MUYBRIDGE, Eadweard

Descriptive Zoopraxography or the Science of Animal Locomotion...

First edition. Hinges professionally and seamlessly reinforced and the tips of the cloth spine ends restored, a nice, very good plus copy. Published to commemorate a course of two lectures delivered by Muybridge at the University of Pennsylvania and illustrated with engravings of athletes and animals running, jumping etc. This volume reproduces on several preliminary pages the signatures of those who originally subscribed to the author's landmark work Animal Locomotion. Muybridge's history of his own photographic studies of animal movement, which he initiated at the behest of Governor Leland Stanford, who wanted to win a bet as to whether all four of a horse's feet were off the ground while trotting. Muybridge, a Government photographer assigned to the Pacific Coast, ingeniously set up a track with a series of still cameras along the edge, with their shutters attached to strings. As the horse ran past, each string would break, releasing the shutter. Governor Stanford won the bet, but more importantly, Muybridge further refined his technique for capturing and displaying motion through photography, working from 1884 through 1887 at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to providing this crucial link between still photography and motion pictures, Muybridge actively promoted this new technology through lecture tours and commercial offerings. This copy is Inscribed by Muybridge to a noted publisher of photographic stereocards: "George Ennis with the compliments of The Author. University of Pennsylvania. 9 June 1894." Books inscribed by Muybridge are rare -- only one other copy has been offered at auction in the last quarter century.

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