FINE COPPER PLATES. Memoirs for a Natural History of Animals, Containing the Anatomical Description of Several Creatures Dissected by The Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris. Wherein The Constructive Fabrick and genuine Use of the Parts, are exactly and finely delineated in Copper Plates, and the whole Enriched with many Curious Physical and no less usefull Anatomical Remarks, being one of the most Considerable Productions of that Academy. Done into English by a Fellow of the R. S. To which is added, An Account of the Measure of a Degree of a great Circle of the Earth, publish'd by the Members of the same Academy: English'd by R. W. SRS. With an Alphabetical Table of the Names of the several Animals mention'd in this Volume. And likewise an Alphabetical Index to make the Work Compleat.

London: The Royal Society, Printed for John Clarke at the Bible and Crown in the Old Change, near St. Austin's Church, 1701. First English edition, second issue.

1701 EARLY ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF FRENCH COMPARATIVE ANATOMY BEAUTIFULLY BOUND WITH A STUDY OF MEASURE OF THE EARTH ILLUSTRATED WITH 40 SUPERB COPPER PLATE ENGRAVINGS.

Folio (30.5 x 20 cm), full leather paneled binding with blind fillets, spine with raised bands decorative gilt panels, and gilt red leather title label. Engraved title "Englished by A. P. SRS" (Alexander Pifield), dated 1687, signed R Waller fec. (Richard Waller); title page in red and black dated 1701, [xvi], 3-267, 30 plates, [2] table of animals, [11] index; 5 plates; 40. Bookplate of Robert L. Chevalier to front paste-down and engraved armorial bookplate of William Gosselin to verso title page. Very good in very good binding.

CLAUDE PERRAULT (1613 – 1688) was a French physician and an amateur architect, best known for his participation in the design of the east façade of the Louvre in Paris. He also designed the Paris Observatory and was an anatomist and author, who wrote treatises on architecture, physics and natural history. As physician and natural philosopher, who received a medical degree from the University of Paris in 1642, Perrault became one of the first members of the French Academy of Sciences when it was founded in 1666. Offered here is the first English translation of Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire naturelle des animaux, bound with a treatise on measurement of the circumference of the earth.

ALEXANDER PITFIELD (1659 – 1728), who translated the first work bound in this volume, was elected to the Royal Society in 1684, and married Richard Waller's sister.

RICHARD WALLER (d. 1715) was an English naturalist, translator and illustrator, long-time member and secretary of the Royal Society, Vice-President during Isaac Newton's presidency. He is likely responsible for the plates in this English translation of Memoirs for a Natural History of Animals. The archive of the Royal Society also holds several botanical illustrations by Waller, possibly intended for a publication by John Ray. His fossil drawings were rediscovered together with Robert Hooke's drawings in the British Library. Waller had an extensive library, and often exchanged books with Hooke. Waller edited the Philosophical Transactions from 1691 to 1695, also acting as translator for submissions from abroad, including The Measure of the Earth (second work bound in this volume).