Dissertationes Epistolicae duae, una de Formatione Pulli in Ovo. Altera de Bombyce

London: Martyn, 1673 & 1669. First editions, second issue.. Full contemporary calf.. Very good; rebacked.. 4to. There are 16 engraved plates.

The first edition sheets of both works bound up with a new general title. The first work (G-M #469) is a milestone in the history of modern embryology and was unsurpassed until Wolf's rare treatise at the end of the 18th century. Malpighi's book on embryology was an original work that presented many new and correct ideas. The second work on the silkworm (G-M #293) is the first book dealing with an invertebrate. He developed new dissecting techniques and was responsible for the identification of all the animal's internal structure. In the copy offered here the Epistola to Malpighi from Oldenburg is bound after the title for De Formatione though it belongs with the second treatise. This copy retains the license leaf. Frati p.27; see Adelmann for a lengthy account; G-M # 293 & # 469; Wing M-351; see Norman #1428 & 1429.