235 - SCHEUCHZER, Jean-Jacques. PFEFFEL, Jean-André.

SCHEUCHZER, Jean-Jacques. PFEFFEL, Jean-André. Sacred Physics, or Natural History of the Bible. Amsterdam, Schenk & Mortier, 1732–1737. 8 folio volumes. Contemporary speckled fawn calfskin, ribbed spine, red title label and green volume number, panels decorated with gilt fleurons, double gilt line on the panels and fillets, triple gilt line framing the covers, gilded scrolls on the fillets, red edges (normal signs of wear on the bindings, including worn corners, some damaged caps, slight rubbing on the covers, and in some cases split joints measuring a few cm, very slight oxidation, more pronounced in Volume VIII, marginal imperfections including stains and creases, small stains on plate CCCL). Provenance: A copy belonging to Chevalier Claret de Fleurieu (1738–1810), bearing his ex libris engraved with his coat of arms on the back of each endpaper. Bibliography: Brunet, V, 198. Nissen, 3662. Description: First French edition of this remarkable natural history inspired by biblical accounts. Adorned with splendid Baroque illustrations engraved in intaglio. Translation attributed to Jacques de Varenne, featuring the same engravings as the Latin and German editions from Augsburg and Ulm, as well as the Dutch edition published simultaneously in Amsterdam. The author, the Swiss naturalist J. J. Scheuchzer (1672–1733), a friend of Leibniz and an admirer of Newton, sought to reconcile the Bible and the sciences in order to explain the mysteries of nature. The illustrations consist of 760 large black-and-white engravings, produced under the direction of Jean-André Pfeffel (or Johann Andreas) based on drawings by Johann Melchior Füssli and executed by eighteen German engravers (Corvinus, Delsenbach, Fridrich, Harder, Pfeffel, Pinz, Scheuchzer Jr., Thelot, Wagner…), all adorned with allegorical frames designed by Preissler. Also included is an allegorical frontispiece, likewise drawn by Preissler and engraved by Sperling, as well as portraits of the author and the illustrator based on works by Heidegger and Georg de Marées. A complete copy containing all the plates listed in the table of plates at the end of Volume VIII.