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MOFFETT, Thomas.
Insectorum sive Minimorum Animalium Theatrum: olim ab Edoardo Wottono. Conrado Gesnero. Thomaque Pennio incloatum: tandem…perfectum: et ad vivum expressis iconibus suprà quingentis illustratum. Londini: ex officinâ typographicâ Thom. Cotes. Et venales extant apud Guiliel. Hope… . 1634.
Small folio, pp. (xx), 285, 296–326, (4). Title within double-ruled border with woodcut vignette of a beehive surround by insects, woodcut ornaments, and numerous woodcuts of insects throughout the text. Contemporary calf, sides with double blind-ruled border, spine with gilt centres (now faded), spine neatly restored, replacement red morocco label. Paper slightly browned, old library stamp on the title-page, but a very good copy.
FIRST EDITION of the first entomological book published in England, and the best work of its kind to date. It is “a systematic treatise dealing with the habits, habitat, breeding, and economic importance of insects, beginning with bees, which are accorded the most detailed treatment. The observations and illustrations, although usually thought inferior to those published by Aldrovandi in 1602, are of considerable interest…” (DSB). The work has a complex history, and is a combination of the successive efforts of Conrad Gesner, his assistant Thomas Penny, Edward Wotton, and Moffett himself. Moffett died in 1604, and the manuscript was eventually published by Sir Theodore Mayerne. The book is a charming production, with hundreds of woodcuts of insects, many larger than life-size, inserted at the appropriate place in the text. Moffett’s daughter Patience is generally supposed to be the “little Miss Muffett” of the nursery rhyme. STC 17993a. G&M 288. Raven, English naturalists, chapter 10 (esp. pp. 179–191): “…the true foundation of entomology.” Lisney, A bibliography of British lepidoptera 1608–1799, pp. 4–9, identifying three different issues of the imprint. Norman catalogue 1528.
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