Books

Two volumes Quarto (305 x 240 mm.), Complete with the engraved frontispiece portrait by and after F. Bartolozzi, dedication leaf, and the 42 engraved plates, one double-page, all but three coloured by a contemporary hand, [with foxing], folding letterpress tables. With TERRA: A Philosophical Discourse of Earth. Relating to the Culture and Improvement of it for Vegetation, and the Prorogation of Plants, as it was presented to the Royal Society. Original Binding, 18th Century Red Russia, gilt ruled, family armorial gilt crests, inner dentelle, marbled end-papers with contemporary Book-plates, All edges gilt. Provenance : G.W. Wentworth, Armorial Bookplates, (Godfrey Wentworth Wentworth (1773-1834) Wooley Hall near Leeds.) The "New Edition" of this important work; "It contains an enormous amount of information concerning the cultivation of the various kinds of forest trees, and the uses of their timber, together with facts and anecdotes obtained from books, both classical and contemporary. The work was a success from the start. Its publication gave a great stimulus to planting in Britain. No other work on arboriculture exerted a greater influence on forestry in this country than Evelyn's Sylva." (Henrey). Henrey, p. 138; Nissen BBI 615.