Grew, Nehemiah
Musaeum Regalis Societatis
£1,008
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 8 February 2023 at 10:00 GMT
Description
Or a Catalogue and Description of the Natural and Artificial Rarities belonging to the Royal Society and Preserved at Gresham Colledge. Whereunto is Subjoyned the Comparative Anatomy of Stomachs and Guts. London: W. Rawlins, 1681. First edition, folio (32 x 19cm), contemporary mottled calf, rebacked and relined, edges dyed red, engraved portrait frontispiece, 31 engraved plates (one folding), retaining medial blank 3D3, contemporary manuscript corrections to pp. 62, 81, 282 and 312, binding slightly worn, front joint cracking at head and foot, light browning to contents, small worm-track to head of gutter appearing from quire 2E, a few small additional tracks in gutter of last few quires and plates, text or images never affected [ESTC R23326; Freeman 1464; Garrison-Morton 297; Heirs of Hippocrates 640; Nissen ZBI 1714; Wing G1952]
Footnote
Note:
'Grew, secretary to the Royal Society, compiled this great illustrated catalogue of its museum, then housed at Gresham College. Published with the catalogue is Grew's study of the stomach organs, which is the first zoological book to have the term "comparative anatomy" on the title-page, and also the first attempt to deal with one system of organs only by the comparative method' (Garrison-Morton). It was also one of the first scientific books to be published in England using a subscription model to pay for its engraved illustrations.
Provenance: 1) The library at Gaddesden Place, Hertfordshire, seat of the Halsey family (bookplate); 2) Joseph Lyon Miller MD (bookplate).