BUONANNI, Filippo (1638-1725). Recreatione dell'occhio e della mente. Rome: Varese, 1681. 4 parts in one volume, 4° (2400 x 181mm). Engraved folding additional title, letterpress general title with woodcut Jesuit device, engraved part-title to part four, and 3 engraved section titles, 114 engraved plates with over 320 shell illustrations, woodcut diagrams, head- and- tail pieces, and initials. (Occasional light spotting, mainly marginal.) Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on spine (some staining). Provenance: shelf mark on spine.

BUONANNI, Filippo (1638-1725). Recreatione dell'occhio e della mente. Rome: Varese, 1681. 4 parts in one volume, 4° (2400 x 181mm). Engraved folding additional title, letterpress general title with woodcut Jesuit device, engraved part-title to part four, and 3 engraved section titles, 114 engraved plates with over 320 shell illustrations, woodcut diagrams, head- and- tail pieces, and initials. (Occasional light spotting, mainly marginal.) Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on spine (some staining). Provenance: shelf mark on spine.

FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST SHELL ICONOGRAPHY. A Jesuit and student of Athanasius Kircher, Buonanni became the curator of the cabinet of curiosities at the Collegio Romano, which undoubtedly provided the specimens for many of the engraved figures in this work, causing Buonanni to be considered (with Lister and Rumpf), one of the founding fathers of conchology. BM(NH) I, p. 286; Brunet I, 1085-1086; Nissen ZBI 754.