$900
Lyonet, Pierre (1706-1789) Traite Anatomique de la Chenille . The Hague: Gosse & Pinet, 1762. First edition, large quarto, title page printed in red and black, illustrated with an engraved frontispiece of Lyonet's microscope and eighteen folding engravings by Lyonet; occasional browning; bound in contemporary mottled calf, gilt-tooled spine. Lyonet's exhaustive microscopic appraisal of the goat moth caterpillar (Cossus cossus) represents an important 18th century development in the western approach to science, as the specialist takes the place of the polymath. It takes five years for a goat moth to go from egg to moth. They get their name from a strong "goat-like" smell they emit in the larval state.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2012-11-18