Basel, Schweighauser, 1821. 8vo (20.2 x 12.1 cm). xii, 156 pp; one large, folded hand-coloured map and one hand-coloured plate. Original printed wrappers.

A very interesting and rare publication by the Swiss geologist, naturalist and politician Peter Merian (1795-1883). It contains a fine geological and geographical hand-coloured map titled "Geognostische Karte des Kantons Basel und einiger angrenzenden Gegenden". The second plate shows cross sections. Ward and Carozzi list this work as the first volume of the Beiträge zur Geognosie. Indeed this is part one of a "series", dealing with Basel and its surroundings. The other, second and - apparently - last volume, was published 11 years later [1832], and titled Geognostische Uebersicht des südlichen Schwarzwaldes. It deals with an adjacent region in Germany. Both works are rare. An incomplete copy of this second work (lacking the map and rear wrapper) has been added, but not valued. Fore edge uncut. Both works with the same tiny old signature "E. v. Herder" on the front wrappers' top margins. This may be Emil [Ernst] von Helder (1785-1855), Königlich-Bayerischer Forst- und Regierungsrat, son of the famous philosopher and friend of Goethe, Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803) and father of the botanical professor Ferdinand Gottfried von Herder (1828-1896). Spine split, otherwise in very good condition, with clean plate and map. Ward and Carozzi, 1542.