JOHNSTON, JOHN. 1603-1675.

Historiae naturalis de quadrupedibus libri. Amsterdam: Jan Jacob Schipper, 1657.

Historiae naturalis de quadrupedibus libri. Amsterdam: Jan Jacob Schipper, 1657.
Folio (377 x 237 mm). Allegorical engraved title, 80 engraved plates. 18th century mottled calf, spine gilt with 6 raised bands. Joints cracked, all leaves re-margined at lower edge, plates bound out of sequence, scattered dampstaining and spotting.

The first of six parts of this standard seventeenth-century encyclopedia of natural history, illustrated with plates which were often reprinted by others into the next century. Johnston was the grandson of a Scot but was born and raised in Poland. After studying botany and medicine at Cambridge, he travelled extensively before settling in Leiden to practice medicine. Nissen, ZBI 2131; Wellcome III, 366.