Bonnaterre, L'abbe Pierre Joseph (1747-1804), Entomology Category

Bonnaterre was a French naturalist, a priest in the Rouergue, and a professor at the school of Rhodes. The publisher Panckouke employed him to contribute to this work, the “Tableau encyclopedique et methodique des trios regnes de la nature”, which was the largest encyclopedia of the enlightenment. It covered all aspects of the natural world, in the comprehensive mode that was very much the driving force of the era. Bonnaterre worked on the Natural History part of the encyclopedia in the areas of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and insects. He composed extensive text for the part on fish, and collected drawings from Bloch, Gronovius, Broussonet, Pennant and others, of more than 400 species.

Prints from this publication are quite rare, and feature expert later hand coloring