First edition of a work which laid the foundation to vertebrate paleontology.

The plates have a number of different illustrators and engravers. Some of the illustrators include Mlle. Balzac, N. Boullemier, De Wailly, Devilliers, Hüet, Laurillard, and Mary Morland; some of the engravers include: Canu, Cloquet, Couet, Coutant, Daréna, Dien, Lecerf, and Sauvage.

Errors in paging.

Includes bibliographical references.

Horblit, H.D. Grolier 100 science books, 20b

Smith, J.C. Georges Cuvier, no. 740

Nissen, C. Zoologische Buchillustration, I, no. 1011

Dibner Library. Heralds of Science (1980 ed.), 195c

extracted picklist 20081216 BHLEX

SCDIRB and SCNHRB have one copy each.

SCDIRB copy is imperfect: Pages 33-38, t. 4, IIIe partie, mémoire, are wanting. One of the four plates for mémoire VII, t. 3, is wanting; plate IV, t. 4, IVe partie, mémoire VI and plate I, t. 4, Ve partie, mémoire II are wanting. An extra copy of the sheet with p. 1-2 and 7-8, t. 4, IIIe partie, mémoire I is bound in; in the same mémoire, an extra copy of the leaf with p. 41-42 is also bound in. A plate with handwritten description, "Decad. IX, pl. IX" in t. 4, is partially cut away, and might have been an extra illustration added by a former owner.

SCDIRB copy is identified as formerly belonging to H.-M. Ducrotay de Blainville on the front free endpaper of t. 1. There are extensive old ms. notes in pencil and ink throughout the set that are attributed to de Blainville.

SCDIRB copy of t. 4 has inserted items at end of volume: a sheet of handwritten notes ([1] p.) about the "Megasauros", bound in just before an extract of M. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire's Description de deux crocodiles qui existent dans le Nil, comparés au crocodile de Saint-Dominique (20 p., [1] leaf of plates).

SCDIRB copy has bookplate: Burndy Library ... gift of Bern Dibner.

SCDIRB copy has later blind- and gilt-tooled red morocco leather bindings with raised bands, marbled endpapers, and green silk ribbon page markers. The binding is signed: Ottman-Duplanil.

SCNHRB copy is imperfect: p. 73-80 of Essai sur la géographie mineralogique des environs de Paris (t. 1) are wanting.

SCNHRB copy has "Office Library of the Smithsonian Institution" stamps, with accession no. 5113.

SCNHRB copy has brown buckram bindings of the U. S. National Museum, with gilt-lettered spines and faux-marbled endpapers. The text and plate leaves have been closely cropped, affecting some of the plates.