30 the PriVatelY-PuBlisheD eDition oF DarWin’s
eVolutionarY essaY oF 1842, With tWo iMPortant PreVious oWners
91. darWin, Charles robert. the Foundations of the origin of species, a sketch Written in 1842 by charles Darwin. edited by his son Francis Darwin. Cambridge: John Clay at the University Press for presentation only by the Syndics of the University Press, 1909.
£1,495
8vo (223 x 144mm). original vellum-backed grey boards, upper board with printed title and arms of cambridge university; pp. [2 (blank l.)], xxii,
53, photogravure [3
(blank)]; portrait
frontispiece, retaining tissue guard and one plate with a facsimile of
the original
manuscript; slightly marked, extremities very slightly rubbed and bumped, very occasional light spotting, tissue guard a little browned, nonetheless very good indeed. Provenance:
92
92.daVies, William. the Pilgrimage of the tiber, from its Mouth to its source: with some account of its tributaries. London: William Clowes and Sons for Sampson Low, Marston, Low & Searle, 1873.
£295 sir
richard tetley Glazebrook (1854-1935), director of the national Physical laboratory at teddington from 1899-1919. he
established the nPl as a leading centre of physics research, having achieved prominence as a physicist early in his career; in 1880 he was appointed demonstrator at the new cavendish laboratory in cambridge and in 1882, at the age of only 28, he was elected a Fellow of the royal society. after his retirement he compiled the seminal five volume Dictionary of Applied Physics (1922-23). also with signature to ffep of James Fisher (1912-1970), the famous British ornithologist, writer and broadcaster. having studied at eton and Magdalen college, oxford, Fisher became an assistant curator at london Zoo and afterwards a leading member of the rsPB, a founding editor of the New Naturalist series and a popular figure on BBc radio and television, his enthusiasm and knowledge inspiring a generation of post-war birdwatchers. he was a hugely prolific author; his life was ended prematurely by a car crash.
First, privately-published edition, presentation issue. ‘an individual organism placed under new conditions [often] sometimes varies in a small degree and in very trifling respects such as stature, fatness, sometimes colour, health, habits in animals and probably disposition. also habits of life develope certain parts. Disuse atrophies. [Most of these slight variations tend to become hereditary.]’ (p. 1).
Whilst Darwin’s ideas on evolution had begun to take form long before his 1858 linnean society joint paper with alfred russel Wallace and the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859, the present ‘sketch’ — written in 1842, six years after Darwin’s return from the Beagle, and outlining his early thoughts on the subject — was unknown until its discovery in 1896. Following emma Darwin’s death in that year, the manuscript of the thirty-five-page ‘sketch’ was retrieved from an understair cupboard in Down house, where used and discarded sheets of paper were stored for subsequent use as scrap paper. the ‘sketch’ was first published in this privately-published edition, and was then republished with Darwin’s longer essay of 1844 in a trade edition under the title The Foundations of The Origin of the Species. Two Essays Written in 1842 and 1844 (cambridge: 1909).
as Freeman states, the present edition ‘was printed for presentation to delegates to the cambridge festivities in commemoration of Darwin’s birth and the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The origin of species’ (p. 182): the presentation leaf a4 — which Freeman notes ‘has been removed in some copies which were perhaps available outside the presentation issue’ (loc. cit.) — bears the printed statement ‘Presented by the syndics of the university Press to [...] on the occasion of the celebration at cambridge of the centenary of the Birth of charles Darwin and of the Fiftieth anniversary of the Publication of The Origin of Speciescambridge, 23 June, 1909’, with r.t. glazebrook’s name inserted in manuscript.
BM(NH) VI, p. 253; Freeman 1555; Norman 605 (the copy presented to Sir William Henry Bragg); Waller 10788.
8vo (214 x 132mm). contemporary half calf over marbled boards, spine gilt in compartments, gilt red morocco lettering-piece in one, others densely tooled in gilt, marbled endpapers, all edges marbled; pp. xii (half- title, verso blank, title, imprint on verso, preface, blank p., contents, verso blank, illustrations), 346, [2 (publisher’s advertisement, verso blank)]; wood-engraved frontispiece and 3 wood-engraved plates, all with tissue guards, by J.D. cooper after P. skelton and r.P. leitch after edgar Barclay and elihu Vedder, wood-engraved illustrations in the text by cooper after Davies, leitch, skelton, Barclay, lithographic map by edward Weller printed in black and blue; slightly rubbed and scuffed at extremities, occasional light spotting or ink-marking, very light even browning, otherwise a very good copy retaining the half-title and final advertisement leaf.
First edition. Davies (1829/30-1897) was the author of a number of volumes of poetry and prose, perhaps most famously Songs of a Wayfarer (1869), and was characterised thus by his obituary in the Times (which quoted from the Athenaeum’s): ‘For many years a well-known resident in rome, he was the author of some works of singularly delicate quality — ”the Pilgrimage of the tiber”, “songs of a Wayfarer,” and other books [...] he was an excellent italian scholar, and knew Dante almost by heart’ (15 May 1897, p. 13; indeed, Davies published a critical study of the poet, Dante Alighieri and his Work, in 1888).
Davies states in his preface that, ‘it is somewhat singular, in these days of much travelling, that the course of the tiber, the most classic of all streams, should either never have been completely explored or else no account should have been given of it in its entirety, either in the italian or english language, as far as i am aware. this is all the more remarkable as it is not only crowded with interesting associations at every turn, but its course also embraces an unsurpassed continuity of the most beautiful and varied scenery that is to be found even in italy, the favoured land of beauty, poetry, and song’ (p. [v]). Davies had intended to write the book with his friend c.i. hemans, but the latter’s ill-health prevented this, so the two men made a five-week tour of the river, accompanied by edgar Barclay and elihu Vedder, some of whose drawings illustrate the book. Davies describes his account thus: ‘though not very easy to define, my plan of selection in writing this book has been a very special and precise one to myself. it may be indicated by the term picturesque. i have not attempted to write a guide book or a history. i have thought it enough to have chosen those events and circumstances which group themselves about my subject wherever their importance and interest may have made their introduction desirable from a picturesque or illustrative point of view. i have only given as much personal adventure as might serve to string my narrative upon. a few old stories will be found here, associated or connected with the ancient river, which i hope it will not be thought are repeated once too often. i did not think, however, when treating of the tiber as a subject that this was the place to omit them. the pictures given from local historians of the mediaeval condition of some of the tiberine towns, and country, will, i believe, be new to most english readers. the chapter upon the popular songs of central italy will also probably afford an insight into a quite fresh field of literature, as i do not know that any of them have been brought forward before in the english language’ (p. vi). a second, revised edition was published in 1875.
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