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[SEBA, Albertus] Cabinet of Natural Curiosities. Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri (Only the Richest Natural Treasures) The Complete Plates in Colour 1734-1765
[SEBA, Albertus] Cabinet of Natural Curiosities. Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri (Only the Richest Natural Treasures) The Complete Plates in Colour 1734-1765
Based on the copy in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague
Koln, etc: Taschen, 2001. First Edition Thus. Folio (measures 12 x 17.5 inches). Pictorial boards (front and back), with matching dust jacket. Red textured endpapers. Color frontispiece of Seba. Title page in black and red. 588pp. Full page color plates throughout. In the original Taschen box. Book and dust jacket are in fine condition. The box has some wear and rubbing with a small hole on one end, but it has protected this beast of a book quite well over the years. A fantastic production. Note: this is a very heavy item weighing in at over 20 pounds when packaged for shipping.
This is the jumbo version (much smaller versions have been produced more recently). Albertus Seba’s “Cabinet of Curiosities” is one of the 18th century’s greatest natural history achievements and remains one of the most prized natural history books of all time. Though it was common for men of his profession to collect natural specimens for research purposes, Amsterdam-based pharmacist Albertus Seba (1665–1736) had a passion that led him far beyond the call of duty. His amazing, unprecedented collection of animals, plants and insects from all around the world gained international fame during his lifetime. In 1731, after decades of collecting, Seba commissioned illustrations of each and every specimen and arranged the publication of a four-volume catalog detailing his entire collection-from strange and exotic plants to snakes, frogs, crocodiles, shellfish, corals, insects, butterflies and more, as well as fantastic beasts, such as a hydra and a dragon. Seba’s scenic illustrations, often mixing plants and animals in a single plate, were unusual even for the time. Many of the stranger and more peculiar creatures from Seba’s collection, some of which are now extinct, were as curious to those in Seba’s day as they are now. This superb, complete reproduction is taken from a rare, hand-colored original. The introduction offers background information about the fascinating tradition of the cabinet of curiosities to which Seba’s curiosities belonged and an additional annex, written by contemporary biologists, provides descriptions of the specimens.