| Item Description: | Richard Ramer, bookseller, description: Later plain wrappers with title in manuscript on front cover in hand of António Passos. Small typographical vignette on title page, typographical headpiece on page 3. Signature on title page and page 3 of António Passos. First edition in Portuguese of the very popular treatise on canaries, published in French and also translated into English, German, and Italian. The first edition in French was "Nouveau traité des serins de canarie," Paris, 1705. This volume includes sections on breeding, the illnesses of canaries and their remedies, and how t teach the birds to sing. When canaries were introduce to European nobility in the late fifteenth century, singing birds became all the rage. This work seem to have been the first dedicated wholly to canaries. Hervieux de Chanteloup (1683-1747) was inspecteur des bois à batir in Paris, and was in charge of the Princesse de Condé's canaries. |
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