Lacepede, Bernard:

$1,750 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

HISTOIRE NATURELLE DES QUADRUPÈDES OVIPARES ET DES SERPENS. "One of the earliest treatises on natural history by this associate of Buffon" - Wood. Lacepede planned his work after assisting Buffon in his famous Histoire Naturelle. This work covers reptiles, and a later work concerned itself with fishes. Lacepede always retained a love of an elegant and elevated style, characteristic of Buffon's work, but after his death in 1789 Lacepede increasingly came under the influence of Daubenton. The treatise is illustrated with sixty-three full page engravings showing lizards, turtles, frogs, and snakes. A distinguishing feature of Lacepede's work is the large folding tables containing classifying orders according to the Linnaean system of nomenclature. Since he believed the classification system to be artificial and not natural, he often invented taxa for which no species existed in order to ensure symmetry in his tables.

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