Michele Stasi, 1778. Second Napoli edition, corrected and enlarged. VOLUME ONE ONLY (of 7). Octavo. pp 3 p.l., iii-viii, 1-180 + frontispice portrait + folding plate at page 8 (medallions) + 16 folding plates (mostly of insects). Decorated title page, vignette head piece, decorated initial. Bound in contemporary parchment, spine gilt lettered with label, sprinkled page edges, bound-in ribbon marker. Minor soiling to covers; folded frontispiece has nicks and browning at the fore edge (not affecting the image); small dark oval rubber stamp to a blank area of the title page; occasional light foxing and minute pencil marginalia in text; in all a nice copy, clean, tight in the binding, all the folding plates clean, unworn, with untrimmed bottom edges. Text is in Italian. This volume includes a life of Redi by Salvino Salvini (pp 1-28), ESPERIENZE INTORNO ALL GENERAZIONE DE GL' INSETTI (pp 29-142), OSSERVAZIONI INTORNO A'PELLICELLI DEL CORPO UMANO (pp143-46), additions and corrections, (pp 149-63), plus a Tavola of the plates, and an index. The first work, first published in Florence in 1668, is one of the most important books in the history of science (Horblitt 100 Books Famous in Science, #88). With it, he disproved the theory of the spontaneous generation of insects. Redi was a distinguished Italian naturalist and poet.