Paris, Panckoucke, An VI [1797]. Large 4to/Folio (plates) (32.2 x 24.2 cm). Half-title, title page; 104 finely engraved plates (numbered 287-390), of which five [199, 200, 203, 208, 248) double-sized. Original boards. Spine with printed label.

The fourth of five atlas parts. All are rare. This part being devoted to gastropods (sea snails), including popular families such as the cone shells (by the Danish malacologist Hwass), the cowries, and volutes. Uncut, as issued. With the widest possible margins. The title page lists Lamarck as the author, and most certainly he edited the work. But probably most if not all was assembled by Bruguiére. Jean-Guillaume Bruguière (1750-1798) took a degree in medicine in his home town Montpellier. "In 1773 he joined Kerguelen as a zoologist on the latter's second voyage to the southern seas... He was the author of several papers on invertebrates in the first volume of the 'Actes; of the Société d'Histoire Naturelle in such eminent company as Lamarck, Bosc, Olivier, Pelletier and Cuvier. The widespread public recognition of his growing ability soon became so great that he was commissioned to supply the treatise on Vermes for the Encyclopèdie Méthodique" (Dodge, p. 484). Boards and spines rather worn, as often; plate 322 with a large tear and old repair into the image; otherwise, very good, some plates (mostly weak or marginal) toned, but by large the plates are clean and bright, and have no spotting at all. Dodge, H. (1947) The Molluscan Genera of Bruguière. Journal of Paleontology 21(5): 484-492; Nissen ZBI, 4621; Schmitt, S. (2018) Inventaire des livraisons, des auteurs et du contenu de l’Encyclopédie méthodique ( 1782-1832).