Author: [d'Orbigny, A. D.] Vénec-Peyré, M. T. (ed.)
Title: Les planches inédites de foraminifères d'Alcide d'Orbigny à l'aube de la micropaléontologie. The unpublished plates of Foraminifera by Alcide d'Orbigny the dawn of micropaleontology.
Description: Paris, Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, 2005. Large 4to (33.9 x 23.0 cm). 302 pp.; 45 tinted and full colour reproductions of the actual originals by d'Orbigny and 19 further plates (mostly tinted). Original pictorial laminated boards. = A very fine and important publication on the unpublished Foraminifera plates of Alcide d'Orbigny with a new commentary on the taxonomy and classification. The preface is in French and in English. Introduced to natural history at an early age by his father Charles-Marie, Alcide Dessalines d'Orbigny (1802-1857) developed a life interest in the study of shelled microscopic animals that he named "foraminifères". At the age of 23, he presented to the Academy of Sciences his first memoir on these micro-organisms which were still considered at the time to be microscopic cephalopods. This work, titled Tableau méthodique de la classe des Céphalopodes, was associated with 73 plates of drawings. The text was published in 1826 in Les Annales de Sciences Naturelles, but unfortunately without the plates. Although they have remained unpublished, these planches inédites are often cited in scientific literature, and have for a long time interested foraminifera specialists. Establishing, with this first comprehensive work, the foundations of micropalaeontology, Alcide d'Orbigny certainly had little idea of the important implications the new science would have, not only in numerous domains of academic research, but also in the economic sector. There is soft-cover version of this work, but this is the rarer hard bound edition. A very good, clean copy.

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