Oryktographia Norica

Johann Jakob Baier (1677-1735) was a practicing physician and professor of medicine in Nuremberg, but his most important contributions to science were in the field of oryctography, as the combined study of geology and paleontology was called in his day. In this book, he presented a new systematic attempt to organize minerals into a coherent classification and made major advances in disproving the idea that fossils were merely sports of nature, thus laying the foundations for the investigation of Jurassic fauna and of scientific paleontology in general. The six engraved plates illustrate 300 fossils. This is the only copy of the book in the Washington, DC area.