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Vieillot (1 Viewer)

A quite complicated issue...

Télégr. Litt. ou Corresp. Libr., 25 Nov 1807 - https://books.google.be/books?id=8TEQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA189
Cet Ouvrage est publié par Souscription et par Livraisonsn composées chacune de six planches et du texte. Il en paraît réguliérement une livraison le premier de chaque mois, à compter du 1er Septembre 1807, et il n'est rien payé d avance.
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Note present tense ("is being published"). Monthly, starting date 1 Sep 1807. Given on 25 Nov 1807, this amounts to a statement that two livraisons had already appeared.


J. Typogr. Bibliogr., 28 Dec 1807 - https://books.google.be/books?id=-jERAAAAIAAJ&pg=PT4
Cet Ouvrage sera publié par Sousription et par Livraison, composées chacune de six Planches et du Texte. Il paroîtra régulièrement une Livraison le premier de chaque mois, à commencer du 1er décembre 1807, et il ne sera rien payé d'avance.
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Future tense ("will be published"). Monthly, starting date changed to 1 Dec 1807. (Typo? This is the only place where I find Dec mentioned.) (Read by Richmond as indicating publication had started 1 Dec 1807.)


Mercure de France, 9 Jul 1808 - https://books.google.be/books?id=kywXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA95
Cet ouvrage sera publié par souscription et par livraisons composées chacune de six planches et du texte. Il en paraîtra réguliérement une livraison le premier de chaque mois, à commencer du 1er septembre 1807, et il ne sera rien payé d'avance.
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Future tense. Monthly, starting date back to 1 Sep 1807. (Edward actually misquoted this in his note (link in Martin's post above) as announcing the publication for 1 Sep 1808; this is not what it does.)


J. Typogr. Bibliogr., 21 Nov 1808 - https://books.google.be/books?id=LzIRAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA295-IA1
Deuxième livraison, format grand in-folio, sur papier vélin superfin dit Non-de-Jésus.
Cet Ouvrage se publie par souscription et par livraisons composées chacune de six planches et du texte. Il en paroît régulièrement une livraison le premier de chaque mois.
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Present tense. Monthly, no starting date indicated. Second livraison only...?


PJ De Mat's bookseller's catalogue, dated 1808 - https://books.google.be/books?id=Oa4_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA139
Cet ouvrage sera publié par souscription et par livraison composée chacune de six planches et du texte; il en paraîtra régulièrement une livraison le 1er de chaque mois, à commencer du 1er septembre 1807, et il ne sera rien payé d'avance; chaque livraison, sur papier vélin superfin, dit Nom-de-Jésus, figures coloriées, est de 30 liv. pour les souscripteurs. Les 10 premières livraisons sont en vente
Le même, 10 livraisons, sur papier vélin superfin, fig. en noir, à 20 liv.
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Future tense. Monthly, starting date again 1 Sep 1807. 10 livraisons already available for sale...?
 
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A wrapper.
(Got this from somewhere on the Web a while ago, but I don't seem to be able to relocate the source right now.)
Vol. 1, Livr. 2.
Starting date given here in print as "1er août 1807" (1 Aug 1807), with the month crossed and corrected in handwriting to "septembre" (i.e., 1 Sep 1807 again). (I have a hard time understanding the reason for this correction if the publication had not started in Sep 1807 -- and this livraison was actually published in the fall of 1808 as suggested by the 4th link in my last post.)
 

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As I see it:

- The publication process is described as one livraison on the first day of each month, starting 1 Sep 1807, in three distinct published statements, as well as on the hand-corrected wrapper (= 4 congruent sources).
- An additional published statement says the same thing, but with a start in Dec instead of Sep; but, as statements issued both before and after it all say Sep, the odds that this was a simple mistake may be high.
- A start on 1 Sep 1807 would place Livr. 10 on 1 Jun 1808, which is compatible with the bookseller's catalogue offering 10 livraisons for sale in 1808. (A start on 1 Dec would be compatible with the catalogue as well.)

- All of the above clashes, however, with the apparent announcement of Livr. 2 in Nov 1808. Livr. 2 having been published at that time would make the other statements describing the publication process all incorrect, would make the hand-written date correction on the wrapper impossible to understand, and would obviously make it impossible that 10 livraisons were available for sale before the end of 1808.
 
Wow!!

Could it be that the wrapper is an advert, corrected from an earlier promised issue date to a later promised issue date, and they failed to keep the second promise too? If my (very poor!) French is right, I'm reading that as "to begin on 1st [August] September 1807"?

There they are in late August all getting ready to print, and a vital part in the printing press breaks, six months to get the spare part . . . ?? Could it be?
 
