
NATURAL HISTORY
A-E F-R S-Z
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Agriculture & Apiaries
Alamanni, Luigi. La coltivazione et gli epigrammi ... e Le api di Giovanni Rucellai, geniluomini Fiorentini; colle annotazioni del Signor Dottor Giuseppe Bianchini. Venezia: Stamperia Remondini, 1756. 8vo (17.5 cm, 6.8"). Frontis., 96, [2], 280 pp.
$200.00
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Two long didactic poems, one on agriculture and one on bees (originally published in 1546 and 1539, respectively), each an important example of the form in Italian, here in a later edition.
While Rucellai's piece appeared first, Alamanni's contains more original material and less content directly derived from Vergil; both works appear here with extensive notes and with attractive woodcut headpieces and capitals, following
a title-page printed in red and black and an engraved portrait of Alamanni.
WorldCat lists no U.S. institutional holdings of this edition.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Goldsmiths'-Kress 9103.0-1. 19th-century quarter diced brown sheep with marbled paper sides done in imitation of tree calf; spine gilt-stamped with title and decorative bands; corners bumped and leather lightly worn, foot of spine discolored from a now-absent label, red-inked onetime price note on fly-leaf, otherwise clean and fresh. Title-page with outer portion restored and one letter supplied; some occasional light spotting or staining but text really quite clean. A nice old book. (37453)

A Walk to Remember
American Sunday-School Union. The Broken bough. Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, [between 1827 and 1853?]. 32mo (10.8 cm; 4.25"). 16 pp.; illus.
$45.00
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Charles learns new things about Christianity during a walk home with his brother and teacher, who matches scripture with the different parts of nature they experience. There are
three in-text wood engravings, the one on p. [3] signed “GG,” i.e., George Gilbert.
Front wrapper notes the work has been “revised by the Committee of Publication of the American Sunday-school Union”; back wrapper contains a hymn. Publication date is from the American Antiquarian Society OPAC.
Original beige printed wrappers, spotted/foxed; text with light to moderate foxing. (36573)

The Fun & Philosophy of Fishing
[Anderdon, John Lavicount]. The river dove, with some quiet thoughts on the happy practice of angling. London: William Pickering, 1847. 12mo (17 cm, 7"). iv, 296 pp., [1 (adv.)] f.
$250.00
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First Pickering edition, reprinted from the 1845 privately printed edition that consisted of only 25 copies. The text is a conversation on angling in the style of Izaac Walton and Charles Cotton.
Keynes p. 49. Not in Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering. Publisher's green cloth, spine sunned to olive and pulled with a little loss at head. Text block split at center, though firm in binding; text clean.
Withall a good copy. (40242)

Medical Climatology
Arbuthnot, John; Pierre Boyer de Prébandier, trans. Essai des effets de l'air, sur le corps-humain. Paris: Jacques Barois, fils, 1742. 8vo (horizontal chain lines; 17 cm, 6.75"). xxiv, 320 pp.
$400.00
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Medical climatology and the causes of diseases are at the heart of Arbuthnot's work offered here in the second printing of Pierre Boyer de Prébandier's French translation. Arbuthnot (1667–1735), a Scottish medical doctor, political satirist, and friend and collaborator with Swift on several publications, was rather successful in all he turned his hand to.Boyer de Prébandier's translation is of An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies, first published in London in 1733.
Provenance: From the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
Of special note, at least as far as this cataloguer (DMS) is concerned, are the references on pp. 108–12 to
chocolate, coffee, and tea.
Wellcome Catalogue, II, 52. Contemporary polished tan calf, round spine, raised bands, gilt spine extra; plain sides, marbled endpapers, all edges red, blue silk ribbon placemarker. Both joints (outside) open along top compartment; binding solid, however, with volume internally clean. A nice copy. (39841)

