Bird Books and Bird Art. An Outline of the Literary History and Iconography of Descriptive Ornithology. Based principally on the collection of books containing plates with figures of birds and their eggs now in the University Library at Copenhagen and including a catalogue of these works

Arno Press, New York, 1974 reprint of 1938 first edition. Cloth, gilt cover-title, 8vo,. xiii, 251, [4] pp, 12 black-and-white plates. 918 entries. A handsome reprint in red cloth with gilt spine-titles. Part I (pp 1-88) outlines the history of descriptive ornithology and bird illustration in seven chapters: 1 Pictures and records of birds up to the invention of printing and the development of the woodcut. 2 The art of printing. Woodcuts and engravings. Belon and the encyclopedists. 3 The progress of engraving. The first works containing ornithological plates. Information about fauna given in descriptions of countries and in travel hooks up to the last quarter of the 17th century 4..Willughby and John Ray. The first works in which plates are prominent. Works on fauna and journeys up to the last third of the 18th century. 5 Progress in descriptive ornithology, systematics and nomenclature. Linnaeus. Brisson 6 Buffon and the 'Planches enluminees'. The ornithological literature in the last third of the 18th century. 7 A brief survey of the literature and iconography of descriptive ornithology in the 19th and 20th centuries. Part II is an excellent detailed bibliographical catalogue of books containing plates of birds and their eggs from the University Lihrary at Copenhagen ; the collection is a rich one with many fine copperplate volumes from the Classen collection at its core. Some 548 works are fully described, and annotated , often extensively. A further 369 works are listed with brief publication details in the bibliography. There is an index of names and a geographical index. "Mengel (Catalogue of the Ellis Collection) comments: 'An exhaustive, well-prepared, readable history, and a valuable bibliographic source which is particularly useful because of its organization and thorough indexing.' Top edge slightly dust-stained, otherwise Very Good.