Beschreibung:

VALENTINI, MICHAEL BERNARD. Museum museorum, oder vollständige Schau-bühne aller Materialien und Specereyen, nebst deren natürlichen Beschreibung... aus andern Material-Kunst-und-Naturalien-Kammern, Oost und West-Indischen Reiss-Beschreibungen... Zum Vorschub der Studierenden Jugend, Materialisten, Apotheker. Frankfurt: heirs of Johann David Zunners and Johann Adam Jungen 1714. 3 vols. (5 parts) in one, folio, 368 x 238 mm. (14 7/16 x 9 3/8 in.), contemporary German calf over wooden boards covers panelled in blind, spine gilt, speckled edges, lacking one clasp, minor rubbing and chipping to extremities, fore-edge of vol. 1 letterpress title just shaved, edges of first few leaves a bit frayed, plate 22 in vol. 2 torn and repaired along center fold, 3-inch tear just entering platemark of plate 35 in vol. 3, light foxing, a very few leaves more heavily foxed . Alden 714/147; Nissen BBI 2035 and ZBI 4217; Sabin 98357. FIRST COMPLETE EDITION, second issue of volume one (first issue 1704), half-titles, section titles, 2 additional engraved titles, 93 engraved plates, of which 6 folding and 32 double-page, one full-page woodcut, approximately 290 engraved text illustrations (one woodcut), engraved and woodcut head- and tail-pieces. An unusual encyclopedia of natural curiosities, describing and copiously illustrating the contents of the typical eighteenth-century cabinet . Part 1 treats plants, animals, minerals, metals, and related products, and includes numerous chapters on American plants; part 2 deals with stones, fossils, coins, tropical plants, shells, unicorns and other mythical creatures or monsters; and part 3 is devoted to physics and natural philosophy. Two appendices in vol. 1 contain a list of 159 museums ("Kunst- und Naturalien-Kammern") known to exist at the time, including a section on American and Asian museums; and a separately titled compilation from Georg Eberhard Rumph on various Caribbean rarities, mostly botanical. "The work was evidently issued in parts and the copies examined have varying collations"--Sabin. The collation of this copy effectively differs slightly from that cited by Nissen ( ZBI ). Provenance : Joh. Carl Wittmann, ex-libris leaf, dated Munich, 13 January [18]60, bound in at front, inscription and wax seal with his monogram on front flyleaf -- Joseph Adam L. B. de Lösch ab Hilgertshaufen, armorial bookplate.