The “BIRDS in Miniature” with their
Better “Habitats”
Audubon, John James, & William MacGillivray. The birds of America, from drawings made in the United States and their territories. New York: V.G. Audubon, Roe Lockwood & Son, 1859. 8vo (27.5 cm; 10.875"). 7 vols. I: [iii]–viii, [1], 12–246 pp., 70 plts. II: [iii]–vii, [2], 12–199 pp., 71–140 plts. III: [iii]–viii, [1], 10–233 pp., 141–210 plts. IV: [iii]–viii, [1], 10–321 pp., 211–280 plts. V: [iii]–viii, [1], 10–346 pp., 281–350 plts. VI: [iii]–viii, [1], 10–456 pp., 351–420 plts. VII: vii, [2], 10–372 pp., 421–500 plts.
$27,500.00
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After Audubon (1785–1851) completed his landmark work The Birds of America and collaborated with Scottish naturalist William MacGillivray (1796–1852) to write the accompanying text Ornithological Biography, he elected to produce a “popular” edition by combining the images and text in an elegant and portable format — the octavo.
For this essentially new work Audubon increased the number of colored plates from 435 to 500, reordered the text, and edited the content to include more ornithological information and less travel narration. Plates were produced through the camera lucida process, using a prism to trace reverse images from the elephant folio prints onto lithographic stones.
“The octavo edition of Audubon's Birds was probably the greatest commercial success of any color plate book issued in 19th-century America.” While it was not inexpensive, the price was such that the octavo “achieved widespread circulation and brought the work into the homes of many well-to-do Americans” (Reese, p. 58).
Present here is the third octavo edition, all title-pages bearing the date of 1859, and containing
500 fine hand-colored lithographed plates by Philadelphian J.T. Bowen after J.J. and J.W. Audubon. Ayer notes that where backgrounds were plain in the first octavo they were tinted in later ones and that some already tinted backgrounds were attractively altered, with plates
more closely approximating those of the elephant folio through the addition of more detailed scenery.
Catalogue of the Edward E. Ayer Ornithological Library, pp. 22–23; Reese, Stamped with a National Character, pp. 57–58. Brown publisher's leather, spine lettered in gilt and compartments with a blind device; covers triple-ruled and with an ornate arabesque frame containing the title, all in blind; binding lightly rubbed and refurbished. All edges gilt. One leaf with a curious internal closed tear, possibly created in the press, with no loss of text. Two pairs of plates transposed; five plates trimmed closely, in one case just touching type, in three cases with loss of publication information, and in one case with the line identifying the bird's perch partially lost in addition to partial loss of publication line.
An excellent set of a splendid edition of one of the most influential color plate books of the 19th century. (36084)

“My Style of Drawing Birds”
Audubon, John James. My style of drawing birds. Ardsley, New York: The Overland Press for The Haydn Foundation, 1979. Tall 8vo (29.2 cm; 11.5"). 26 pp., [2] ff., illus., facsims.
$45.00
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Consists of two essays: “My style of drawing birds,” published in M. Audubon's Audubon and his journals, 1897; and “Method of drawing birds,” published in the Edinburgh Journal of Science, v. 8, 1828. The original manuscript is presented in fine facsimile showing several authorial corrections and emendations of the first draft, and with a transcription and an introduction.
Limited to 400 copies.
Publisher's green cloth stamped and lettered in gilt, spine lightly sunned with slim discolorations to cloth around board edges. Smallest touches of a dark discoloration to base of half-title and front blank. With the limitation card. (40830)

BACON on
NATURE
Bacon, Francis. Sylva sylvarum, sive historia naturalis, in decem centurias distributa. Lug. Batavor.: Apud Franciscum Hackium, 1648. 12mo (12.9 cm, 5.1"). Add. engr. t.-p., [34], 612, [48], 87, [1] pp.
$700.00
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Compendium of scientific (and also quaintly “traditional”) knowledge: This wide-ranging gathering of interesting observations in natural history was first published posthumously by the author's chaplain and secretary, Dr. Rawley, in 1626, and appears here translated into Latin by Jacob Gruterus. The present edition was, as Willems puts it, “exécutée” at Leyden by Hackius for Elzevier; some examples bear Elzevier's imprint and some Hackius's. The Novus Atlas accompanies the title work, with both having prefaces by Rawley.
Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Alexander Oswald Brodie (not, please note, the American officer and governor of Arizona Territory); title-page with Brodie's inked inscription, dated 1839, Dresden.
Brunet, I, 604; Gibson, Bacon, 185b; Willems 1058. On Bacon, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary vellum with yapp edges, spine with early inked title; spine lettering rubbed, back cover darkened. Both pastedowns lifted, front pastedown with bookplate beneath; free endpapers lacking. Title-page with inscription as above; pages with a very few small scattered spots, almost entirely clean. A handsome copy. (30360)

