Roesel Van Rosenhof A.J.
De Natuurlyke Historie der Insecten, Haarlem& Amsterdam, Bohn & De Wit, 1764-1768
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Roesel Van Rosenhof (A.J.)
De Natuurlyke Historie der Insecten
Published in Haarlem en Amsterdam, C.H. Bohn en H. de Wit, 1764-1768. 4 volumes. Large-4to. With 3 hand-colored engraved frontispieces, 1 engraved portrait of Rösel and 358 (3 folded) hand colored engraved plates (printed on 288 leaves). Contemporary half calf. Nissen ZBI, 3467; Landwehr 161. A fine copy of one of the most beautiful entomological publications of the 18th century. This Dutch edition is more attractive than the original German edition, which was published in Nuremberg from 1746-1792. The Dutch edition is printed on larger paper and has more accurate coloring. The translation was made by C. Kleemann, the son-in-law of the author. He added new material and the excellent coloring of the plates is by him and his wife Katharina Barbara Roesel von Rosenhof. Kleemann also published a "Vervolg" with 26 plates, which was never finished and which is not present in these volumes."Roesel, who studied at first with his father and then with his uncle Wilhelm, an animal painter in Merseburg, later became a pupil of the famous Preisler in Nuremberg. After living in Copenhagen from 1726 to 1728 he returned to Nuremberg for good, and there, besides painting portraits and drawings, he applied himself in particular to the study of nature. He collected insects, their eggs and larvae, studied the process of hatching, pupation, and emergence, and painted all this in a most meticulous way, as Kleeman tells us. His manuscripts, with 406 illustrations, are now in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich. Roesel also made the engravings of his drawings." (Nissen, Bestiaries). Sold.
De Natuurlyke Historie der Insecten
Published in Haarlem en Amsterdam, C.H. Bohn en H. de Wit, 1764-1768. 4 volumes. Large-4to. With 3 hand-colored engraved frontispieces, 1 engraved portrait of Rösel and 358 (3 folded) hand colored engraved plates (printed on 288 leaves). Contemporary half calf. Nissen ZBI, 3467; Landwehr 161. A fine copy of one of the most beautiful entomological publications of the 18th century. This Dutch edition is more attractive than the original German edition, which was published in Nuremberg from 1746-1792. The Dutch edition is printed on larger paper and has more accurate coloring. The translation was made by C. Kleemann, the son-in-law of the author. He added new material and the excellent coloring of the plates is by him and his wife Katharina Barbara Roesel von Rosenhof. Kleemann also published a "Vervolg" with 26 plates, which was never finished and which is not present in these volumes."Roesel, who studied at first with his father and then with his uncle Wilhelm, an animal painter in Merseburg, later became a pupil of the famous Preisler in Nuremberg. After living in Copenhagen from 1726 to 1728 he returned to Nuremberg for good, and there, besides painting portraits and drawings, he applied himself in particular to the study of nature. He collected insects, their eggs and larvae, studied the process of hatching, pupation, and emergence, and painted all this in a most meticulous way, as Kleeman tells us. His manuscripts, with 406 illustrations, are now in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich. Roesel also made the engravings of his drawings." (Nissen, Bestiaries). Sold.
