Moro, Anton Lazzaro; De Crostacei E Degli Altri Marini Corpi Che si Truovano su' Monti. Libri Due di Anton-Lazzaro Moro. Venezia, Appresso Stefano Monti, 1740. Quarto, pp. xiv, 452, engraved title vignette, 8 engraved folded plates.

The work is complete and in a contemporary full tree calf with gilt spine titles, six gilt spine panels, decorative text block edges and decorative end sheets. The binding has light archival restoration to corners and edges, the text is exceptionally bright, clean and crisp. In very good condition. A very rare work.
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Moro (1687-1764) was an Italian theologian and geologist. As a priest he wrote the remarkable book "De Crostacei E Degli Altri Marini Corpi" where he proposes his theories on the changes on the earth after the creation. The work is considered one of the most important books in the early history of geology. This is also the author's best known and most controversial work. Moro was interested in the fossils he found in the mountains and how they came to be there. In the De' Crostacei e degli altri Marini Corpi Moro speculates on the organic nature of fossils. He affirmed the theory that mountains and most islands were formed by volcanoes and thought that stratified rock was igneous in origin. His most original thoughts in this area consisted of the idea that two kinds of mountains existed, Primitive and Secondary, each of different age and composition. This theory, elaborated on by others, later became the foundation for "vulcanism". Vulcanism was in direct contrast to the views expressed in "Neptunism" which were first proposed by Vallisnieri in 1721. While Moro used fire and heat to explain how fossil-bearing rocks came to be made into mountains, Vallisnieri explained the presence of fossil bearing rocks by the submergence of the land under water. Moro used volcanoes to raise the mountains and islands of Italy above water and even thought that many stratified rocks had igneous origins. Within the work he also proposes two kinds of mountains, Primitive and Secondary, of different ages and composition. This age distinction later became the cornerstone of correlation in historical geology.