Details - An exposition of English insects : including the several classes of Neuroptera, Hymenoptera, & Diptera, or bees, flies, & Libellulae : exhibiting on 51 copper plates near 500 figures, accurately drawn & highly finished in colours, from nature : the whole minutely described, arranged & named, according to the Linnean system, with remarks : the figures of a great number of moths not in the Aurelian collection : formerly published by the same author and a plate with an explanation of colours, are likewise given in the work

An exposition of English insects

Title

An exposition of English insects : including the several classes of Neuroptera, Hymenoptera, & Diptera, or bees, flies, & Libellulae : exhibiting on 51 copper plates near 500 figures, accurately drawn & highly finished in colours, from nature : the whole minutely described, arranged & named, according to the Linnean system, with remarks : the figures of a great number of moths not in the Aurelian collection : formerly published by the same author and a plate with an explanation of colours, are likewise given in the work

Title Variants

Alternative: English insects

By

Harris, Moses, 1730-approximately 1788 , author,

Harris, Moses, 1730-approximately 1788 , Aurelian, or, Natural history of English insects
White, Benjamin, approximately 1724-1794 , bookseller
Robson, James, 1733-1806 , bookseller

Type

Book

Material

Published material

Publication info

London, Sold by Mr. White, bookseller, in Fleet Street, & Mr. Robson, in New Bond Street, MDCCLXXXII [1782]

Notes

Engraved title page

"Made-up copies of the Exposition occur far more frequently than ideal copies" --Lisney, page 171

All illustrations are hand-colored, except the plate with the anatomical diagrams which is uncolored

The frontispiece shows a variety of creatures approaching a statue of a goddess (probably Ceres) in a wooded landscape

This issue lacks the color wheel chart mentioned on the title page that was published in the 1st edition; the written description of colors occurs on pages iv-viii of the preface

Signatures: [A]¹ B-2T² 2U² [chi]1

"The text sheets were reissued in 1781; the 1782 edition is reset"--English short title catalogue.

This 1782 edition was subsequently reissued by B. White and J. Edwards in 1786. That re-issue has the addition of a letterpress title page in French, with title: Exposition des insectes que se trouvent en Angleterre ...

Includes index

Lisney, Arthur A. Bibliography of British Lepidoptera, 1608-1799, | 242

Soulsby, B.H. A catalogue of the works of Linnaeus, | 1224*** (addenda)

Hagen, H.A. Bibliotheca entomologica, | volume 1, page 342, number 4

Catalogue of the books, manuscripts, maps and drawings in the British Museum (Natural History) | page 788

Nissen, C. Zoologische Buchillustration, | volume 1, number 1838

English short title catalogue | T033877

Parallel text columns in English and French