1831 SNAKES Skinks - Large Folio - hand coloured engraving for Oken - Reptiles

Fine hand colour.

Very good. Clean with excellent original hand colour.

32 x 24.6 cm

Published in 1831

Lorenz Oken (1779-1851), was a German transcendental naturalist, philosopher & physician. Born Okenfuss, the son of a farmer, he simplified his name to Oken while at medical school in Freiburg, Bavaria. From professor of Medicine at the University of Jena, he soon turned to philosophy & the natural sciences, publishing a controversial journal “Isis” for almost 30 years.

The journal was banned for a time in Jena & Oken was obliged to resign from his post of professor. After a short & contentious sojourn as a professor of Physiology at the University of Munich he became a professor of Natural History at the newly founded University of Zürich, holding this post until his death.

He was influenced by Pythagorean mysticism, becoming a self-proclaimed pantheist. In his time, this German physician, philosopher, and mystic was considered a brilliant thinker by many Americans, including the New England transcendentalists. To Oken, God exhibited himself in nature, and when God meets man he meets himself, for man is a god created by God.

Oken was a prolific & vocal writer, lecturer and theorist, publishing many philosophical treatises during his life. His masterpiece and lasting legacy to the world is the 13-volume "Naturgeschichte für alle Stände" (Natural History for all Social Ranks), first published in 1831.