Description
Histoire Naturelle d'une Partie d'Oiseaux Nouveaux et Rares de l'Amérique et des Indes. Paris: J.E. Gabriel Dufour & Amsterdam, 1801 [-02]. First edition, Volume 1 (all published), large 4to (352 x258mm.), [4], 4, 152; half-title, 49 fine plates printed in colour and finished by hand, contemporary red half morocco, spine gilt, uncut, short split at head and base of upper joint, short split at head of lower joint, a little light spotting to some plates
Footnote
Provenance:The Library of a Country House.
Note: First edition. Originally published in eight parts, Levaillant's Histoire Naturelle d'une Partie d'Oiseaux Nouveaux et Rares de l'Amérique et des Indes was available in three states: folio, with both coloured and uncoloured plates; large quarto, as here, with coloured plates only; and quarto, with uncoloured plates only.
The fine portraits are of birds from the Bucerotidae and the Cotingidae families that Levaillant did not include in his earlier work “Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d’Afrique” (1799-1802). "These plates were printed by Langlois, who did almost all the colour-printing for Levaillant .... French colour-printing of this period ... has never been surpassed" (Fine Bird Books).
François Levaillant (1753-1824) was born in Paramaribo, the capital of Dutch Guiana, the son of the French consul. He was sent by Jacob Temminck to South Africa where he collected and sent back over 2000 bird skins, which were studied by Jacob's son, Coenraad Jacob Temminck, and housed in the collection of the Natural History Museum at Leiden. On his return to Paris Levaillant published two best-selling accounts of his voyages in South Africa and the present work, followed by the Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'Afrique (1796–1808, 6 vols.) with drawings by Jacques Barraband, Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de paradis (1801–06), Histoire naturelle des cotingas et des todiers (1804) and Histoire naturelle des calaos (1804).
Levaillant was opposed to the systematic nomenclature introduced by Carl Linnaeus and only gave French names to the species that he discovered. When the birds were later given binomial names by other naturalists, quite a few were named after him including Levaillant's barbet (Trachyphonus vaillantii), Levaillant's cisticola, Levaillant's cuckoo, Levaillant's parrot, Levaillant's tchagra and Levaillant's woodpecker (Picus vaillantii).
"Levaillant was, until exceeded by Gould (and until now only by him), the producer of the most comprehensive series of works on exotic birds” (Fine Bird Books, p. 118). Ayer/Zimmer 392; Fine Bird Books 90; Nissen, IVB 557