Insects.- Merian (Maria Sibylla) Histoire des Insectes de l'Europe, translated by Jean Marret, first edition in French, half-title, additional hand-coloured engraved title by Merian, letterpress title in red and black with small engraved vignette by B.Picart, 184 hand-coloured plates of flowers and insects on 93 sheets and hand-coloured engraved tail-piece (no plates numbered 170 or 172 but these make up the tail-piece so all plates present), light spotting and browning or soiling but mostly marginal, engraved bookplate of Marmaduke Tunstall of Wycliffe, contemporary mottled calf, rebacked with gilt spine and morocco label, a little worn, especially spine ends and corners, some splits to joints, [Hunt 483; Nissen BBI 1341; cf. Great Flower Books p.119], folio, Amsterdam, Jean Frederic Bernard, 1730.

⁂ "Though Maria Merian's first concern is with the insects that she portrays, the plates also show the plants upon which these insects live; these plants are drawn with the same delicacy and precision as the insects themselves, and the book may thus legitimately be considered a florilegium also". Great Flower Books p.30.

Marmaduke Tunstall (1743-90) of Wycliffe, Co. Durham, ornithologist and collector. He was the author of Ornithologica Britannica published in 1771, probably the first British work to use binomial nomenclature.