Natural History (General).- Kircher (Athanasius).- Buonanni (Filippo) Rerum naturalium historia, vol. 1 (only of 2), engraved allegorical frontispiece, 51 plates, title vignette and 51 in-text vignettes, very occasional slight worming to lower margin, occasional light scattered spotting, contemporary calf-backed boards, splitting to joints, vellum tips, a little rubbed, [Nissen ZBI 2199], folio, Rome, Zempelliano, 1773.

⁂ "Very scarce. Revised and edited by Giuseppe-Antonio Battarra. Kircher, the great German Jesuit scholar, had formed during his life a magnificent collection of antiquities and natural history specimens. When he died in 1680 the collection was bequeathed to the Collegio Romano. Although Buonanni published a one volume account of the collection in 1709, this much enlarged work is the definitive edition. The volumes cover mainly zoology, paleontology and conchology and are superbly illustrated. It is one of the most important accounts of a seventeenth century scientific cabinet. Volume 1 divides the text into classes of (1) quadrupeds (2) reptiles and insects (3) fossils, minerals and stones (4) fish and sea creatures and (5) apparatus. Pages 94-152 describe the mineralogical specimens including gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, mercury, antimony, magnets, marcasite, salt, sulphur, amber, dendrites, fossils, the Philosopher's stone, etc." (C. Schuh. Bibliography of Mineralogy). Volume 2, not present here, deals almost exclusively with shell and bivalve descriptions.