NATURAL HISTORY - CUVIER (Georges) - LACÉPÈDE... Lot 55

[NATURAL HISTORY] - CUVIER (Georges) - LACÉPÈDE (Bernard Germain de) - La Ménagerie du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, ou les animaux vivants, peints d'après nature - Paris; Miger, Patris, Grandcher, Dentu, an X, 1801 - 1 volume In-folio - 2 plates with halo, 5 leaves of text browned otherwise good condition inside - Title, 9 pages and 39 plates (with 2 to 11 pages of notes per plate) drawn by Maréchal (painter of the Museum) and engraved by Miger (the plate of the tiger is missing, 1 plate of the rhesus without text and not indicated in the table) - Binding of the time half-brown basane with corners (rubbing and spotting, The number of plates in this work is very variable according to the copies (some have up to 52) - Rare collection of descriptions of animals having stayed in the zoo of the museum, including the brown bear, the lion, the elephant, the ostrich, the rhinoceros, the zebra, the mandrill, etc. Created in 1793, the Menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes became the Menagerie of the Museum of Natural History when it was inaugurated one year later. The scientific importance of zoology carried by the famous zoologists of the time Lacépède, Cuvier and Geoffroy contributed to the growing interest for this science.