FABRE (Jean-Henri). [Conchyliology of Corsica].... - Lot 3 - Métayer-Mermoz Maison de Ventes aux Enchères Paris

FABRE (Jean-Henri). [Conchyliology of Corsica]. Manuscript partly autograph. S.l.n.d. ca. 1850], 240 pp. in-folio (29,3 x 19,8 cm), in sheets, with erasures, corrections and passages crossed out, preserved in a gusseted folder with laces of closing. PRECIOUS MANUSCRIPT, INEDIT, CONTAINING THE DESCRIPTION OF MOLLUSCS AND SHELLS OBSERVED BY FABRE DURING HIS STAY IN CORSICA (1849-1852). In 1849, Fabre was appointed professor of physics at the high school of Ajaccio. During his stay in Corsica, a decisive meeting with the naturalist Alfred Moquin-Tandon led him to turn towards natural sciences, particularly zoology. He then collected many species of marine, terrestrial or fresh water shells, and thus gathered the elements of a Conchyliology of Corsica. This vast work of inventory and description, which was to replace the work of Benjamin Charles Payraudeau (Catalogue descriptif et méthodique des annélides et des mollusques de l'île de Corse, Paris, 1826) and Esprit Requien (Catalogue des coquilles de l'île de Corse, Avignon, 1848), was never published, the brevity of Fabre's stay not allowing him to complete it since he returned to the continent in 1852. This manuscript concerns only bivalve molluscs (head and brachiopods). It includes parts autographed by Fabre (185 pp.) and others copied by another hand (55 pp.), the latter being mostly accompanied by corrections and annotations by the author. The text is divided as follows: [Generalities on molluscs; their classification], 4 pp. - Headache : [generalities and analytical key of the families], 12 pp. - Tubicolae (1st family) and Pholadaires (2nd family), 16 pp. including 8 from another hand with autograph annotations. - Solenaceae (3rd family) and Mactraceae (4th family), 23 pp. including 15 from another hand with autograph annotations. - Corbulaceae (5th family) and Lithophagi (6th family), 15 pp. from another hand with autograph annotations