HAVANA IMPRINT / BIRDS OF CUBA: Aves de la Isla de Cuba por Juan Lembeye

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HAVANA IMPRINT / BIRDS OF CUBA: Aves de la Isla de Cuba por Juan Lembeye

9,500.00€

The first and only illustrated book on birds, published in Cuba, with originally coloured plates.

 

Small 4°: [4 pp.] blank, 126 pp., [4 pp.], 20 lithographed plates on thick paper (18 with original colouring, nos 13 and 19 uncoloured) and protected by guards, contemporary or slightly later binding and endpapers (minor staining, tiny chips in margins, partly repaired on plates, hinges slightly cracked, sporadic plates with age-toning, guards of plate 17 missing, plate 14 bound after 15, old signature or scribbles in brown ink and a ghost of a small stamp on the title page, signature in brown ink: Dr. Francisco Garay, dated January 20, 1891, remains of a glued-on bookseller’s stamp on the dedication page, old numeration and a stamp BR verso)

Additional information

1 in stock

Description

Juan LEMBEYE (1816 – 1889), Author – Laureano FERNANDEZ, Illustrator – Luis MARQUIER, Lithographer.

Havana: Imprenta del Tiempo, 1850.

 

This renowned yet uncommon book about Cuban birds was printed in Havana and authored by Juan Lembeye (1816 – 1889), a naturalist, intellectual, and collector born in Galicia. After moving to Cuba in the 1830s, Lembeye dedicated himself to studying the local bird species and published the first book on Cuban birds in Havana in 1850. The illustrations were created by Laureano Fernández, based on the work of John James Audubon (1785 – 1851), and lithographed by the prolific Havana-based lithographer Luis Marquier.

Juan Lembeye made significant contributions to ornithology, including the first descriptions of several species, such as the bee hummingbird, Cuban solitaire, and Cuban gnatcatcher. His illustrations have become iconic in Cuban visual culture and were even featured on cigar wrappers.

References: OCLC 1040204644 (including later reprints and eBooks).

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