A GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY
First edition of this 3-volume work on mineralogy, botany, and zoology — with 56 engraved plates and a large folding table on fossils.
Very good.
Price: $4,500.00
A GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY
Hill was a botanist who turned to writing and editing; a rambunctious and opinionated fellow, he was also known as The Inspector. In the 1746, he published a translation of Theophrastus's HISTORY OF STONES, leading up to his work on the first volume of this NATURAL HISTORY, A HISTORY OF FOSSILS. In the midst of this, he also took on the editorship of the MONTHLY REVIEW and the BRITISH MAGAZINE. Hill's interests and publications brought him into contact with a number of members of the Royal Society, hinted at in a circa 1747 prospectus for the NATURAL HISTORY that says it was "engaged in at the desire of the most eminent naturalists of the age, and promoted by the assistances of their libraries and museums." According to the DNB, "in 1750 Hill published two satires on the Royal Society (Lucine sine concubitu and A Dissertation on Royal Societies), sinking his hopes of ever being elected. Despite this deeply resented set-back (and perhaps because of it), Hill continued to publish prolifically in the sciences." The next year, the second volume of this NATURAL HISTORY appeared (PLANTS), followed by the third and final volume in 1752 (ANIMALS). Later he published the first floral book in Britain using the Linnaean system (FLORA BRITANICA, 1760) and would become a friend and correspondent of Linnaeus. This set is especially notable for its many detailed engravings of minerals, botanicals, and animals. A beautiful and striking production.
Read more: English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), T40566; Nissen, Zoologische Buchillustration, #1939; Wood, Introduction to the Literature of Vertebrate Zoology, p.386; Pritzel, G.A. Thesaurus literaturae botanicae omnium gentium, #4061; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "Hill, Sir John [pseud. the Inspector]."
The Object
London: Printed for Thomas Osborne, 1748, 1751, 1752. Three folio volumes, 14'' x 9'' each. Contemporary full speckled calf sympathetically rebacked, raised bands, gilt-lettered spines. Red speckled edges. Illustrated with all 56 full-page engraved plates and large folding table. Bookplates to front pastedowns; early ink gift inscription to half titles. Leaves often toned or foxed, shallow dampstain to lower margin of vol. III; wear and rubbing to contemporary boards. Firm.
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