Apiculture for Everyone — Including Women
Bagster, Samuel, the Younger. The management of bees. With a description of the “Ladies' Safety Hive.” London: Samuel Bagster & William Pickering, 1834. 8vo (17.1 cm, 6.75"). Col. frontis., xx, 244 pp.; illus.
[SOLD]
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First edition: A carefully and effectively summarized overview of beekeeping, utilizing not only the author's practical experience but also his familiarity with the writings of both older and more contemporary experts. Chapter titles include “On the Simplification of the Process of Managing Bees,” “Natural History of the Bee,” “Cottage System Explained,” On Swarms,” “The Old and New Methods of Unionizing Stocks Explained,” “The Ladies' Safety Hive Examined and Explained” (a new invention prompted by the author's wife's concern over being stung), and “General Directions for the Extraction of Honey and Wax.”
Printed by the author's father (a successful printer-bookseller known for his polyglot Bible), this volume opens with
a hand-colored frontispiece realistically depicting hive denizens in both magnified and life sizes, while the text is illustrated with wood engravings by D. Dodd after drawings “executed . . . from life” (p. ix) by Charles M. Curtis; the title-page is printed in red and black, and features a vignette of three ladies (in everyday dress) opening a beehive.
Provenance: Front pastedown with early inked inscription of H.G. Monro; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
NSTC 2B2258. Contemporary ribbon-embossed green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; spine sunned to olive, rubbing with front joint just starting from head and foot, front cover showing faint circular imprint. Pages gently age-toned with occasional small spots and smudges, some corners faintly creased.
An appealing copy of the first edition, in original binding. (41127)

Pinax & Prodromus: Bauhin's History of Plants
Bauhin, Caspar. Caspari Bauhini ... Pinax theatri botanici: sive Index in Theophrasti Dioscoridis, Plinii et botanicorvm qui à seculo scripserunt opera ... Basileae: Joannis Regis, 1671. 4to (26.5 cm, 10.45"). [12] ff., 518 pp., [13] ff. [with the same author's] Caspari Bauhini ... Prodomos theatri botanici ... Basileae: Impensis Joannis Regis, 1671. 4to (26.5 cm, 10.45"). 160 pp., [6] ff.; illus.
$4000.00
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Two hugely influential botanical works, by a Swiss botanist, anatomist, and physician (1560–1624; sometimes given as Gaspard Bauhin). Bauhin herein catalogues close to 6,000 species, establishing a system which Printing & the Mind of Man calls “a most important scientific advance,” and using nomenclature later adopted by Linnaeus.
Bauhin's section on Zea mays is one of the earliest descriptions of New World maize, and was subsequently cited as such by Linnaeus.
The Prodomos is illustrated with just under
140 woodcuts depicting a wide variety of plants. Both works are here in their second, enlarged editions, following the original publications of Pinax in 1623 and Prodromus in 1620. The first title-page is printed in red and black, and both titles bear the printer's “Per angusta ad augusta” vignette.
Evidence of readership: Many of the woodcuts have additional names supplied in an early pencilled hand.
Pinax: Printing & the Mind of Man 121(for first edition of 1623); Brunet, I, 707; Pritzel 398 (first ed.); Alden & Landis 671/6; Nissen 104. Podomos: Alden & Landis 671/7; Krivatsy 947; Brunet, I, 707; Nissen 104. Neither work, in this edition, in Johnson, Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections. Contemporary half calf over speckled brown paper, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled compartments; binding worn overall, front cover with abrasions to paper, spine leather crinkled, label chipped. Page edges untrimmed. Foxing and browning as is just about always the case with this edition due to the paper used and impurities in the water during production; with intermittent lighter spotting and offsetting throughout. Occasional pencilled annotations; front
free endpaper with early ownership inscription and annotation. One leaf with tear from upper margin, extending into text with loss of a few letters, just barely touching image on reverse; one
leaf with tear from outer margin, extending into text without loss, partially repaired.
A copy clearly read and interacted with by a botanical-minded scholar. (34558)

