Raspe, Rudolf Erich; Specimen Historiae Naturalis Globi Terraquei, Praecipue de Novis e Mari Natis Insulis...Amstelodami & Lipsiae, J. Schreuder & P. Mortier, 1763. Octavo, pp. xxii, 191, 3 folded plates.

This very rare work is complete and in a contemporary calf with raised bands, gilt panels and titles. The binding is tight, light restoration to spine margins, light foxing to first and last pages. In very good condition.
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Rudolf Erich Raspe ( 1736 – 1794) was a German librarian, writer and scientist. He is best known for his collection of stories, The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, published as a work political satire.
Raspe originally worked as a librarian for the university of Göttingen. In 1762, he became a clerk in the university library at Hanover, and in 1764 secretary to the university library at Göttingen. In 1767, he was appointed professor in Cassel, and subsequently librarian. He always had an interest in natural history, especially geology and mineralogy.  In 1769 he was selected an honorary member of the Royal Society in London, and he wrote voluminously on all sorts of subjects but especially on geology and mineralogy. He travelled extensively in the Netherlands, England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland. From 1782 to 1788, he was employed by Matthew Boulton; who was a partner with James Watt, as assay-master and storekeeper in the Dolcoath mine in Cornwall.
During his career, Raspe authored several works in the geological sciences. He was the first German to advocate the volcanic origins of basalt.
In “Specimen Historiae”, Raspe expounded Hooke’s theory of the uplift of islands and mountain ranges through the forces of earthquakes and subterranean fires.