Nutcracker said:
Could it be?
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August is probably what they initially intended to do (whether they 'promised' it in an advert of some sort, or not), and they presumably had printed a large number of wrappers like this one (with spaces left empty at the top to add the volume / livraison numbers of what they would wrap) before publication began. Then some delay arose and Aug became Sep.
But it seems quite improbable to me that the empty spaces on the wrappers would have been filled in advance (e.g., a wrapper being filled as "TOME 1er - 2e Livraison" before the publication of livr. 1 actually occurred). I would expect a wrapper for livr. 2 to have been filled at the time of dispatching of livr. 2 -- a time at which the publication of livr. 1 should in principle have ceased to be a promise -- and the hand-written date correction to have been made at the same time and by the same person.
 
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Two more published statements:

J. Paris, 21 Jan 1808 -- https://books.google.be/books?id=jL2sJxbUCAsC&pg=RA2-PA161
Cet Ouvrage sera publié par Souscription & par Livraisons composées chacune de 6 planches & du texte. Il en paroîtra régulierement une Livraison le 1er de chaque mois à commencer du 1er décembre 1807, & il ne sera rien payé d'avance.
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J. Paris, 26 Nov 1808 -- https://books.google.be/books?id=lVkwiJt6j8kC&pg=PA2387
Deuxième livraison, format grand in-fol., sur papier velin super fin, dit nom de Jesus. Cet ouvrage se publie par souscription & par livraisons composées chacune de 6 planches & du texte. ll en paroît régulièrement une livraison le 1er de chaque mois.
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(These are identical to J. Typogr. Bibliogr., respectively 28 Dec 1807 and 21 Nov 1808 -- presumably the same text, that was in both cases sent by the publisher to both journals.)
 
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Also...

Gazette de France, 20 Feb 1808 -- https://www.retronews.fr/journal/gazette-de-france/20-fevrier-1808/375/1543881/4
Cet ouvrage sera publié par souscription et par livraisons composées chacune de six planches et du texte. Il en paroitra régulierement une livraison le premier de chaque mois, et il ne sera rien payé d'avance.
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(Basically identical to J. Typogr. Bibliogr., 28 Dec 1807 and J. Paris, 21 Jan 1808, except that the starting date of 1 Dec 1807 has been deleted.)


Gazette nationale ou Moniteur universel, 11 Feb 1809 -- https://www.retronews.fr/journal/ga...iteur-universel/11-fevrier-1809/149/2235881/4
Deuxième livraison, format grand in-folio, sur papier vélin superfin, dit nom de jésus.
Cet ouvrage se publie par souscription et par livraisons, composées chacune de 6 planches et du texte.
ll en paraît régulirement une livraison le 1er de chaque mois.
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(Identical to J. Typogr. Bibliogr., 21 Nov 1808, and J. Paris, 26 Nov 1808, including the announcement of the second livraison, despite being several months later.)
 
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Télégr. Litt. ou Corresp. Libr., 15 Oct 1808 -- https://books.google.be/books?id=1jAQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA158
IIe LIVRAISON, grand in folio, sur papier vélin superfin dit nom de Jésus. Cet Ouvrage se publie par souscription et par livraisons composées chacune de six planches et du texte. Il en parait réguliérement une livraison le premier de chaque mois.
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This is one more version of the text announcing the "second livraison", this one earlier than the three others already listed above. As a recapitulation:
  • Télégr. Litt. ou Corresp. Libr., 15 Oct 1808,
  • J. Typogr. Bibliogr., 21 Nov 1808,
  • J. Paris, 26 Nov 1808,
  • Gaz. Nat. ou Mon. Univ, 11 Feb 1809.
So we have announcements of what would appear to be the same single "second livraison" (out of 22, with nothing at all issued about any of the others), published in at least four different journals, with nearly 4 months between the first and last publication (a period over which several more livraisons of the work should in principle have appeared) -- which is starting to be seriously odd, methinks.
Wondering if somehow they did not intend to announce the second volume (i.e., series of livraisons)...?



Allgemeines Verzeichniss der Bücher, welche in der Frankfurter und Leipziger Ostermesse des 1808 Jahres entweder ganz neu gedruckt, oder sonst verbessert wieder augelegt worden sind, auch inskünstige noch herauskommen sollen. [General list of books, which were either fully newly printed, or else were issued again improved, or should also come out cheaply, at the Frankfurt & Leipzig Easter Fair of the year 1808.] Weidmann, Leipzig. -- https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000010567647&view=1up&seq=250
This lists:
Hisſtoire naturelle des Oiſeaux de l'Amérique ſeptentrionale, depuis Saint-Domingue jusqu'à la Baie d'Hudſon, cont. plus. genres nouveaux, l'hiſtoire et les moeurs de plus - de 400 eſpèces etc. par M. L. P. Vieillot. Ouvr. orné d'environ 250 planches deſ. et grav. par les plus habiles - artiſtes de Paris, imprim. en couleurs et retouch. au pinceau. grand-in fol.ſur pap. vélin ſuperfin, dit nom de Jéſus. Livr. 1 à 10 formant le 1er Volume.
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I.e., 10 livraisons, making up Vol. 1,
I gather that the Frankfurter und Leipziger Ostermesse in 1808 was on 8 May...
 
