Nieremberg, Juan Eusebio, 1595-1658.
[Birds of paradise], Lib. X,
Historia natvrae, maxime peregrinae, libris XVI. distincta. Antverpiae: ex officina Plantiniana B. Moreti, 1635.
Contemporary mottled calf.
--Nieremberg, one of several Spanish Jesuits who wrote on natural history, was able to draw on the work of Francisco Hernandez, the royal physician who had traveled in Mexico, discovering some two hundred new birds. The woodcuts for Nieremberg's book were prepared by the Dutchman Christoffel Jeghers, who regularly illustrated Plantin publications.
Willughby, Francis, 1635-1672; Ray, John, 1627-1705.
[Song Thrush, Blackbird, Starling, etc.], Tab. XXXVII,
The ornithology of Francis Willughby . . . In three books. Wherein all the birds hitherto known . . . are accurately described. The descriptions illustrated by . . . LXXVIII copper plates.
Translated into English, and enlarged with many additions.
First English edition. London: printed by A.C. for J. Martyn, 1678. Calf.
--The English ornithologist Francis Willughby had studied at Cambridge and toured on the continent with his better-known Cambridge friend, John Ray. Together, they sought to bring previous work on birds into an orderly classification, rejecting the classical and mythological vestiges still included by Aldrovandi and others. Willughby had completed the text (in Latin) before his premature death, and Ray then expanded it and saw into print both Latin and English editions.