Traite Anatomique de la Chenille qui Ronge le Bois de Saule, augmentee d'Une Explication Abregee des Planches, et d'Une Description de l'Instrument et des Outils dont l'Auteur s'est Servi, Pour Anatomiser a la Loupe & au Microscope, & pour determiner la force de ses Verres, suivant les regles de l'Optique, & Mechaniquement de Lyonet, Pierre - 1762

The Hague, Amsterdam: Pierre Gosse & Daniel Pinet; Marc Michel Rey, 1762. First edition.

1762 LYONET'S EXQUISITE STUDY OF THE GOAT MOTH CATERPILLAR, "ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED WORKS ON ANATOMY EVER PUBLISHED".

10 3/4 inches tall hardcover, recent cloth binding, gilt title to spine, bookplate of Noble Suydam Rustum Maluf to front paste-down, inscribed presentation verso front flyleaf "Presented by Miss Broomfield/ ex libris Er. W. A. Broomfield/ August 1852," title page with red and black lettering, xxii, [ii contents], frontis plate of microscope, 616 pp, 18 folding copper plates. Corners bumped, binding tight, bottom of title page has been restored with no loss of text, scattered light foxing throughout, marginal foxing of plates, verso of each plate with small institutional handstamp not visible on the printed side. The engravings are strong impressions, revealing the finest detail. TEXT IN FRENCH.

GARRISON-MORTON No. 505: "Lyonet's great monograph on the goat moth caterpillar remains today among the greatest examples of anatomical examination." Cited by Ryan in Mystery of Metamorphosis: "First described in 1762 by the Dutch naturalist and engraver Pierre Lyonet, whose monograph on the anatomy of the goat moth is regarded as one of the most beautifully illustrated works on anatomy ever published."

PIERRE LYONET (1706 - 1789) was an artist and engraver who became a naturalist. He was a collector both of shells (a major collecting craze at the time) and paintings, whose collection included Woman Reading a Letter by Vermeer, now in the Rijksmuseum. This fetched far less than his best shells in the auctions of his collection after his death. Initially he trained as a lawyer before choosing to specialize in the engraving of natural history and the work of dissection. "Lyonet first became interested in study of insects through reading Pluche's Natural History, but he was inspired to study them seriously by the first volume (on chenilles et papillons ) of Réaumur's Mémoires. Réaumur's influence on Lyonet was decisive... From Réaumur he learned method and the importance of being exceedingly careful. Lyonet began systematic observation in insects in 1736... Traité anatomique is devoted wholly to the anatomy of the caterpillar (except for a short initial chapter on its lifecycle), and the plates, drawn and engraved by Lyonet, portray the muscles, nerves, bronchia, heart, viscera, silk vessels and the internal parts of the head with astonishing precision." (DSB VIII p. 579/580).