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Third English Edition, Part I (1805) and Fourth English Edition Part II, (1804); two vols. in one. Hard cover, 4to, unsigned full calf fine binding gilt rolled with a Greek key pattern to boards and spine, the seven faux compartments framing an onlaid red morocco title label. Top edge stained brown; all edges trimmed. With two engraved sectional title pages, errata, two sets of instructions to binders, Notes and Contents to each section, 22 original (unpaginated) engravings, complete, details below.**CONDITION: Very Good Minus. Scuffing to both boards, wear to tips, but nice old patina. Both joints tender w. some losses, boards holding on. Minor losses at head and foot of spine, through to headband stitching. Text block firm and square, marbled endpapers bright, showing offset at turn in margins. Front hinge just starting, about 1 inch from head and foot; rear hinge is intact. Pencil notation of former owner to flies, w.ghost of old bookplate verso ffep. The 2 frontispiece plates with marginal foxing, w. offset to title pages. Text mostly bright and clean. Margins of some plates moderately foxed (less so in Part II) with browning offset to facing text: see more on condition of plates below.** Despite any drawbacks, this remains a nice copy of an important and popular work by Lichfield and Derby English AUTHOR, poet and physician ERASMUS DARWIN(1731-April, 18, 1802) which synthesized the foment of 18th cent. Enlightenment ideas of science with revolutionary and Romantic themes in art, particularly showcasing the work of Swedish botanist and father of taxonomy Carl Linnaeus. Industrial discussion of hemp, cotton, and clay are interwoven with racy-sounding verse on methods of plant reproduction. He first voices the idea of evolution in both the plant and animal world in the 1793 first edit. of Part I, in one of his many digressions, found in a note for Curcumin, (Part I, Canto I, line 65); a remark for which many account the life's work on the Theory of Evolution by his grandson, Charles Darwin. (A poetic fascination with Gnomes in Part I may have had something to with the convivial nature of his various scientific and literary gatherings; he was apparently prone to gout and both the London Johnson bookstore soirees and meetings of the scientific Birmingham Lunar Society were quite liquacious in nature.) **COLLATION: Section I. "THE ECONOMY OF VEGETATION" (Complete.) : [3] [i]-xx pp., Cantos I-IV, 1-214pp. Contents, Errata, 215-218. Extensive "Notes" numbered I-XXXIX on Meteors, Primary Colours, Coloured Clouds, Comets, Sun's Rays, Central Fires, Elementary Heat, Memnon's Lyre, Luminous Insects, Phosphorus, Steam Engine, Frost, Electricity, Buds and Bulbs, Solar Volcanos, Calcareous Earth, Morasses, Iron, Steel: Modern Production of Iron, Septaria of Iron-Stone, Flint, Clay, Enamels, Portland Vase, a shout-out to his relative by marriage, Josiah Wedgwood and his achievement in remaking a famous 1st century Roman cameo glass amphora into modern Jasperware, taking four years and the collaboration of William Blake. (Hay p 203-205), Coal, Granite, Evaporation, Springs, Shell-Fish, Sturgeon, Oil on Water, Ship-Worm, Maelstrom (Fuseli's "word picture" inspiring "Tornado" , Glaciers, Winds, Vegetable Perspiration, Vegetable Circulation, Veg. Respiration, Veg. Impregnation, and Veg. Glandulation, 1-109pp. "Visit of Hope to Sydney Cove Near Botany Bay," ( ode referencing Joseph Banks) [p.110]. "Contents of the Additional Notes," 111-124pp. "Direction to the Binders," and Publisher's advertising [125-126pp.] **COLLATION Sect. II "THE LOVES OF THE PLANTS," [5], unpag. Frontis. [1] (Title sect.II) - viii incl. "Proem" and Preface. Canto I, 1-46pp. Interlude I, 47-54 (--a 4part dialogue between "Bookseller" (based on Joseph Johnson) and "Mr. Botanist" (based on E. Darwin.) Canto II 55-88 pp. Interlude II, 89-92pp. Canto III pp.93-128 pp. Interlude III ,129-139 pp .Canto IV, 141-181pp. [1], (plate) [1], end matters 182-[201], [2]. **PART I ENG.
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