77


78


77. Murith, Laurent-Joseph. Le Guide du Botaniste qui Voyage dans le Valais, avec un Catalogue des plantes de ce pays et de ses environs … Lausanne: Henri Vincent, 1810.


£450


First edition. 4to. pp. viii, 107, [1], [1, errata]; previous owners’ bookplates, very good in contemporary plain papered boards, MS title to head of spine.


Wäber II.61. Murith (1742-1816), a priest at the Great St. Bernard Hospice, had an interest in science and explored the Valais. His botanical guide takes the form of letters written to Abraham Thomas, another explorer of the region; it also include an extensive botanical table. Murith is remembered also as the first to ascend Mont Vélan in the Pennine Alps, made in 1779 with the guidance of two hunters.


78. Norman-Neruda, May, ed. The Climbs of Norman-Neruda. London: T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd., 1899.


£325


First edition. 8vo. pp. xii, 335, [4, ads.]; photogravure port. frontis., plates from photos.; bookplate of New Hall, Cambridge, foxing to frontis., endpapers and fore-edge, else near-fine in the original cloth, gilt, t.e.g., slightly faded on spine.


Wäber II.29; Neate N24; Perret 3218. The Austrian Ludwig Norman- Neruda (1864-98) was one of the leading climbers of his day, and with the guide Christian Klucker he made new ascents on the Lyskamm (from the north), the Bernina, and in the Dolomites. He died while climbing, probably from cardiac arrest.


79. Plunket, Frederica Louisa Edith. Here and There among the Alps. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1875.


£250


First and only edition. 8vo. pp. [viii], 195; wood engraved vignette to title- page; partly unopened in the original red cloth, gilt, darkened on spine, fraying to spine ends.


Wäber I.97; Neate P59; Perret 3478. Plunket (1831-1886) seems to have been a regular visitor to the Alps. The present work records her journey in 1874 with her sister and their usual guide, Maurus Amrhein. They travelled via peaks and passes, from the Tschingel Pass to the Schwarzkopf. The book includes a chapter of ‘Hints to Lady Pedestrians’ in the Alpine regions.


79


80


80. Rendu, Louis, Bishop of Savoy. Théorie des Glaciers de la Savoie. Chambéry: Puthod, 1840.


£450


First edition. 8vo. pp. 126; 2 maps inc. one folding; very good in modern buckram with leather lettering piece, original upper wrapper retained, which is inscribed by the author “A Monsieur d’Omalius d’Halloy. Hommage de l’auteur”.


Perret 3645 (“Peu courant”). An offprint from tome X of the Mémoires de la Société Royale Academique de Savoie. Rendu (1789-1859), a bishop and scientist, developed theories of glacial movement that anticipated the ideas of James Forbes (see the translation of Rendu’s work in the following item), and the central ideas found expression in the present work. This offprinted version was presented by Rendu to Jean d’Omalius d’Halloy, a geologist who worked on a survey of France published in 1822.


81. Rendu, Louis, Bishop of Savoy. Theory of the Glaciers of Savoy … Translated by Alfred Wills … to which are added the Original Memoir; and Supplemented Articles by P. G. Tait … and John Ruskin… Edited, with Introductory Remarks, by George Forbes. London: Macmillan and Co., 1874.


£275


First English edition. 8vo. pp. [viii], 216; one wood-engraved map; previous owner’s inscription to title-page, else a fine copy in original brown cloth, gilt.


Neate R22; cf. Perret 3645. The publication of this volume was prompted by the polemic between John Tyndall (author of Glaciers of the Alps) and James Forbes (author of Norway and its Glaciers). Tyndall held that Forbes had failed fully to acknowledge the achievements of Rendu’s theory of glaciers, and in the present work George Forbes attempted to defend his father (d. 1868) by offering a full record of the debate. To this end, Forbes junior reprinted articles by Tait and Ruskin on the controversy, and was aided in his translation of Rendu’s work by Alfred Wills, his father’s dedicated disciple and sometime President of the Alpine Club.


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