RONDELETUS, GULIELMUS. - GUILLAUME RONDELET.

Libri de Piscibus Marinis, in quibus Piscium expressæ sunt. Quæ in tota Piscium historia contineantur, indicat Elenchus pagina nona et decima. Postremò accesserunt Indices necessarij. + Vniuersæ aquatilium Historiæ pars altera, cum veris ipsorum Imaginibus. His accesserunt Indices necessarij.

Lugduni (Lyon), Apud Matthiam Bonhomme, 1554 + 1555. Folio. Bound in one cont. worn full calf w. blindstamped title-label to back. Wormholes to lower front board and back. Capitals defect, lacking leather. Corners bumped, extremities worn, but bdg. tight. First t-p. in facsimile, otherwise complete. Last leaf of index of the second work w. repair to upper right corner, affecting a few letters. Internally very fine and clean, except for a later backstrip to the first and the second-last leaf. Numerous beautiful woodcut initials and vignettes. Woodcut portrait of Rondelet in both volumes, woodcut illustration to second t-p, in all about 430 woodcut illustrations of all aquatic animals, i.e. fish, marine mammals, arthropods, mollusks, riverine amphibians, beavers etc.

Scarce first edition. This work is rarely seen complete, often index or illustration-leaves are missing. In Latin w. Greek text. The rare, influential first edition of this work of seminal character, likewise the first French work ever published on fish. A French edition was published, also in Lyon, in 1558.
As professor of medicine and eager student of anatomy, G. Rondelet (1507 - 1566) was also the personal physician of Francois Cardand Tournon, whom he accompagnied on many trips to towns along the coast. Here he was able to make observations of interest to natural history, for example by studying whaling.
"Although he was active in several branches of biology, Rondelet's reputation effectively depends on his massive compendium on aquatic life, which covered far more species than any earlier work in that field. Despite its theoretical limitation, it laid the foundations for later ichthyological research and was the standard reference work for over a century." (D.S.B., XI:527).
Rondelet was a very popular teacher (both of anatomy and zoology), who had a great deal of influence on his students, among whom we find the two great zoologists Aldrovandi and Gesner.
This his work on aquatic life is without doubt his main work, the work for which he claimed so great fame and because of which he is now referred to as "the grandfather of modern ichthyology" (Wood, p. 541).
This work was groundbreaking in many ways, as it first of all went beyond Aristotle, and actually proved him wrong. Rondelet applies the device of observing the animals themselves, and his great anatomical knowledge enables him to present the world with entirely new material and discoveries; for example this is the first published work containing zoological accounts of the sperm whale and the manatee. Never before had the world seen a structered compilation of zoology like this, -profusely illustrated, giving account of every known species!
"He is best known by his work on sea fishes - "De Piscibus marinis" - which included whales, eeals, cephalopods, crustacae, and vermes. He was especially noted for his dissection of these animals, which led him to contradict many of the assumptions of Aristotle." (Wood, p. 12).
In this work many species are depicted for the first time, and with it the foundation of modern zoology is established. Nissen ZBI 3474, Wood, p. 541.

Order-nr.: 28408