THE ZOOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF SOUTHERN AFRICA 1650-1790

4to; original blue cloth, lettered in gilt on spine, and with gilt publisher's monogram to upper cover; laminated pictorial dustwrapper; pp. xii + 368, incl. index; full-colour plates; monochrome illustrations in text; maps. Light bump to top fore-corner of upper board; trace of foxing to reverse of dustwrapper; occasional fox spot elsewhere. Very good condition. 

A lavishly-produced publication, and the standard work on the subject.  "The 18th century witnessed a new interest in African animals.  Research was undertaken at the Cape of Good Hope by seven explorers.  All their books, manuscripts, and drawings concerning mammals and birds are listed and discussed in this publication.  Many of the contemporary drawings, largely unpublished, have been included.  The mammals were first studied carefully by Robert Jacob Gordon, Commander of the Cape garrison.  His large collection of animal drawings known as the 'Gordon Atlas' is our main source of information on his field of interest.  A considerable number of examples from his collection appear for the first time in the present book.  Two Swedes, Anders Sparrman and Carl Peter Thunberg, applied the methods of Linnaeus to their work; their work is thoroughly analysed.  The field of interest of J.R. Forster (who with George Forster is known from Cook's voyage of discovery), Francis Masson and William Paterson was much less defined.  The sources available to the author are discussed and some of their drawings reproduced.  François Levaillant was the pioneer of African ornithology.  His voluminous books are confusing due to a mixture of fact and fantasy, but well known for the beauty of the plates.  This book gives details on four collections of more than 300 mammals and birds drawings connected with Levaillant's research, hitherto totally unmentioned in other publications.  Many examples are illustrated, 16 of them in colour.  The zoological contents of the material left by these seven explorers and by their predecessors are analysed for all mammals and birds emphasising the history, taxonomy, nomenclature and zoogeography.  This includes many details on species now extinct, like the lion and rhinoceros of the Cape, the guagga and the bluebock."