VALENTINI, MICHAEL BERNHARD. Museum Museorum; oder, Vollständige Schau-Bühne aller Materialien und Specereyen . . . Zweyte Edition. 97 engraved plates, some folding; numerous text illustrations. [28], 520, [4], 76, [4], 119, [13]; [24], 196, 116; [8], 228 [i. e., 236], [11] pages, including the 2 half-titles and 2 engraved additional titles. 3 volumes. Folio, 418x255 mm, modern 1/4 vellum, spines faded; scattered light foxing and infrequent faint marginal dampstains minimally affecting plates, repaired clean tear across N3 in Volume 3 with tape discoloration. 19th-century stamps of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (duplicate, released) on verso of letterpress titles. attractive, full-margined set. Frankfurt am Main: heirs of Johann David Zunner & Johann Adam Jung, 1714
first complete edition of a mammoth illustrated compendium of contemporary scientific knowledge, based on the holdings of public and private cabinets of curiosities in Europe. The work comprises descriptions of plants, animals, minerals, and natural oddities from around the world in the first 2 volumes and experimental scientific apparatus in the third, as well as a historical survey of collecting, complete or partial inventories of 23 natural history or curiosity collections, and a treatise on the divining rod. Alden 714/146; Ferguson II, 493-95; Nissen ZBI 4217 and BBI 2035.