Lions, Tigers, & Bears — Engraved
Bennett, Edward Turner; William Harvey, illus. The Tower menagerie: Comprising the natural history of the animals contained in that establishment; with anecdotes of their characters and history. London: Robert Jennings (pr. by Charles Whittingham, College House), 1829. 8vo (22.8 cm, 8.97"). xviii, 241, [1] pp.; illus.
$250.00
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First edition: Detailed accounts of the animals and birds of the Royal Menagerie at the Tower of London — not just the natural history of their species, but the specific temperaments and characteristics of
the individual creatures then living in the collection. The great cats, hyenas, wolves, bears, monkeys, elephants, eagles, vultures, owls, macaws, alligators, anacondas, etc. are
illustrated with “portraits of each, taken from life, by William Harvey; and engraved on wood by Branston and Wright.” This work marks the closing days of the 600-year history of the menagerie, as by 1832 all of the animals had been transferred into the care of the Zoological Society of London.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Contemporary quarter sheep and cream paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and date; binding rubbed overall with sides darkened and leather scuffed (particularly at joints). Hinges (inside) starting from top; still holding. Back pastedown with small ticket of F. Westley, binder. Pages faintly age-toned with a few scattered small smudges, otherwise clean; one leaf with short tear from lower margin, just touching last line of text without loss.
An enjoyable copy of this attractive Whittingham production, and from a good collection. (41296)

History of Malta & the Knights Hospitallers — Well Bound, Handsomely Illustrated
Boisgelin de Kerdu, Pierre Marie Louis de. Ancient and modern Malta: Containing a full and accurate account of the present state of the islands of Malta and Goza, the history of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, also a narrative of the events which attended the capture of these islands by the French, and their conquest by the English: and an appendix, containing authentic state-papers and other documents. London: Richard Phillips, 1805. 4to (27.5 cm, 10.75"). 2 vols. I: [6], xlviii, 326 pp.; 2 fold. plts., 3 fold. tables, 17 plts. (fold. map & 1 prelim. f. lacking). II: [8], vi, xxxi, [1], 258, [2], 315, [9 (index)] pp.; 5 plts.
$1600.00
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Second edition, following the first of 1804–05. The author, who was himself a Knight of St. John, here covers the culture, language, economy, natural history, and costume of the Maltese — as well as describing the Bichon or Maltese dog (also rendered pictorially in one of the plates) — before moving on to the history of the Hospitallers from the 16th century onwards.
Vol. I includes
catalogues of scientific names of the plants and fish of the area as according to various authors, and is illustrated with an
oversized, folding detailed view of the city and port of Malta (with an accompanying folding map identifying the major landmarks); at the back of that volume there are also two folding tables accounting for treasury expenses of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Vol. II features a view of Messina, along with several portraits. In total, the work is illustrated with
24 copper-engraved plates, some aquatint, done by Merigot and others.
Binding: Contemporary stained calf, panelled in dramatically mottled calf with inlaid corner fleurons, framed in gilt double fillets; spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped Greek key bands.
NSTC B3507; Abbey, Travel, 194. Bound as above with leather expectably acid-pitted, scuffing with small cracks and spine titles partially rubbed away; joints(outside) expertly repaired. Folding map and one preliminary leaf (the list of plates) lacking in vol. I, and this volume with a light old waterstain occasionally visible across a gutter, mild to moderate offsetting, plates with likewise mild to moderate foxing; vol. II plates with slightly darker spotting. A strong and attractive set of one of the significant early works on Maltese history. (33600)

A Fine, Substantial,
BOTANICAL Bibliography
Bridson, Gavin D.R. BPH-2, periodicals with botanical content. Pittsburgh: Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University, 2004. Stout 4to. 2 vols. I: xx, 819, [1] pp. II: [iv],821-1470 pp.
$95.00
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The State of
19th-Century Metaphysics
Brown, Thomas. Lectures on the philosophy of the human mind. Andover: Mark Newman (pr. by Flagg & Gould), 1822. 8vo (22.3 cm, 8.8"). 3 vols. I: 536 pp. II: 528 pp. III: 574, [2] pp.
$600.00
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First U.S. edition: Discussion of the characteristics and essence of thought, and
the relation of thought and philosophy to natural history, the sciences, and morality. Brown (1778–1820) was a Scottish philosopher, poet, and professor at the University of Edinburgh; this, his most significant work, went through 20 editions in the years following its initial Edinburgh publication in 1820.
Shoemaker 8196; NSTC 2B53063. Period-style quarter light grey cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spines with printed paper labels. One leaf with short tear from outer edge, not touching text. Pages age-toned with a scant handful of scattered small spots, otherwise
remarkably clean. (30339)

