Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles, Où l'on Rétablit Les Caractères de Plusieurs Animaux Dont Les Révolutions du Globe Ont Détruit les Espèces
by CUVIER, G[eorges]
- Used
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Winchester, Virginia, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Paris: Dufour et E. D'Ocagne, 1825. Third edition. Quarto (32cm). Seven volumes, complete, in modern half black morocco, green cloth over boards, titled in gilt on spines and fronts; modern marbled endpapers; vol. I: [vi],194,340pp; vol. II part I: [iv],IV,237,[1],[229]-232pp; vol. II part 2: [iv],[239]-648pp; vol. III: [iv],412pp; vol. IV: [iv],514pp; vol. V part 1: [iv],405,[1]pp; vol. V part 2: [iv], 547,[1]pp; 277 engraved plates (including frontispiece, one plate with hand color, and 2 maps), 1 letterpress folding table. Straight and sound, with occasional scattered browning and soil, a few page corners neatly restored, one plate margin trimmed close to image area, but largely clean and bright: Very Good. Third edition of the work in which Cuvier demonstrated the reality of extinction, through detailed examination of fossils; a cornerstone work in paleontology, biology, and geology. Earlier editions appeared in 1812 and 1821-24. When Cuvier began his research in the late eighteenth century, it was generally believed that no species had ever gone extinct. "Taking for his field the little-known fossil quadrupeds, and applying to them the principles of comparative anatomy, Cuvier astonished the world by reconstructing prehistoric forms of animal life whose existence had never been suspected" (Glass, Temkin, & Straus, Forerunners of Darwin 253). He established extinction as a fact, demonstrated that the age of the earth was greater than six thousand years, and did much to establish the fields of comparative anatomy and paleontology.
However, Cuvier forcefully opposed pre-Darwinian theories of evolution. In the introduction to Ossemens Fossiles, later published separately as Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du globe (1826), Cuvier argued in favor of catastrophism-the theory that violent catastrophes like the Biblical flood had caused extinction events and shaped geological features. This theory left room for contemporaries to infer a divine force that caused catastrophes and created new species; thus, his research "provided a safety valve . . . between the push of geology and the drag of theology" (Forerunners 255). His theories were in part disproven by Darwin and Lyell, who demonstrated that both species and geological formations undergo gradual change over time; but Cuvier's ideas about catastrophism were vindicated by more recent research into mass extinction events caused by volanic eruptions and asteroids. This edition not in Ward/Carozzi.
However, Cuvier forcefully opposed pre-Darwinian theories of evolution. In the introduction to Ossemens Fossiles, later published separately as Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du globe (1826), Cuvier argued in favor of catastrophism-the theory that violent catastrophes like the Biblical flood had caused extinction events and shaped geological features. This theory left room for contemporaries to infer a divine force that caused catastrophes and created new species; thus, his research "provided a safety valve . . . between the push of geology and the drag of theology" (Forerunners 255). His theories were in part disproven by Darwin and Lyell, who demonstrated that both species and geological formations undergo gradual change over time; but Cuvier's ideas about catastrophism were vindicated by more recent research into mass extinction events caused by volanic eruptions and asteroids. This edition not in Ward/Carozzi.
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Lorne Bair Rare Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 57403
- Title
- Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles, Où l'on Rétablit Les Caractères de Plusieurs Animaux Dont Les Révolutions du Globe Ont Détruit les Espèces
- Author
- CUVIER, G[eorges]
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Publisher
- Dufour et E. D'Ocagne
- Place of Publication
- Paris
- Date Published
- 1825
- Note
- May be a multi-volume set and require additional postage.
Terms of Sale
Lorne Bair Rare Books
All items are offered subject to prior sale. Orders must be prepaid, though billing may be arranged for institutions and customers with established credit. Payment may be made by Check, Money Order, Paypal or by valid credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover). Any item may be returned within 10 days of receipt for full refund. Signed and manuscript items carry an unlimited guarantee of authenticity.
About the Seller
Lorne Bair Rare Books
Biblio member since 2006
Winchester, Virginia
About Lorne Bair Rare Books
Lorne Bair Rare Books specializes in books, mansuscripts, and printed ephemera relating to American Social History, with an emphasis on radical and utopian movements of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. We are available in our showroom by appointment, at shows, and on-line through various booksellers' sites or at our website www.lornebair.com.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Morocco
- Morocco is a style of leather book binding that is usually made with goatskin, as it is durable and easy to dye. (see also...
- Quarto
- The term quarto is used to describe a page or book size. A printed sheet is made with four pages of text on each side, and the...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Plate
- Full page illustration or photograph. Plates are printed separately from the text of the book, and bound in at production. I.e.,...
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...