The English Lepidoptera: or, the Aurelian's Pocket Companion: Containing a Catalogue of upward of Four Hundred Moths and Butterflies, the Food of their Respective Caterpillars, the Time of Changing into Chrysalis, and Appearance in the Winged State
- Publisher : For J. Robson
- Published In : London
- Illustrations : hand-col engraved frontis
Description:
1st edition. Rare.
Moses Harris (1730–c.1788) was an English entomologist, painter, engraver and book illustrator, one of the most celebrated masters of insect portraiture. He brought innovations to the fields of art, science and the history of the book. He published a pioneering study on colour Natural System of Colours (1766) which included an early colour wheel. Harris is the author of the one of the finest illustrated books of the Georgian period, The Aurelian (1766).
'The English Lepidoptera: or, the Aurelian's Pocket Companion' is the first pocketbook for entomologists in the literature of British Lepidoptera. In the preface of this work, Harris explains that he prepared it with a view to providing a portable book suitable for use on field expeditions:
‘The usefulness of the following little work will be obvious at first view, to any one who has the slightest acquaintance with this part of Natural History: The author found it so necessary, that he always carried a copy of it in his pocket ever since he began to collect the different species of the Lepidoptera.’
(Rainbow Dust, 182; Books and Naturalists, 94; OED)
Condition
Sm. 4to, nicely rebound in recent half morocco, marbled boards, spine untitled. Minor spotting to the Index. Vg. From the library of Paul Sokoloff with his book-plate to endpaper.