BUONANNI Filippo Recreatio Mentis, et Oculi in observatione animalium testaceorum curiosis naturae inspectoribus… nunc denuo ab eodem latine oblata, centrum additis testaceorum iconibus.

Nissen, ZBI, 754; Cobres, 418, 6; Eales, 991.

First Latin edition of the first shell iconography, enlarged from the first edition in Italian of 1681, by the addition of figures of a further one hundred shells.

Buonanni, the disciple and successor of Kircher at the Collegio Romano, believed in the spontaneous generation of mollusks, and the publication of this work revived the controversy on this subject that began between Kircher and Redi in 1671.

In the first part of the work, Buonanni argues the merit of studying shells, discusses the generation both of living and fossils shells and their composition, enumerates their uses to man, and finally gives an account of their role in museum collections. The second part describes each shell separately, with remarks on colours, names and the sea they inhabit. The work ends with a series of scientific and philosophic questions relating to mollusks.

The beautiful plates which illustrate over 500 shells, are divided into three classes, the non-turbinate univalves, the bivalves, and the turbinate univalves. Printed title and 3 plates (4, 5, and 7) mounted at the time of the binding. A good copy, complete with its 146 engraved plates including frontispiece and 4 engraved divisional titles.

Rubbed, joints weak and partly split