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BEAUSSANT LEFÈVRE & Associés

118 - DUMÉRIL (Constant)]. Analytical Method in Entomology.
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Estimate €250 - €300
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Description
DUMÉRIL (Constant)]. Analytical Method in Entomology. Circa 1810. Manuscript in brown ink on laid paper, in-4, 19.5 x 25.5 cm, 852 pp., including 4 blank pages, 1 folio, 5 blank folios, mid-19th-century binding in fawn half-sheepskin, spine decorated with faux raised bands and gilt motifs, entirely untrimmed. A handwritten copy of the entomology lectures by the eminent zoologist C. Duméril (1774–1860), who was to become President of the Academy of Sciences in 1831. According to a later handwritten note on the title page, it was produced by one of his students, François-Albin Lepage (1788–1875) from Orléans, then a student of Duméril, who in 1813 presented his medical thesis in Paris, Historical Research into Chinese Medicine, before going on to pursue a career in the service of the Orléans hospices, the mentally ill, the poor and the deaf and dumb. In his *Analytical Entomology*, Duméril states (in a note on p. 195): ‘Compelled by the position I hold (head of anatomical studies at the School of Public Health) to undertake arduous research, which leaves me little time for distractions […] I have set down in writing everything I knew, and shared it with a few entomologists; I even allowed some of my students to copy these notebooks during public lectures at the Écoles centrales (I acquired, from a second-hand bookseller, a bound manuscript, a small quarto, written by one of my students at the Écoles centrales du Panthéon. It is a complete transcription of my Course in Entomology, with all the analytical tables, much like those I published in *Analytical Zoology*. This manuscript is by a Doctor of Medicine named Le Page, who defended a thesis, numbered 149, in 1813, on Chinese medicine.)’ The copy, however, appears to have been made from a printed work, as the page numbers have been copied. The lecture notes have been copied across two-thirds of the page width to leave margins for notes, as is the case on many pages. An interesting manuscript, perfectly legible, from the libraries of the Orléans entomologist R. Pillault (ex-libris) and Gilbert Dufaux (dry stamp on the title page and p. 39). Spine sun-faded. Binding split over approximately 10 cm. Corners worn. - Expert: Cédric and Ithier de FOUGEROLLE
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About the sale Antique and modern books, manuscripts
Auction location
Auction time 10/21/2026 at 1:30 PM
Ref. : 15251 - 43
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