Description
First edition of Muybridge’s Complete Human and Animal Locomotion in three volumes.
Folio, [three volumes], xlii, 629pp; [2], 632-1139pp; [2], 1142-1597pp. Gray cloth, title in gilt on spines. Stated “Dover edition, first published in 1979” on copyright pages. Solid text blocks, slight bow to front covers. In the publisher’s dust jackets, clothbound set retail price $100.00 on front flap, shelf wear. Some foxing and small dampstain to bottom edge of verso of all three volumes. A nice set containing all eleven original volumes: [1 & 2] Males (Nude), [3 & 4] Females (Nude), [5] Males (Pelvis Cloth), [6] Females (Semi-Nude & Transparent Drapery) & Children, [7] Males & Females (Draped) & Miscellaneous Subjects, [8] Abnormal Movements, Males & Females (Nude & Semi-Nude), [9] Horses, [10] Domestic Animals, [11] Wild Animals & Birds, plus the Original Prospectus & Catalogue of Plates.
Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) pioneered the field of chronophotography of animal locomotion with his plates originally published in 1887. From 1878 to 1886, Muybridge used multiple cameras to shoot different positions of a stride, eventually sequencing the images in a zoopraxiscope to project so the subject appeared to move. All of Muybridge’s work contributed to the technology patented in 1888 and 1891, which photographed a scene multiple times instantaneously on a celluloid strip to project as a movie.
