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RAFINESQUE, CONSTANTINE SAMUEL. Précis des découvertes et travaux somiologiques de Mr. C. S. Rafinesque-Schmaltz entre 1800 et 1814. Ou choix raisonné de ses principales Découvertes en Zoologie et en Botanique, pour servir d'introduction à ses ouvrages futurs. Palermo: Royale Typographie Militaire; aux dépens de l'Auteur 1814.
Small 8vo in 4s, 146 x 98mm. (5 3/4 x 3 7/8 in.), modern buckram-backed boards, original printed wrappers bound in, stitch holes, printed on very pale green paper, one small marginal hole.
FIRST EDITION.
The Précis is one of two simultaneously published works constituting a systematic summary of Rafinesque's work of botanical and zoological discovery and classification to that time. To embrace the full scope of his endeavors he coined the term "somiology", or "science of living creatures", a collective designation of the botanical and zoological realms (cf. introduction, p. 8). During the same month he published a theoretical exposition of his system of classification and nomenclature (an adaptation of the Linnaean system) under the title Principes fondamentaux de Somiologie, which was intended to complement the present enumeration of species "discovered" by him, symmetrically grouped in 10 botanical and 10 zoological classes. A list of Rafinesque's 15 previously published works (including periodical publications) is printed on the verso of the front wrapper and recto and verso of the back wrapper. RARE.
Fitzpatrick 230; Stafleu TL-2 8559.
Provenance:
S. S. Haldeman, signature on printed wrapper
William Greene Binney, son of Amos Binney ("succeed[ed] him as the chief authority on American land mollusks"--DAB), signature on printed wrapper
Arthur Fairfield Gray, bookplate
Dr. Evan Morton Evans (1870-1955)
Daniel Webster Evans (1907-1966).
Small 8vo in 4s, 146 x 98mm. (5 3/4 x 3 7/8 in.), modern buckram-backed boards, original printed wrappers bound in, stitch holes, printed on very pale green paper, one small marginal hole.
FIRST EDITION.
The Précis is one of two simultaneously published works constituting a systematic summary of Rafinesque's work of botanical and zoological discovery and classification to that time. To embrace the full scope of his endeavors he coined the term "somiology", or "science of living creatures", a collective designation of the botanical and zoological realms (cf. introduction, p. 8). During the same month he published a theoretical exposition of his system of classification and nomenclature (an adaptation of the Linnaean system) under the title Principes fondamentaux de Somiologie, which was intended to complement the present enumeration of species "discovered" by him, symmetrically grouped in 10 botanical and 10 zoological classes. A list of Rafinesque's 15 previously published works (including periodical publications) is printed on the verso of the front wrapper and recto and verso of the back wrapper. RARE.
Fitzpatrick 230; Stafleu TL-2 8559.
Provenance:
S. S. Haldeman, signature on printed wrapper
William Greene Binney, son of Amos Binney ("succeed[ed] him as the chief authority on American land mollusks"--DAB), signature on printed wrapper
Arthur Fairfield Gray, bookplate
Dr. Evan Morton Evans (1870-1955)
Daniel Webster Evans (1907-1966).