PLANTS AND ANIMAL BOOKERS Magnificent copies on levant paper in contemporary covers Allessandri, Innocente, and Pietro Scattaglia. Animali quadrupedi tolti dal naturale disseganti incisi e miniati co i lor veri colori. 4 volumes. With 4 coloured copper titles, 4 large engraved head vignettes, woodcut initials and book decoration as well as dedication sheet with engraved coat of arms vignet and 201 coloured copper tablets. 49 x 34 cm. Light brown half-calf leather d. C. (minimum rubbed, slightly inflamed) with wide parchment corners and cover covers made of double coloured cattun paper (only a few defects, leachings or shadings). Venice, (Carlo Palese), 1771-1775. Nissen, ZBI, 79. Thieme-Becker I, 254 (under Alessandri) and XXIX, 534 (under Scattaglia). Ceresoli 44. Wood 183. Brunet II, 1639. Graesse I, 68. – First and only edition of the "Animali quadrupedi", the monumental zoological masterpiece, which is considered one of the most beautiful, rarest and most valuable natural science illustrations of the 18th century. ==References== The scientific description ("Descrizioni degli animali") comes from the zoologist and naturalist Lodovico Leschi, the pressure was entrusted to Carlo Pelese in his Venetian office. The work was aimed at an educated, elegant audience of the Venetian late-rococo and the Enlightenment, it was issued in monthly deliveries, so that complete specimens can be found extremely rare. The artistically outstanding, exceptionally beautiful 201 plates must compare with the French and English natural histories of the 18th century. By no means shy, many of these often exceed lengths. Claus Nissen, for example, points out the virtuoso stecher art, the picturesque embedding of animals in landscapes and the breathtaking quality of the gouached panels by the artist duo Innocente Alessandri (ca. 1742-1792) and Pietro Scattaglia (1739-1810) (see Nissen II, 127). A few copies of the edition were assigned to significant subscribers, in which a dedication sheet, specially printed by the same official and equipped with an individual coat of arms copper, was inserted. This is the specimen for the famous Prince Karol Stanislaw Radziwill (1734-1790), the Polish-Lithuanian noblemen and voivodes of Vilnius and Starost administrator of Lviv. Radziwill was not only one of Europe's most powerful but also wealthiest landowners in the second half of the 18th century. ==References== For example, the coat of arms sign shows three connected black hunting horns, whose thinner ends hit each other in the middle and form a triangle or a running star: "A Sua Altezza Carlo Stanislao Radzwill, Duca di Nieswitz e d-Olika, Conte die Kletsch ec. Palatino di Vilnius, Cavaliere degli Ordini dell'Aquila Bianca, di Sant' Andrea e di Sant-Uberto, ec. ec.", drawn "Innocente Alessandri e Pietro Scattaglia". – The loosely enclosed dedication sheet with a few marginal glazes, slightly pinched and slightly dusted, otherwise hardly any serious or striking signs of use such as pale damp edges or spots. Text printed on mostly flower-like heavy sheets, the plates on even more valuable, smoothed sheet paper one of the most important northern Italian mills of Fratelli Venturini. They created the highest quality master papers for artists and luxurious art prints and operated several successful paper mills in Toscolano on Lake Garda, which at that time belonged to the Republic of Venice (the Terraferma). The paper created for the panels of the "Aminali quadupedi" shows two watermarks in alternate: two stars with monogram "FV" (Fratelli Venturini) or three crescents (Tre mezzolune) with the salutation "SOL IMPERIAL". It is one of the most precious of the so-called "levante papers". The depictions of mammals in their natural habitat, in forests, in meadows and steppes, in house and yard, in front or in lakes and rivers are usually very closely observed, when one of the "Pantera femmina" (the female panther) lurks, the "Gatto tigrato americano" (The American wild cat) descends the rock, the 'Jena' (Hyäns) is lurking on prey, the "Scimie rosse del Senegal" fights for ripe fruit, the "Cane d'armi" (head dog) attacks or the "Cane da corsa" (hunting dog) jumps over the landmark. Last but not least, the contemporary color, which is applied as carefully as it is exact and in very nuanced colours, is often fixed by protein, which gives the animals a shimmering, lively surface. Aims with oval sammer stamp of the "Ornithological Library Erich Horstkötter, Dinklage".