BEFORE AUDUBON THERE WAS GESNER

Got your attention? This post is really only about posting beautiful pictures. Before Audubon’s elephantine-folio Birds of America went for millions at Sotheby’s, there was Konrad Gesner’s immense encyclopaedic efforts with natural history which, yeah, happened to cover birds as well as other monsters. I had the pleasure of encountering a professionally, contemporarily coloured copy of Konrad Gesner’s Historiae animalium (Liber 3. qui est de auium natura.…that is On the Nature of Birds).  Zurich, apud Cristoph. Froschouerum, 1555. Some judge books by their content, others by their covers, and still more by their pretty pictures. No approach is more valid than the other, some just make for better blog posts. Just wait until you see the peacock.

BUT FIRST, THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTION: FIRST EDITION. folio. [xxxvi], 779, [i]. a-c6, a-z6, A-2T6, (c6 blank.) Roman letter, some Greek, privilege in lettre Bâtard, entirely ruled in red. Woodcut printer’s device on title with contemporary colouring, fine historiated initials in various sizes, the first with contemporary colouring, woodcut portrait on verso of title and 222 woodcut illustrations of birds all finely coloured by a contemporary hand, autograph of ‘Rodolphe de Salis, de Zitzers, anno 1695’ on fly, neat annotations to blank area of woodcuts in his hand. Light age yellowing in places, the odd marginal thumb mark.  A fine, well margined copy, crisp and clean, on thick paper with exceptionally fresh and fine contemporary hand colouring of the woodcuts, in contemporary calf, covers bordered with a double gilt rule, gilt arabesque blocks to corners, large gilt arabesque block, with blank oval at centre and acorns above and below, at centre, spine with raised bands double gilt ruled in compartments with central acorn fleurons, gilt title, a.e.g., joints, corners and edges worn.

& MORE IMPORTANTLY, THE PICTURES: (For sake of image size I’m misrepresenting just how well-margined the copy is, digitally trimming things down a bit)

MORE FROM THE DESCRIPTION:

A very handsome copy, its numerous woodcuts beautifully and finely hand-coloured, of the first edition of this treatise on birds by one of the most important naturalists of the C16th, published as volume three of Gesner’s famous ‘Historiae Animalium’ (Zurich 1551-1587), whose other volumes deal with, respectively, viviparous, oviparous, fishes and snakes; this work gave a great impulse to the study of ornithology. ‘Gesner brought an amount of erudition, hitherto unequalled, to bear upon his subject; and [...] his judgment must in most respects be deemed excellent. [...] Like nearly all his predecessors since Aelian, he adopted an alphabetical arrangement, though this was not too pedantically preserved, and did not hinder him from placing together the kinds of birds which he supposed [...] to have the most resemblance to that one whose name, being best known, was chosen for the headpiece [...] of his particular theme, thus recognising to some extent the principle of classification.’ [Enc. Brit.]. Of the 180 species depicted, all but a dozen or so are European, though  one of the woodcuts shows a hummingbird, the first time this ‘new world’ bird was described. Other easily recognisable birds (thanks also to the skilful hand-colouring) are magpies, blackbirds, sparrows, ducks, pheasants, bats, cuckoos, roosters, hens, turkeys, hawks, owls, pelicans, thrushes, swallows, parrots, storks and the bat, pelican, peacock, robin, swan, woodpecker and ostrich. Konrad Gesner (1516-1565) was an eminent Swiss scholar and a great polymath. Having begun his academic career as a Hellenist (he taught Greek from 1537 to 1540 at the Lausanne Academy), he took a doctorate in medicine in 1541. To his contemporaries he was best known as a botanist, although his monumental ‘Opera Botanica’, for which he himself drew nearly 1,500 plates, was not published until 1751. His massive ‘Historia Animalium’ received immediate acclaim and ‘is the starting-point of modern zoology’ [Enc. Brit]. It was often reprinted and, although it suffered at the hands of later editors, remained the standard reference work well into the C18th. ‘Like any modern encyclopaedist Gesner drew upon the best sources of information available to him, and although borrowing a great deal from his predecessors (including Aristotle), also commissioned many articles from contemporary experts. He had himself a competent knowledge of natural history, a great love of nature, and a healthy scepticism towards most of the old myths and legends. [...] Gesner’s encyclopaedia was enriched by crude but often lively woodcuts. Most were prepared specially for this work; others [...] were borrowed. They are realistic enough to act as a valuable supplement to the text.’ Printing and the Mind of Man 77. The illustrations were the work of a Strasbourg artist Lukas Schan. His paintings of birds, mostly from life or from mounted or mummified specimens, were used to create the woodcuts. Froschauer, the publisher, offered a few copies hand-coloured, with the paintings used as a guide by the colourists, which is why the colouring is so true. The contemporary colouring of this copy is exceptionally fine, certainly professional, most probably from Froschauer’s shop, with many cuts delicately and finely detailed, even in those not heavily worked the artist has managed to convey form with simple and subtle layering of washes, often using just one or two colours to great effect. The state of preservation of the colour is also remarkable, with none of the fading associated with inferior pigments and poor quality paper. We have been unable to find the Rodolphe de Salis, Baron de Zitzers though he was from a prominent Swiss noble family. A lovely copy of an important and beautiful work.

BM STC Ger. C16th p. 358. PMM 77. Nissen 349. Adams G-535. Graesse III p. 68. Alden 555/21 “includes description of turkey”.