PAIR OF 18TH CENTURY MARCUS EIESLER BLOCH HANDCOLORED ENGRAVINGS OF FISH ,Marcus Eiesler Bloch (1723-1799). Published in Berlin 1782-1795 & France 1785-1797. Two matted, of the period, handcolored plates from Ichthyologie ou Historie Naturelle Generale et Particuliere des Poissons, the first Plate #103, The Shifersmillers Salmon (#35111-2), the second, Plate #CI, Salmo Umbla, (#65952-1). Both plates measure 10 5/8" high x 17 3/8" wide.
'Marcus Elieser Bloch was a German medical doctor and naturalist. He is generally considered one of the most important ichthyologists of the 18th century. His labour on this work occupied a considerable portion of his life, and is considered to have laid the foundations of the science of ichthyology. The publication was encouraged by a large subscription, and it passed rapidly through five editions in German and in French. Bloch made little or no alteration in the systematic arrangement of Peter Artedi and Carl Linnaeus. To the number of genera before established, he found it necessary to add nineteen new ones, and he described 176 new species, many of them inhabitants of the remotest parts of the ocean, and by the brilliancy of their colours, or the singularity of their forms, as much objects of popular admiration as of scientific curiosity. Bloch's collection of about 1500 specimens is today preserved at the Museum für Naturkunde of the Humboldt University of Berlin.'
