J. Michelet / H. Giocomelli - L'Insecte - 1876

Superb edition in its beautiful publisher’s hardcover binding and illustrated with 140 wood engravings of this work at the crossroads of natural science, philosophical meditation, and poetic prose, in which Michelet undertakes to rehabilitate the insect in the eyes of humans by revealing its complexity, ecological role, and symbolic scope -

The author aims to describe with precision the anatomical organization and metamorphoses of insects, stressing their prodigious diversity, their adaptation to environments, and their instinctive ingenuity, which he interprets as a form of natural intelligence inscribed in the order of living beings -

He devotes detailed pages to bees, ants, butterflies, and beetles, highlighting their structured societies, construction techniques, and transformation cycles, notably the spectacular metamorphosis of the caterpillar into a butterfly which he elevates as a symbol of ascent and renewal -

Michelet opposes the apparent smallness of these creatures to the grandeur of their function in the balance of nature, insisting on their role in pollination, decomposition, and the continuity of life -

J. Michelet / H. Giocomelli - L'Insecte - 1876 - Hachette et Cie -
463 p

Good condition of the binding, book in its full red publisher’s hardcover, minor wear, heads and corners worn, handsome gilt edges, smooth spine nicely decorated, gold lines and illustrations on the first cover, black lines and motifs on the second -

Good interior condition, some foxing, title page printed in red and black, book enriched with 140 wood engravings in text and plates, including a frontispiece after designs by H. Giocomelli, modern endpapers in good condition -

Delivery service available within a few days -