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Very strange! Perhaps Mr. Vieillot delivered them all personally, walking to each address in turn, with the copies in a pack on the back of a donkey 3:)

Excellent digging work, thanks!
 
Edward Dickinson has asked me to draw attention to the short note, attached below, that he published following the completion of Priority!

He has also noted that any single date given by a bookseller is incorrect as there was a series of livraisons making up the claimed two volumes. I am also attaching an image of a wrapper of the first livraison; Laurent attached an image of the wrapper of the second. At the top of both pages you will see that the wrappers were designed to be able to be used for every livraison (i.e. printed in quantity to keep costs down) as there are two spaces: one for the volume number and one for the livraison number. There is no space for a date of issue of the livraison to be inserted. Both covers have had the month but not the year of publication of the first livraison changed (by the same hand).

Edward also pointed me to a past Opinion from the ICZN, responding to an earlier proposal, which suggests that the dates of publication of some livraisons were known or assumed:
ICZN (1998). Opinion 1893. Bombycilla cedrorum Vieillot [1808] and Troglodytes aedon Vieillot [1809] (Aves, Passeriformes): specific names conserved. -- Bull. Zool. Nomen. 55: 62–63.​
 

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Through Op. 67 https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34612864 and Dir. 81 https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34611550 , Vireo is also on the Official List as dating from 1807 and being available from p. 83 of Vieillot's Oiseaux de l'Amérique septentrionale https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/47004238
This is the text to pl. 52 -- which, if no departure occurred from the scheduled 6 plates / livraison, should have been in Livr. 8 -- it seems almost impossible that this page was published in 1807.
(As an aside, Vireo occurs as well on pp. iii-iv of the book https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/47004085 , which, being the text to plate 1, might have been expected to be in Livr. 1... Except that this seems contradicted by the list of Errata which appears at the bottom of p. iv and covers typos that range up to p. 65 -- that is, the text to pl. 34 = Livr. 6...? This list of Errata has been regarded as evidence that pp. iii-iv could not have been published before the publication of p. 65, thus of Livr. 6. (Although, strictly speaking, it only proves that these pages were not printed before the printing of p. 65, which is arguably somewhat different.))

The wrapper is interesting. Same correction of the starting date of the publication process (août 1807 => septembre 1807), apparently by the same writer, indeed. It would be interesting as well to know if this correction continued to be present on wrappers of later livraisons.

A link to Edward's note (on ResearchGate) was already given in post #4 by Martin.
But the conclusion of this note is, I fear, problematic, because the main premise was that the 9 Jul 1808 notice in Mercure de France (3rd link in post #5) announced a delayed start of the publication for the next 1 Sep... While in fact, this notice "announced" a start of the publication on 1 Sep of the previous year (1807, not 1808). (Which is earlier, rather than later, than the date which has most commonly been accepted (1 Dec 1807), but matches the date that was given in the quite detailed prospectus published in Nov 1807 in the Télégraphe littéraire, and the hand-written correction of the starting date on the two wrappers. (As well as the starting date stated in the bookseller's catalogue, which may have been quoted from the wrappers.))
 
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Edward C. Dickinson (2016) Reinforcing the foundations of ornithological nomenclature: Filling the gaps in Sherborn's and Richmond's historical legacy of bibliographic exploration. ZooKeys 550:107-134:
[...]
The Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de l’Amerique septentrionale of Vieillot: was discussed by Richmond (1899) who mistakenly believed, and seems to have led Browning and Monroe (1991) to believe, that the first part was published on 1 December, 1807. In fact what Richmond saw was merely an announcement that appeared four weeks after that saying it “will be published” on that date. A later notice in July 1808 changes the story and said that it “will be published” on 1 September 1808. The date of each part that was suggested by Browning and Monroe was a merely a projection of a very rapid, and almost certainly over-optimistic, timetable based on a start date that was at least nine months out. Indeed, based on the delay of the first part, it is extremely unlikely that subsequent issues followed on schedule every month. But here we have no correct dates to use and for the moment the incorrect dates are retained to avoid premature changes to nomenclatural stability (Dickinson 2011).
[...]

[here, on p.123]​
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If still in need/of any help?

/B
 
Calalp said:
A later notice in July 1808 changes the story and said that it “will be published” on 1 September 1808.
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No, it did not. It said 1 Sep 1807.
 

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