Schatkamer der verborgentheden, voorgestelt in een beschryvinge der wonderlyke geschapenheit des firmaments, sterren, planeten, cometen, & c .. - 1713

1713. RATELBAND, Johannes. Schatkamer der verborgentheden, voorgestelt in een beschryvinge der wonderlyke geschapenheit des firmaments, sterren, planeten, cometen, & c ... (44), 463 [i.e. 443] pp., (21), plus 26 (of 27) plates, many folded, including a World map. Lacking 2*1 (blank?) and 6*4 (errata?), but with text and catch-words continuous. Pages 248-267 omitted in pagination, as issued. 4to, 187 x 155 mm., bound in contemporary blind-tooled Dutch calf with gilt title label on spine. Amsterdam: By Johannis Ratelband, 1713. This is a Dutch edition of Johann Heinrich Seyfried's 1679 Medulla mirabilium naturae, das ist: Auserlesene unter den Wundern der Natur, aller verwunderlichste Wunder, which went through several editions, all of which are extremely rare. Among the many interesting illustrations are a mummified body; an array of anthropomorphic sea-monsters; a whale; a West-Indian sea turtle; a flying cat; a mermaid alongside a wild-man and an orangutan, as well as a unicorn. In addition, the world map shows California as an island. Johannes Ratelband was one of the members of a long dynasty of Dutch printers/book and map sellers in Amsterdam. The firm began with Jansz Ratelband (1590-1656), who moved from Germany to set up a press and shop in Amsterdam at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The firm flourished uninterrupted until the 1820s, perpetuated by a succession of family members. Of the greatest rarity with OCLC listing copies only at Senckenberg and Nijmegen.