Costa, A.
Cimicum Regni Neapolitani Centuriae. Centuria [prima], Centuria secunda, Centuria tertia et quartae fragmentum. Cum tabulis I - VIII. [AND] Additamenta ad Centurias Cimicum Regni Neapolitani. [Complete].
Napoli, for the author, 1838-1860. Five parts in three, 4to (ca. 25 x 20 cm). [iv], 266 pp. [74, 41, 41, 71, 39]; eleven finely engraved plates of which six originally hand-coloured, and five in stipple-engraved colour printing. Bound in three, rather similar contemporary bindings, viz. pebbled half cloth over marbled boards. Spine with gilt title. Speckled edges; and uniform green quarter paper over marbled boards with script titles.
First editions of a very important, detailed and well-illustrated contribution - published in five parts - to the Hemiptera or True Bugs of the Mediterranean Region by the Italian zoologist and entomologist Achille Costa (1823-1899). The first part is actually his first published work. Published over a very long time and seldom seen complete, including the very rare supplement, which is neither mentioned by Hagen, nor in Horn-Schenkling, nor by Nissen. There are no auction records. The only copy we could trace is in the library of the Dutch Entomological Society. In total, 347 different species are discussed, including many that are new. This copy is bound in three, with the fourth part (species 201-307) bound before the third (species 151-200). A collation is as follows: first bound volume. [I] [ Centurio Prima] (1838). title page, pp. [3]-76; plate [I]. Species 1-100. Second bound volume. II. Centurio Secunda ( Decas 1-5) [1845-1847]. Title page, pp. [3]-43; plates II-III. Species 101-150. third bound volume. Title to the four parts; contents leaf to the four parts [listing plate VI as V, in error]; IV. Centuria tertia et quartae fragmentum (1852). Title page, pp. [3]-73; plates VI-VIII (page number errors: 257 for 35, 260-261 for 40-41). Species 201-307; III, Centurio secunda ( Decas 6-10) (1847). pp. [1]-41; plates IV-V. Species 151-200; Additimenta ad Centurias Cimicum Regni Neapolitani (1860). pp. [3]-41. Species additae 1-40. Plates Ia, IIa, III (error for IIIa). Provenance: former owner's signature of the French hemipterologist Victor Signoret (1816-1889) on the index leaf, and a few marginalia and captions in his hand; a small printed label of "Bibliothèque d'Histoire naturelle de Dr Maurice Royer" in the top margin of the title page. Maurice Royer (1878-1942) was a French entomologist and Hemiptera specialist. Species names in light pencil added to the figures, otherwise an excellent, clean copy. Hagen I, p. 140 [not the supplement]; Horn-Schenkling I, 3910 [not the supplement]. Neither in Cat. BM(NH) nor in Nissen ZBI.