Mémoires de la Société Linnéenne de Normandie. Volumes I-V. [IINCLUDING Société Linnéenne de Calvados].

Caen, Société Linnéenne de Normandie, 1824-1835. Five volumes in six. 8vo (volumes I-IV, 21.0 x 13.2 cm), 4to (volume V, 27.6 x 22.0 cm), and oblong folio (atlas to volumes II-IV, 22.5 x 31.0 cm). Title pages; 15 lithographed (partly folded) plates in volume I, one hand-coloured geological map, 39 lithographed plates in the atlas volume, mainly depicting lichens by Delise, and geological maps (11 hand-coloured). Uniform later half calf over marbled boards. Spines with gilt title. Rare start of one of the oldest publications of the French Linnean societies. The majority of the papers deal with the geology and palaeontology of Normandy. It includes a rare large, folded, hand-coloured geological map of Normandy belonging to the paper by De Caumont, on pp. 239-281. The first two volumes were published as "Société Linnéenne de Calvados". In volume II, plates 12 and 13 are on one sheet. The atlas to volume III is bound after the atlas to volume IV. There is no plate 1 in volume III. The other plates of volume III have a small repair to the fore edge. A complete collation of the oblong atlas volume is as follows: volume II (1825): pp. [2] (title page), 3-10 (explanation of plates), 27 plates (26 numbered plates + one unnumbered plate called “cercle méthodologique”); III (1827): [ii] (title page, (plate explanation), six plates; IV (1828): [ii] (title page and verso, list of plates), eight plates. Some dampstaining, but limited to the plates of volume II, thus probably from before binding. The long, hand-coloured views and cross sections of volume IV are clean. A very nice set. Cat. BM(NH) pp. 296, 1447.