Vallisnieri, Antonio; Opere Diverse del Sig. Antonio Vallisnieri. Cioe: 1. Istoria del Camaleonte Afficano, e di varj Animali d’Italia... 2. Lezione Accademica intorno all’ Origine delle Fontane. 3. Raccolta di varj Trattati accrefciuti con Annotazioni e con Giunte. Three works in two volumes, Venezia, Appresso Gio. Babbriello Ertz., 1715. Quarto, pp. 6, 200, engraved portrait of Vallisnieri, 13 engraved plates (some folded). and engraved title page, 6, 87, 1 folded engraved plate. Vol. 2, pp. 1, 262, 17 engraved plates (many double page).

The work is complete in two volumes and in a contemporary full calf with gilt titles and six gilt spine panels, gilt ruled borders and red text block edges. Scuffing to boards, light wear to spine margins and edges. Light water staining to the upper inner and outer corners of volume 2 and very light water staining to upper third of text of volume 1. Armorial book plate of noted British barrister Phillip Carteret Webb (1700-1770) on paste downs. (Webb was heavily involved with the eighteenth-century antiquarian movement in England. As a member of the London ‘Society of Antiquaries’ in 1747, and as its lawyer, he was responsible for securing the incorporation of the Society in 1751 which put it in direct competition for antiquities with the Royal Society. He is also remembered for being an agent of the crown in the ‘North Briton’ scandal (1763), and assisting Robert Wood to seize the papers of the journalist John Wilkes whose inflammatory writings had offended the king.) Over all still a very good set of a very scarce set of Vallisniero’s works.
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First edition of Vallisnieri's three major works containing his ideas on zoology, entomology, medicine, geology and natural history.. Antonio Vallisnieri (1666-1730) was a pupil of Malpighi at Bologna. Vallisniero rejected much of the present scholastic knowledge and trusted solely in direct observation and in experimentation. Vallisnieri was thus one of the first modern naturalist to have a clear awareness of the character of scientific phenomena. Vallisinieri extensive research on the reproductive system of men and animals, demonstrated the fallacy of the hypothesis of spontaneous generation and was seen by many as a forerunner of evolutionary concepts. His approach to the use of direct field observations included visiting mines and quarries to study the formation of mountains by heat and volcanism and not the result of the deluge. He made a very important contribution to geology when he demonstrated that springs in the mountains derived their water entirely from rainfall and snow melt. This debunked the idea of an underground connection of all springs to the sea and the rising of the waters and removal of salts.