Bidspirit auction | Blainville's Mémoire sur le Dodo

Blainville's Mémoire sur le Dodo - Volume with 4 Lithographs & Treatise on the Dodo Bird - This fascinating, rare French treatise on the Dodo Bird is Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville's Mémoire sur le Dodo, Autrement Dronte; Nouvelles Annales du Muséum D'Histoire Naturelle, ou Recueil de Mémoires. Publies par les Professeurs de cet Établissement et par D'Autres Naturalistes sur L'Histoire Naturelle, L'Anatomie, et la Chimie . The work was published in Paris by Roret in 1835. There are four lithographed plates (one featuring hand-coloring) and 36 pages. It is bound to style in half calf over marble paper boards, spine gilt. Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville (1777-1850) was an influential French zoologist and anatomist. He was a contemporary of Cuvier and Lamarck. Blainville wrote his treatise on the Dodo to attempt to fit it into a larger family within the Linnean system. He argued (incorrectly) that it was a flightless relative of the vulture. His research benefited from access to well-preserved specimens in English collections at Oxford and the British Museum. Paper Size ~ 7 3/4” by 10 1/4”; Plate 1: ~ 12 3/4” by 10 1/8” (Fold out); Plates 2-3: ~ 7 5/8” by 10 1/8”; Plate 4 ~ 8 3/4 - 9 1/4” by 10 1/4 - 12” (Fold out)