Claus Nissen (1901-1975), librarian and historian of scientific illustration, published with Hiersemann, in Stuttgart, the three bibliographies that bear his name: Die botanische Buchillustration. Ihre Geschichte und Bibliographie (1951, two volumes; second edition with supplement in 1966), Die illustrierten Vogelbücher. Ihre Geschichte und Bibliographie (1953) and Die zoologische Buchillustration. Ihre Bibliographie und Geschichte (1966-1978, two volumes). Each series combines the bibliography with a history of illustration, from printed fifteenth-century herbals to twentieth-century chromolithographed plates, which makes Nissen a work to be read as much as consulted.
Nissen is cited by its abbreviation and entry number: "Nissen BBI 1234", "Nissen IVB 567", "Nissen ZBI 2345". The entry identifies the edition, counts the plates and gives their technique (wood engraving, copperplate, lithography, hand colouring), names the artists and engravers, and notes successive editions and translations. The reference guarantees that the edition is recorded and that its number of plates is known, which allows the completeness of a copy to be verified; it says nothing of the quality of the colouring, the states, or the provenance.
Its limitations: incomplete or misread titles for French editions, sometimes approximate plate counts for the major series, and foreign series (books of fishes, insects, minerals) treated unevenly within the zoology volumes. Nissen is supplemented by Pritzel for early botany, by Dunthorne and Sitwell for the great flower books, by the catalogue of the British Museum (Natural History) for bibliographical description, and by artist monographs (Redouté, Audubon, Gould) where these exist.