Buffon's Natural History in the “Short” Version: Four Volumes
“Upwards of Four Hundred Engravings on Wood”
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de; John Wright, ed. Buffon's natural history of the globe and of man; beasts, birds, fishes, reptiles, and insects. London: Printed for T.T. & J. Tegg (by C. Whittingham at the Chiswick Press), 1833. 12mo (16.8 cm, 6.6"). 4 vols. I: vi, 463, [1] pp.; illus. II: [2], 492 pp.; illus. III: [2], 476 pp.; illus. IV: [2], 470 pp.; illus.
[SOLD]
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Buffon was widely admired by the public for his numerous scientific publications, although his disagreement with the church's position on the age of the earth and his musings on the connections between men and apes did not earn him much support from contemporary scholars. His Histoire Naturelle, originally published in 15 volumes, is given here in an abridged rendition more suitable for “the rising generation” (p. vi), with additional material adapted “from the writings of . . . Cuvier, Lacépède and other eminent naturalists,” and also with “Elements of Botany.” Wright first published his version in 1831; this second Chiswick Press printing features
over 400 wood-engraved illustrations of birds, animals, and denizens of various lands, along with the title-page vignettes done by John Thompson after William Harvey.
Binding: Contemporary dark red textured roan, covers with gilt-stamped foliate cartouches; spines with gilt-stamped title, band decorations, and volume number; spines gently sunned and scuffed, board edges and extremities rubbed. All edges gilt.
Provenance: Inked ownership inscriptions of Clara Gibbons, one dated 1850; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabels (“AHA”) at rear.
NSTC 2L8393. This ed. not in Osborne. Vols. I and II with Gibbons inscription on front pastedown, vol. III on title-page, vol. IV without inscription; front hinge (inside) of vol. III starting from head, with text block pulling. Gentle age-toning, occasional light spotting; title-pages mildly foxed; a few leaves in vol. II affected by small spot of staining in upper margins, two of those leaves with resulting adhesion and loss of perhaps ten words (total). Pages overall clean.
A very nice set on shelf and in hand. (41038)

How to Treat & CURE
Tertian Fevers
Cleghorn, George. Observations on the epidemical diseases in Minorca. From the year 1744, to 1749. To which is prefixed, a short account of the climate, productions, inhabitants, and endemial distempers, of that island. London: Printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand; and G. Robinson, in Pater-Noster Row, 1779. 8vo (20.5 cm; 8.125"). [iii]–xxiv, 311 pp. Lacks half-title.
$400.00
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A descriptive, epidemiological account of Minorca based on letters exchanged between Cleghorn (1716–89) and physician John Fothergill (1712–80) while Cleghorn was stationed on Minorca as surgeon to the 22nd Regiment of Foot from 1736 to 1749, here in the fourth edition. Cleghorn, a Scotsman educated at the University of Edinburgh, went on to become the first Lecturer of Anatomy at the University of Dublin.
First printed in 1751, this landmark work on epidemiology contains previously unpublished descriptions of several diseases, such as epidemic jaundice, and was reprinted in 1767, 1768, 1779, and 1815. The DNB (online) notes “his extensive observations rendered the book essential reading for those going to practice in Minorca”; and, cast in the vivid first person as it is and as full of opinions on Minorca's “inhabitants” as it is, it must have been riveting reading as well for even non-medical stay-at-homes.
Provenance: W.G. Ramsay SO.CA. stamped at head of title-page; the “SO.CA.” may indicate “South Carolina” and associate this book with the physician son of David Ramsay — public official, historian of the American Revolution, and physician who introduced the smallpox vaccine in his region. (The younger Ramsay was particularly interested in racial differences, and not in what the 21st century would consider to be a good way.)
Evidence of readership: Three neatly pencilled short notes to the Introduction.
ESTC N10137; Garrison & Morton 1674; On Cleghorn, see: DNB (online). Recent half navy blue buckram and blue marbled paper–covered boards, new endpapers; binding irregularly sized and half-title lacking. Title-page heavily repaired with former owner's signature excised from top right corner. Light to moderate age-toning and waterstaining with the occasional spot; first gathering darkened and partially detached.
Medical practice here is an adventure. (36126)

