LES OBSERVATIONS DE PLUSIEURS SINGULARITEZ ET CHOSES MEMORABLES, TROUVEES EN GRECE, ASIE, IUDEE, EGYPTE, ARABIE, & AUTRES PAYS ESTRANGES, redigees en trois livres, par Pierre Belon du Mans. Reveuz de nouveau & augmentez de Figures. BELON, Pierre. tick

1588 (first published in Paris in 1553), text in French, divided into 3 books. Small 4to, approximately 230 x 155 mm, 9¼ x 6 inches, publisher's pictorial device on title page (pelican feeding her young), LARGE FOLDING MAP of Isle of Lemnos and Mount Athos, portrait of the author plus 44 woodcut illustrations in the text of animals, plants, reptiles, people etc., and 2 maps, the Hellespont (page 173) and Alexandria (page 206). The lower portion (4 inches) of the large folding map (Lemnos and Mount Athos) has been reattached. LACKS MAP OF SINAI, NOW REPLACED WITH A FACSIMILE, decorated and historiated head- and tailpieces and initials, pages: [xxiv], 1-468 plus [2] - colophon and on verso a different publisher's device, collation: a4, e4, i4, A-3N4, bound in modern full panelled calf, gilt raised bands to spine, richly gilt in compartments, gilt lettered red morocco label, old red speckling to edges, new endpapers. Occasional very slight light browning to margins, otherwise contents clean. A very good copy (lacking 1 folding map as noted). Pierre Belon was a French naturalist, (circa 1517 -1574). He studied medicine in Paris, where he took the degree of doctor, and then became a pupil of the botanist Valerius Cordus (1515-1544) at Wittenberg University, with whom he travelled in Germany. On his return to France he was taken under the patronage of Cardinal de Tournon, who provided him with the means for undertaking an extensive scientific journey. Starting in 1546, he travelled through Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, Arabia and Palestine, and returned in 1549. In his book he describes the flora and fauna he encounters on his journey, antiquities and towns, and also the peoples and their lives and customs. Many illustrations show unusual animals and plants, 5 are of snakes, 1 shows a small dragon, the only one not based on observation. See: Sefik E. Atabey, The Ottoman World, Volume 1, page 47; Sotheby's, Earls of Macclesfield Catalogue, Part 12, 4337; Brunet I, 762; The Library of Henry Myron Blackmer II, page 18; A Catalogue of Printed Books in the Wellcome Medical Library, Volume 1, No. 759, listing an earlier edition. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE. FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.