Memoires de la Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou. Tome Cinquieme, Volume 5, covering 1816/1817, printed in  1817. The book is complete with 16 full-page plates. About plants, insects, fish, mammals, etc. From the contents: Comte G. de Razoumowsky; Baron Marschall de Bieberstein on Amaranthes, Prof. C Sprengel on Umbelliferas; C. Steven on Plantas Rossicas; G. Fischer, C P Thunberg (5 articles); M F Adams: Plants and Insects of Siberia; C L Goldbach: 2 articles; Erik Acharius: 2 articles; Joseph Liboschutz; Des Vaux; Bojanus; etc. 

472pp plus a section with 16 plates of which 3 in color and 1 large fold-out with 6 Figures with various Trypethelium. Size of the book: 8 1/2” x 10".

Book Condition: Unbound, with an almost loose separate section with the 16 plates. Binding is tight, fine quality cotton-like paper, no foxing. Corners of pages of front signature are a tad bumped. Text in French, Latin, Russian and German. [Memoirs of the Moscow Imperial Society of Naturalists. Volume 5.] Book is RARE!  

In the inside front cover is the signature of the previous owner, namely Friedrich Theodor Köppen, a quite famous Russian scientist. Friedrich Theodor Köppen [Fiodor Pietrowicz Koppen] (b. December 30, 1833 year in Karabakh in the Crimea , d. May 24, 1908, at St. Petersburg) was a Russian entomologist, botanist, geographer and bibliographer, and a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. 

In 1817 the Russian state was still suffering from the effects of the invasion by Napoleon. Therefore the Director of the Society had to find financing for the printing of the book elsewhere. Financiers became Zoe Pavlovich Zosima and his brother, wealthy Greek merchants, and philanthropists.