Thomas Moffet

Thomas Moffet

Insects.- Moffet (Thomas) Insectorum sive Minimorum Animalium Theatrum, first edition, title with superb woodcut of a skep bee-hive surrounded by other insects, woodcut of skep repeated at end of preliminaries, numerous woodcut illustrations in text, interleaved copy, L5 with short tear to upper margin just touching text, worm hold to last 3 gatherings, more noticeable to final 2 ff., occasional browning, armorial ink stamps to title, contemporary reverse calf with arms in blind to covers, spine chipped at head, folio, [British Bee Books 25; Nissen ZBI 2852; STC 17993], folio, Thomas Cotes...[and] Benjamin Allen, 1634.

⁂ Moffet's was "the best work of its kind...it set a new standard of accuracy in the study of the invertebrates" (Garrison-Morton). He was educated at Cambridge and Basel, where he obtained a degree in medicine, travelled widely in Europe before establishing a practice in Ipswich and London and serving as physician to Queen Elizabeth's forces in Normandy in 1591. The first edition has three variant imprints.

Provenance: Arms to title and covers speculated by University of Toronto to be those of Thomas Hussey (d.1641), M.P for Grantham or to John More (d.1641), doctor and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.