REAUMUR René-Antoine de Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire des insectes.

DSB, XI, 327-335; Garrison & Morton, 304; Sparrow, no. 192 & p. 22; 1Heralds of Science, 192; Nissen ZBI, 3315; En français dans le texte, 145; Norman, 1804; Bodenheimer I, 415-448; Nordenskiöld 231-232.

First edition of Reaumur’s greatest work – one of the great classics within the entomological literature and a work of fundamental importance in insect biology.

It “is in fact one of the most monumental works written in this field of research. It offers a number of extremely valuable contributions to the knowledge of the anatomical structure of the insects, their evolutional history and condition of life…»(Nordenskiöld).

“D’observation en déduction, d’hypothèse en vérification, s’élaborent un intense monument de science, une manière de rêve poétique à rebond, et la palpitation de la vie se retrouve resituée à travers la précision d’un regard éperdument regardant qui donne à voir, dans leur extrême singularité, les mœurs et coutumes insoupçonnées des guêpes solitaires ou des libellules, des bourdons velus ou des chenilles processionnaires. Scrutateur de règnes minuscules, Réaumur n’ignore rien des empires se développant à l’ombre des feuillages, à fleur de terre, ou dans la transparence voilée des eaux” (Yves Tadié, in : En français dans le texte).

Reaumur was active in many branches of natural sciences. he invented improved methods of iron-refining and made important contributions to our knowledge of the expansion of gases and fluids and of specific heat. He is perhaps best known for his invention of the thermometer scale which bears his name. In 1710 he wrote a paper on the possibility of spiders being used to produce silk, which was so celebrated at the time that the Chinese Emperor caused a translation of it to be made.

He was the first scientist to suggest the use of wood as a material for papermaking by observing the habits of wasps, which insect may be considered a professional papermaker devoting most of her life to the fabrication of this material for the construction of nests. A true son of the Enlightenment he calls attention to the economic value of entomological research. Silk, wax, honey, lacquer, and conchineal are all valuable products of the insects. His friends often called Reaumur the Pliny of the Eighteenth Century – and T.H. Huxley says in a letter: ” From the time of Aristotle to the present day I know of but one man who has shown himself Mr Darwin ‘s equal in one field of research – and that is Reaumur. “- ” Bis auf den heutigen Tag besitzen wir kein Werk, das morphologische, ökologische und physiologische Probleme in gleicher Harmonic und auf solch breiter Grundlage behandelt. ” (Bodenheimer).

“Réaumur was among the great naturalists of his or any age… Réaumur’s greatest work in natural history was his Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire des insectes, published in six volumes between 1734 and 1742… His descriptions were minute and exacting in every detail, and his experiments were among the most ingenious he ever contrived. Réaumur was one of the first to undertake extensive quantitative research on insects… He made some of the first tentative studies of communication among the bees. In short, there was no aspect of the life cycle or behaviour of bees too minute or too unimportant to escape his attention. he took every pain, every precaution to make his study as complete and exhaustive as possible. And so it was with the other insects he studied” (DSB). “Réaumur’s greatest work” (Garrison-Morton).

“Réaumur took pains to emphasize the practicality of insect studies as benefitting industries where insects were economically useful, such as the manufacture of silk, honey, wax, lacquer and cochineal dye, as well as those industries where the economically harmful depredations of insects could be lessened by improved methods of pest control” (Norman).

Very good copy, complete with its 267 engraved plates (by mistake plates 29-31 & 35 of volume V have been bound into volume VI).