[MAXIMILIAN, Duke of Leuchtenberg and Prince of Eichstätt]

Manuscript catalogue of the ornithology collection of Prince Maximilian entitled: Catalog der ornithologischen Sammlung Seiner Kaiserlichen Hoheit des Herrn Herzogs Maximilian von Leuchtenberg Fürsten von Eichstaedt etc. etc. 1851/52 mit Aufnahme der Synonymen alphabetisch zusammengestellt, als Auszug aus d[em] in h[iesigem] Museo sich vorfindenden systematisch ausgeführten Haupt-Catalogue.

[Eichstätt, 1852] 1852

Description

Manuscript on paper, 4to (215 x 160 mm), pp [10] 272 [16, blank apart from ruling], text ruled in red throughout; contemporary cloth. £4000

A fascinating catalogue of the Ornithology Museum of Prince Maximilian of Eichstätt, describing some 3589 specimens, principally exotic birds, including specimens from Australia, Southeast Asia, and the South Seas.

Provenance: Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg and Prince of Eichstätt (1817-52), heir of the natural history, art, and book collections of his father Eugène de Beauharnais; in 1839 Maximilian married Maria Nikolajewna, daughter of the Czar Nicholas I, and subsequently received many specimens for his collection from the Czar, including some of the birds listed in the above. Upon his death in 1852 the collection passed to the State of Bavaria, and was moved in 1858 to Munich. It was destroyed in 1944

See F.X. Mayr, ‘Das Leuchtenbergsche Naturalienkabinett in Eichstätt’ in Sammelblatt des Historischen Vereins Eichstätt 68, 1975, pp 43-53

GBP 4000.00

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