Apes, Foxes, Crabs, ETC. — Clean, Fresh Copy
A collection of fables, for the instruction and amusement of little misses & masters. Adorned with cuts. York: Printed by J. Kendrew, [ca. 1820]. Near miniature (10 cm, 3.875"). 32 pp.; illus.
$150.00
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Penny chapbook of instructive, Aesopian animal fables (many in rhyme), first published in 1760 and here illustrated with
23 woodcuts. The work, from Kendrew of York, opens with upper- and lower-case alphabets in both roman and italic.Provenance: From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.
Osborne Collection p. 2; Davis, Kendrew of York, 6; Gumuchian 1790. Publisher's printed paper wrappers, front one with an accidental enclosure between wrapper and affixed frontispiece revealed by a small bump; removed from a nonce volume with sewing holes showing, and with evidence by way of the enduring impression of its long-felt pressure that this was therein bound with something smaller following it. A little dust-soiling to some bumped lower corners, towards end, and last page with old spot/adhesion; otherwise
remarkably clean and apparently
unread unless by a very careful child. (38807)

DARWIN on
How & Why Plants Twine
Darwin, Charles. The power of movement in plants. London: John Murray, 1880. 8vo (19.5 cm, 7.65"). x, 592, 32 (adv.) pp.; illus.
[SOLD]
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First edition of Darwin's examination of the mechanisms of motion in flowering plants, a follow-up to his work on climbing plants — based on experiments conducted with the assistance of his son Francis Darwin, and mentioning natural selection as a possible explanation for plants' ability to bend towards or away from environmental stimuli (pp. 569/70). The volume is illustrated with
numerous in-text engravings of circumnutation patterns, plant structures, diurnal and nocturnal leaf positions, tropisms, etc. This is the first issue of the first edition, with two lines of errata on p. x and publisher's advertisements at the back dated 1878.
NSTC 0174363. Publisher's textured green cloth, covers framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; faint discoloration to outer edge of front cover and lower outer corner of back cover, tiny spots of insect damage near joints (one carrying through about 60 pp., not touching text). Hinges (inside) tender, as is often seen with this book, with pastedowns and free endpapers showing evidence of past dampness in lower portions, not affecting interior; two leaves with corners lost away from text. Title-page with early inked ownership inscription in upper portion, first text page (only) with pencilled marks of emphasis; pages clean. British bookseller's invoice from 1983 laid in. A pleasing copy. (30671)

A Bewick-Illustrated Juvenile Reader — Abbey Bookplate
Day, Thomas, et al.; John Bewick, illus. The children's miscellany: In which is included the history of Little Jack. London: Pr. for John Stockdale, 1797. 12mo (17.7 cm, 7"). Frontis., v, [1], 325, [5 (adv.)] pp.; illus.
$650.00
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Entertaining and educational reading for children, offering a mixture of moralizing stories, natural history (with descriptions of elephants and rhinoceroses), and poems (including “The Diverting History of John Gilpin” and “Gray's Elegy”). The volume opens with Day's popular “Little Jack,” which had originally been written for the 1788 first edition of this collection, and closes with “The History of Philip Quarll” — a version of The Hermit, one of the more successful Robinsonades.
The copperplate frontispiece was engraved after M. Brown (dated 1787), and
the 28 in-text vignettes were wood-engraved by John Bewick. The collection was first published by Stockdale in 1788, and expanded for his 1790 printing; the present edition marks the second appearance of Bewick's illustrations.
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of author, critic, and librarian Sir Edmund William Gosse (bookplate done by Edwin Austin Abbey); most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Osborne Collection, p. 1043 (for 1790 ed., p. 409 for first ed.); Hugo, Bewick Collector (suppl., 1970 ed.) no. 4090; ESTC T165228; Gumuchian 2091. Contemporary mottled sheep, rebacked some time ago with tan sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled compartments, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; rubbed overall, sides with expectable acid-pitting. Light offsetting to title-page from frontispiece; minor to moderate offsetting in text throughout, with occasional spots of foxing.
Well-executed work by Bewick and interesting reading to boot. (41045)

