Philadelphia: B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1755.. Folding handcolored engraved map by James Turner after Lewis Evans. Quarto. Full tan polished tree... More

Philadelphia: B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1755.. Folding handcolored engraved map by James Turner after Lewis Evans. Quarto. Full tan polished tree calf by Riviere, covers with a gilt roll tool border, spine in six compartments with raised bands, red morocco label in the second compartment, the others with an overall repeat decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers, a.e.g. Map backed on linen. Very good. One of the most important maps of the British colonies done prior to Independence, a landmark in American cartography and an important Franklin printing. Lewis Evans' map, titled "A General Map of the Middle British Colonies in America," shows the east coast of North America from Montreal and New England to the northern border of North Carolina, and also includes the Ohio valley in the west. The Evans map appeared in 1755, the same year as John Mitchell's famous map, with Evans drawing from his original surveys and Fry and Jefferson's 1753 map of Virginia. Evans' map acknowledges French claims to all lands northwest of St. Lawrence Fort, resulting in criticism from New York, notably the New York Mercury. Despite the controversy, Evans's work was very popular (there were eighteen editions between 1755 and 1814), and was famously used by General Braddock during the French and Indian War. Evans gives a detailed geographical description of the middle and southern colonies, particularly notable for an early description of the Ohio country, and gives a good description of the Carolina back country. Evans was also eager for the British to expand into the South, especially West Florida, to challenge the French and Spanish in the Gulf. According to Governor Pownall, writing in 1776, the map was the authority for settling boundary disputes in the region as it so accurately depicted the region. The present example is a very fine copy of the second edition, first issue of the text published by Benjamin Franklin (i.e. without an additional London imprint below Franklin's) and contains a rare example of the first issue of the map (i.e. without "The Lakes Cataraqui" just north of Lake Ontario). Significantly, the map present in this copy is with lovely full period hand-coloring. Sabin notes that many copies of Evans' tract do not include the map, and that only some copies are fully colored, as is this copy. On this second edition of the text, published the same year as the first, Miller notes: "This revised second edition of Evan's analysis of his General Map of the Middle British Colonies is virtually a page-for-page resetting of the first edition with sub- titles added on pp. 6 and 11, and the numeral 2 inserted to the left of the signature on the directional line of the first two leaves of each quire in fours." "The map is considered by historians to be the most ambitious performance of its kind undertaken in America up to that time, and its publication was a milestone in the development of printing arts in the colonial period" - Schwartz & Ehrenberg. MILLER 606. CAMPBELL 543. EVANS 7412. SABIN 23175. HOWES E226. CHURCH 1003. WHEAT & BRUN 298. BROWN, EARLY MAPS OF THE OHIO VALLEY 41. CRESSWELL, "COLONY TO COMMONWEALTH," pp.53-54, 82. DEGREES OF LATITUDE 34. GARRISON, CARTOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA, pp.269-74. PHILADELPHIA: THREE CENTURIES OF AMERICAN ART, pp.64-67. SCHWARTZ & EHRENBERG, p.165. STEPHENSON & McKEE, VIRGINIA IN MAPS, p.82. SUAREZ, SHEDDING THE VEIL 57. THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 255. Klinefelter, "Lewis Evans and his Maps" in TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, Vol. 61, no. 7 (1971). Stevens, LEWIS EVANS AND HIS MAP (London, 1905). Less

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8 p.l., 361, [23] pp. Small 8vo, cont. flexible vellum, ties gone. Paris: Martin le Jeune, 1580. First edition, and a splendid pure copy in its... More

8 p.l., 361, [23] pp. Small 8vo, cont. flexible vellum, ties gone. Paris: Martin le Jeune, 1580. First edition, and a splendid pure copy in its first binding, of a rare and important book in the history of chemistry, hydrology, geology, agriculture, etc., etc. Palissy (ca. 1509-89), who is best known for his discovery of the secret of enamelling pottery, was far in advance of his time in scientific ideas. The "Discours admirables, probably incorporates Palissy's Paris lectures. It...deals with an impressive array of subjects: agriculture, alchemy, botany, ceramics, embalming, engineering, geology, hydrology, medicine, metallurgy, meteorology, mineralogy, paleontology, philosophy, physics, toxicology, and zoology. The book is divided into several chapters, the first and longest of which is concerned with water. The others take up metals and their nature and generation; drugs; ice; different types of salts and their nature, effects, and methods of generation; characteristics of common and precious stones; clay and marl; and the potter's art... "Palissy's views on hydrology and paleontology, as expressed in the Discours, are of particular interest. He was one of the few men of his century to have a correct notion of the origins of rivers and streams, and he stated it forcefully, denying categorically that rivers can have any source other than rainfall... "Palissy discussed fossils extensively...[He] held other advanced views. From experimentation he concluded that all minerals with geometric crystal forms must have crystallized in water; his classification of salts was nearly correct; and he suggested the concept of superposition for the development of sedimentary rocks... "Palissy was probably one of the first men in France to teach natural sciences from facts, specimens and demonstrations rather than hypotheses."-D.S.B., X, pp. 280-81. In the eighth section, Palissy investigated the hardness and properties of gems and precious stones. The Discours was written in the form of a dialogue between "Theory" and "Practice" and it is always "Practice" that instructs "Theory." A fine copy in its first binding, preserved in a box. Contemporary signature on title of "G. Passart" (maybe) and with a number of knowledgeable contemporary notes in many margins. This book is extremely rare; Ferguson acquired his copy, now in the University of Glasgow, after years of searching and has written on the flyleaf: "At last, after long, long waiting and watching." It is one of the very few books in Denis Duveen's collection of which he reproduced the title-page in his Bibliotheca Alchemica et Chemica. ❧ Adams, The Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences, pp. 90, 261, & 446-48. Brunet, IV, 319-20 & Suppl., II, 133-"une pi? aussi int?ssante que rare." Duveen, p. 446-"A book of great importance in the history of chemistry and science generally." Geikie, The Founders of Geology, pp. 104 & 118. Hoover 621. Partington, II, pp. 69-77. Zittel, pp. 18 & 132. . Less

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(Geneva: No publisher) 1759. First edition, the true first printing preceding all others. 12mo. Text in French. Contemporary full mottled French... More

(Geneva: No publisher) 1759. First edition, the true first printing preceding all others. 12mo. Text in French. Contemporary full mottled French calf, spine elaborately gilt, red morocco spine label gilt. Bound (as customary) without the final blank (N7) and the instructions to the binder (N8), very short hairline split at one joint, but still a beautiful just about fine copy, not rebacked or restored in any way. Custom cloth chemise and clamshell case. The first printing is rare, this being one of only 13 known copies of the authentic first edition, preceding 17 other editions subsequently published in 1759 (per Wade, Barber, and Weissman). Printing and the Mind of Man 204 (one of only about a dozen novels included in the survey). Less

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