DE UNICORNU OBSERVATIONES NOVAE. by BARTHOLINUS, Thomas, revised by his son, Casparo, Bartholino.: - 1678

Amsterdam, H. Wetstenium, 1678.. SECOND REVISED EDITION 1678, THE FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Small book, Latin text, 12mo, approximately 140 x 80 cm, 5½ x 3 inches, Engraved additional title by Romeyn de Hooghe plus 23 illustrations, 1 folding and 3 in the text, pages: [16], [1]-381, [15], vignette to title page, bound in contemporary vellum, ink lettered on spine, edges speckled red, bookplate to first pastedown. Vellum slightly soiled, pastedowns slighty worn at edges, tip of lower corner missing from 1 illustration, nowhere near image, small pale red mark to title page, small pale stain affecting the first 33 pages, otherwise text clean, a very good copy. The illustrations depict the first rhinoceros ever imported into Europe, in Lisbon in 1515: the image is engraved after Dürer. The New Observations on the Unicorn, first published in Padua in 1645, includes historical, mythological and religious sources, as well as an examination of known one-horned animals, such as the rhinoceros, the narwhal, the rhinoceros beetle and the hawk moth caterpillar. It is also, in part, an essay on the likelihood of the existence of unicorns, drawing on available evidence. See Wellcome Historical Medical Library, Volume 2, page 107; A Catalogue of 17th Century Printed Books in the National Library of Medicine, page 83, No. 822; Bibliotheca Osleriana, by Sir William Osler, Books Illustrating the History of Science and Medicine, page 184, No. 1953. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE, FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.