BORN, Ignaz Edler von (1742-1791)

Testacea Musei Caesarei Vindobonensis, quae jussu Mariae Theresiae Augustae disposuit et descripsit Ignatius a Born

Vienna: Gerold for Johann P. Kraus, 1780. Folio. (16 x 11 inches). Half-title, dedication to the Empress Marie-Therese. Title with emblematic engraved vignette by C. Schütz, 4 headpieces and 8 tailpieces, 36 in-text illustrations of shells, all engraved by Schütz, C. Conti and others, 18 plates (17 fine hand-coloured engraved plates of shells by Schütz or J. Adam after Fr. Fuxeder and 1 plate [Plate 4] supplied in expert watercolour facsimile).

Quarter vellum and marbled paper boards, original titling piece preserved on the spine

One of the most beautiful of all conchological works including examples from the collection of the Empress of Austria, a collection "of great importance to systematists, as Born described from it a number of species new to science" (Dance).

The present work was commissioned by Empress Marie-Therese to record and codify her natural history collection in Vienna. In 1778, Born published a descriptive catalogue of the collection; the present work, published two years later is on a much more sumptuous scale and included many fine colour plates. Baron Ignaz Edler von Born was born in 1742 in Karlsburg, Transylvania (now Alba Iulia, Romania). Having rejected an education with the Jesuits in Vienna, he studied law in Prague and only later turned to natural history, and more importantly, to mining. He joined the Department of Mines and the Mint in Prague in 1770, and mineralogy is the area in which he is now best remembered (see DSB II, p. 315). His reputation and extensive experience ensured that in 1776 he was called to Vienna by the Empress to arrange and describe the Imperial collection. The work on the shells in the Royal Collection was the only published result of this commission, which was apparently cut short by the Empress' death in 1780. An earlier edition, in octavo with only a single plate, was published in 1778. "Born's interests and activities extended into fields other than mineralogy and mining... In 1783 Born published Specimen monachologiae, a vicious satire against monks in which the various orders were classified according to a system modeled after Linnaeus (DSB)."

BM(NH) I, p. 202; S. Peter Dance, Shell Collecting An Illustrated History, pp. 93-94, no. 36; Nissen ZBI 470.

Item #42122

Price: $7,500.00