Silva: or, a Discourse of Forest-trees, and the Propagation of Timber in his Majesty’s Dominions… with notes by A. Hunter…to which is added the Terra: A Philosophical Discourse of Earth

Book Description

York: : A. Ward for J. Dodsley, T. Cadell and others, , 1786. Second Hunter edition. Contemporary red morocco.. Very Good. 2nd Edition. 4to( 30.4 x 22.9cm). Contemporary red morocco. Three (3) parts in one. Collation: [xliv], 311, [13]; [ii] 343, [11]; [viii], 74 [4] pp. + Engraved portrait after Bartolozzi, 43 hand-colored plates on thick paper, 1 double-page, two folding letterpress tables. The spine has six compartments with gilt raised bands and gilt title; gilt turn-ins, gilt edges (lightly rubbed), with a contemporary fore-edge painting of a country house set in wooded parkland. There are inner gilt dentelles and marble end papers. The portrait has foxing and small-discolored area at the bottom gutter. The text and plates have some minor marginal foxing, which is more moderate when several plates are placed together or a leaf of text separates two plates. Many of the plates were engraved by J. Miller and a few other plates by S. H. Grimm. All the plates are finely colored. Provenance: W.A. Foyle bookplate on front free end paper and amoral bookplate (pasted over earlier bookplate) of Bertram Mitford Freeman. Keynes notes the existence of two other colored copies, one in the British Museum and the other at Harvard University Arnold Arboretum and Asa Gray Herbarium. Although this edition was published in two volumes, the present copy with the fine red morocco binding and excellently executed, fore-edge painting make this a fine copy with all plates’ hand colored on thick paper. Keynes notes that Hunter was an English physician who practiced in York, where he died in 1809. “His mind was versatile like Evelyn’s, and he varied his medical work by becoming an authority on agriculture and forestry….Hunter’s edition of Evelyn’s /Silva/, under taken as a relaxation, proved to be a popular success, so that five editions of this ponderous work were called for up to 1825. His annotations are learned and extensive, and he claims that the text was collated with all five of the original editions, and corrected with the help of ‘some Original Manuscripts’.” In the present work, which contains additional plates and the /Terra: A Philosophical Discourse of Earth. / (Nissen 615; Henrey 137; Keynes 48)

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