More Than 1000 Illustrations by
Pieter van der Borcht
& with Evidence of Readership
Dodoens, Rembert. Remberti Dodonaei Mechliniensis medici caesari Stirpium historiae pemptades sex sive libri XXX. Antuerpiae: Ex officina
Christophori Plantini, 1583. Folio (36 cm; 14"). [10] ff., 860 pp., [13] ff., illus.
$8500.00
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Written and printed during the second decade of the Dutch Golden Age (1570–1670), this
first edition of Dodoens' Stirpium historiae pemptades sex is coveted today by collectors of printing for the excellent typography of the Plantin Press, by collectors of early illustration for van der Borcht's detailed woodcuts, and by collectors and scholars of natural history for the important contributions to botany that the author incorporates.
Hunt says of this that it is the “First edition of Dodoens' last and most comprehensive botanical work, incorporating material from a number of his earlier books, including the Cruydeboeck”; it was the basis for Gerard's famous English herbal.
Rembert Dodoens (1517–85), a Flemish physician and botanist, was fully immersed in the Renaissance method of pursuing knowledge, whether derived from ancient texts or from new discoveries and personal observation, or combining the best elements of both streams. That is what he did with his Cruydeboeck and with Stirpium historiae pemptades sex.
Coming as it does during the first hundred years after the discovery of the New World and concomitant knowledge of New World plants, the Pemptades illustrates and discusses such new discoveries as maize, tobacco, mechoacan, and mpnopal. The
1298 woodcut illustrations here were commissioned by Plantin from the Flemish artist Pieter van der Borcht (1545–1608), a pupil of Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Thomas Gloning (Rembert Dodoens und sein Cruyde Boeck) says van der Borcht is held to be one of the most gifted botanical painters of the 16th century.
Provenance: College of Pharmacy of the City of New York.
Evidence of readership: A reader of the late 16th century has corrected some of the text and has added interesting marginalia in Latin that expounds or expands on sections of it. A later reader, probably of the late 18th or early 19th century, has labeled some of the woodcut illustrations with the plant names using Linnaean and post-Linnaean taxonyms. For example some have “W” at the end of the Latin name, for Carl Ludwig Willdenow (1765–1812), others “Schmidt” for F.W. Schmidt (1764–96), most just have an “L” at the end, for Linnaeus.
Pritzel 2350; Nissen, Botanische Buchillustration, 517; Hunt Botanical Catalogue 143; Nissen 517; DSB, IV,138–9. Voet, Plantin Press, 1101; Adams D722; Arents, Adds., 74; Alden & Landis 583/23; Index Aurel. 154.557; Bibliographia Belgica D117. Recent quarter mottled brown calf with green and red stone-pattern marbled paper sides; raised bands, each accented above and below by single gilt rule and with gilt center devices in five spine compartments. Library stamp as above on title-page and three other pages. Minor worming in some, a very few, margins, most notable in upper margins of pp. 260–89; gently age-toned, and a few leaves with browning or foxing; overall
a crisp, clean, decidedly desirable copy. (34549)
For HERBALS, click here.
Important Account of
the Southwest & the Mexican Border
Emory, William Hemsley. Notes of a military reconnoissance, from Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to San Diego, in California, including parts of the Arkansas, Del Norte, and Gila rivers. Washington: Wendell & Van Benthuysen, 1848. 8vo (23.2 cm, 9.1"). 416 pp.; 43 plts. (lacking 1 fold. map).
$750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Emory, Brevet Major of the Corps of Topographical Engineers and an outstanding surveyor and mapmaker, here provides a groundbreaking description of the terrain, flora and fauna, and peoples of the historic Southwest. J. Gregg Layne (Zamorano 80) says, “A library of Western Americana is incomplete without [Emory's report].”
The volume is illustrated with
43 lithographed plates done by Weber & Co., including a portrait of “A New Mexican Indian Woman,” a fish of the Gila River, a map of “the actions fought at San Pasqual in upper California between the Americans and Mexicans Dec. 6th & 7th 1846,” and a view of cliffside hieroglyphics, as well as a series of 14 botanical images.
Government document: 30th Congress, 1st Session. Senate. Executive document no. 7; Howes describes this as the second issue of an edition which appeared in the same year as the first. The present example does not include the oversized, folding map found in some copies; the plates here are, however, in the preferred state, attributed to Weber.
Cowan & Cowan 195; Graff 1249 (other 1848 issues only); Haferkorn 38; Howes E145; Sabin 22536 (for House ed. only); Wagner-Camp, Plains & Rockies, 148:2; Zamorano 80, 33. Recent black cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Oversized, folding map lacking. Plates and pages with some light to moderate foxing; one leaf with tear from upper margin, extending into text without loss. Clean, strong. (27364)
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