An Essay towards a Natural History of the County of Dublin, Accommodated to the Noble Designs of the Dublin Society. Vol. I-II

Description:

Affording a summary View, I. Of its Vegetables ...; II Of its Animals; III. Of its Soil, and the State of its Agriculture; its Fossils, Mines, Minerals ...; IV. Of the Nature of the Climate ... First edition. Very rare. The list of subscribers lists just over 300 names. Includes an engraved map of the County of Dublin and four engraved plates illustrating birds. This work represents the first real county natural history in Ireland, particularly emphasising the practical uses, medicinal or culinary, of the flora and fauna. The four plates of birds were the first serious attempt at natural history illustrations published in an Irish book.

John Rutty (1698-1775) was born in Wiltshire to a Quaker family. He studied medicine at Leiden as a student of Hermann Boerhaave, and settled in Dublin as a physician in 1724.

Freeman 3266; Mullens & Swann p. 500.

Condition

2 vols, 8vo in fours, finely rebound in recent, full, panelled calf, raised bands, gilt titles to two compartments, blind-stamped motifs to remaining, marbled endpapers