Valenciennes, A. and A. D. d'Orbigny
Voyage dans l'Amérique méridionale (le Brésil, la république orientale de l'Uruguay, la république Argentine, la Patagonie, la république du Chili, la république de Bolivia, la république du Perou). Exécuté dans le cours des années 1826, 1827, 1828, 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832 et 1833. Tome cinquième, 2e partie: Poissons. Catalogue des principales espèces de poissons rapportées de l'Amérique méridionale.
Paris, P. Bertrand; Strasbourg, V. Levrault, 1847. Folio (33.8 x 25.0 cm). 11 pp.; 16 lithographed plates (numbered 1-16) in fine, original hand-colouring. Later quarter linen over printed boards.
A very important and rare monograph on the natural history of South America, being the results of years of travels and collecting by one of the foremost 19th-century French naturalists, the explorer, geographer, anthropologist, palaeontologist, zoologist, and botanist, Alcide Charles Victor Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny (1802-1857). Entirely based on his own collections and researches. This part dealing with fish - both marine and fresh water. D'Orbigny wrote most of the results of his collections and observations himself, but in this case he handed the material to a true specialist, the great French ichthyologist Achille Valenciennes (1794-1865). Many species were described as new. The fine illustrations are by a renowned natural history artist, Paul Louis Oudart (1796-1860), partly after original drawings of living specimens by D'Orbigny. Some light, scattered spotting; otherwise a very good, clean, unmarked copy. Dean II, p. 575; Nissen ZBI, 3021; Sabin, 57457.
