Amsterdam.
The author, the Swiss naturalist J. J. Scheuchzer (1672–1733), a friend of Leibniz and an admirer of Newton, sought to reconcile the Bible and the sciences in order to explain the mysteries of nature.
The illustrations consist of 760 large black-and-white engravings, produced under the direction of Jean-André Pfeffel (or Johann Andreas) based on drawings by Johann Melchior Füssli, executed by eighteen German engravers (Corvinus, Delsenbach, Fridrich, Harder, Pfeffel, Pinz, Scheuchzer the Younger, Thelot, Wagner…), all adorned with allegorical frames designed by Preissler.
In addition, there is an allegorical frontispiece, also drawn by Preissler and engraved by Sperling, as well as portraits of the author and the illustrator executed after Heidegger and Georg de Marées.
A complete copy of all the plates listed in the table of plates at the end of Volume VIII.