Beschreibung:

FRISCH, Johann Leonhard (1666-1743). Vorstellung der Vögel Deutschlandes und beyläufig auch einiger Fremden; nach ihren Eigenschaften beschrieben. Berlin: Friedrich Wilhelm Birnstiel for the author, [1733-] 1763. 2° (360 x 230mm). Engraved frontispiece by J. C. Frisch after B. Rode, letterpress title and foreword (1 leaf), 23 section titles (?only, of 24), 77 other leaves of text, 253 HAND-COLOURED ENGRAVED PLATES (only of 255, without 'ad 31' plate and supplementary plate 109), after and by Ferdinand Helfreich Frisch, Philipp Jakob Frisch (the author's sons), and Johann Christoph Frisch (the author's grandson), EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED with two plates of Pheasants from one of Johann Michael Selimann's works. (Short repaired tear to plate 8, supplementary plate 31 folding but torn with loss of the majority of the folded section, text spotted.) Modern vellum. FIRST EDITION OF "A RARE CLASSIC" (Wood). The work was published in 14 parts, with a supplement, over a period of thirty years. 249 of the plates illustrate birds; plates 102-104 show two different types of bat. The birds are divided into twelve classes, and the plates are accompanied by brief descriptions. Owing partly to the lengthy period of publication, copies vary in their make-up. Johann Leonhard Frisch led a chequered life, in which the study of natural history played a surprisingly small part. After a promising academic career, he became minister to a congregation at Neusohl in Hungary, where his zeal for reform led to accusations that he was a Pietist. He was forced to flee to the Ottoman Empire, at a time when the Turks were advancing up the right bank of the Danube to meet the Imperial Army. Frisch fought as a dragoon, before returning to Nuremberg via Venice and working in various administrative capacities for Baron Wilke of Bodenhausen-Oberdachsbach and other nobles. In 1698 he travelled to Holland, returning to Berlin to re-embark on his academic career and becoming a member of the Society of Sciences in 1706, on Leibniz's recommendation. Apart from his writings on birds and insects, we have little evidence of his interest in natural history. However, Frisch is credited by some with the discovery of the colour 'Prussian blue', and was responsible for the planting of mulberries on the ramparts of Berlin in a successful attempt to produce silk. After Frisch's death, his sons continued his work on the Vorstellung . Jodocus Leopold prepared the text with the aid of Baron Friedrich von Zorn, while Philipp Jacob Frisch and Ferdinand Helfreich Frisch engraved and coloured most of the plates. The latter's son, Johann Christoph Frisch was responsible for the last thirty, so completing "one of the most enjoyable of all bird books" ( Fine Bird Books ). Another edition was published in Berlin in 1817 by the successors of the original publishers, with plates taken from the original stock. Nissen IVB 339; Anker 155; Wood 349; Fine Bird Books 76.