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Alexandre de Humboldt; Aimé Bonpland : Recueil d Observations de Zoologie et d Anatomie comparée, faites dans l Ocean Atlantique, dans l intérieur du Nouveau Continent et dans la Mer du Sud pendant les années 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802 et 1803; par Al. de Humboldt et A. Bonpland. / Voyage de Humboldt et Bonpland. Deuxieme Partie. Observations de Zoologie et d Anatomie comparée. / Premier volume

F. Schoell & G. Dufour, Paris, 1811

Contemporary full diced calf with blind- and gilt-tooled borders, rebacked skillfully, spine in six compartments of raised bands and gilt motifs, gilt text on two and four, edges gilt-tooled, all edges tinted red, endpapers marbled. , Occasional faint browning on plates, otherwise a handsome copy; plates and text are generally clean and crisp., Small folio., P. (4), half-title, printer’s imprint, title, blank, dedication, blank, preface vii-viii, 1-368, (2), title, blank, 1-224, (6)., With a total of 51 copper-engraved plates, of which 34 are hand-coloured, depicting natural history such as fish, monkeys, and insects., Volume : All of volume one and tw

Armorial bookplate of Richard Vyvyan., Although there is some disagreement as to when the first edition of the first volume of Recueil d Observations de Zoologie et d Anatomie comparée was published, it is understood that it forms the second part of Humboldt s massive work, Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du nouveau continent, fait en 1799, 1800, 1801, 1803, 1804, which began publication in 1807 and continued into the 1830s in the hands of publishers Schoell, Dufour, Maze and Gide. The title page of our copy indicates publication in 1811, which is confirmed by Graesse, Hill, and Sabin (though Sabin mentions that Rich marks its first printing in 1805 with 30 coloured plates). Brunet joins the publication of this volume with that of the overall work in 1807, which was issued in fourteen installments until 1833. Sabin notes the pagination of the two volumes being 368 and 352 pages, respectively, which suggests that our copy is made up of all of volume one and the first 224 pages of what would become volume two in 1833, with a grand total of 57 plates. Our 51 plates exceeds the 37 mentioned in Graesse, and it is likely that the remaining 6 were issued with the final 128 pages in 1833.
As to the content, the second part of Humboldt’s massive work contains “zoological observations made during the expedition of Humboldt and Bonpland to the Spanish possessions of the New World…. There are large, detailed plates of birds, monkeys, insects, and reptiles, many of them coloured� (Hill). Cox’s description of the English translation of the entire work (1818-29) describes the expedition which led to the compilation of Humboldt’s masterpiece:

“On June 5, 1799, Humboldt and Bonpland, armed with powerful recommendations, sailed … to the Canary Islands. … Thence they proceeded to Caracas in Venezuela, and in Feb., 1800, left the coast for the purpose of exploring the course of the Orinoco. ‘This trip, which lasted four months, covered seventeen hundred and twenty-five miles of wild and uninhabited country, had the important result of establishing the existence of a communication between the water-systems of the Orinoco and the Amazon and of determining the exact location of the bifurcation.’ After a stay of two months in Cuba they crossed over to Cartagena, ascended the Magdalena, and finally reached Quito, Jan. 6, 1802. Enroute to Lima they made an expedition to the sources of the Amazon. ‘At Callao Humboldt observed the transit of Mercury, and studied the fertilising properties of Guano, the introduction of which into Europe was mainly due to his writings. After a year’s stay in Mexico and a short visit to the United States, they returned to Europe’ [(Maggs 612)]. In this famous expedition Humboldt may justly be regarded as having laid the foundation of the science of physical geography and meterology in their larer bearings. His services to geology were mainly based on his attentive study of the volcanoes of the New World.�
, Graesse III:388-9; Brunet II:659; Hill 846; Sabin 33755; Cox II:288 (1818 English translation of entire work)

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