ERASMUS DARWIN'S BOTANIC GARDEN, WITH FIVE PLATES ENGRAVED BY WILLIAM BLAKE

(BLAKE, William, engraver) DARWIN, Erasmus. The Botanic Garden; A Poem in Two Parts. London: J. Johnson, 1791, 1791. Two volumes in one. Quarto, contemporary full brown mottled calf rebacked, burgundy morocco spine label. $3300.

First edition of Part I, third edition of Part II, of Erasmus Darwin's chief poetical work, illustrated with two engraved frontispieces and 18 plates, one from a painting by Henry Fuseli— five engraved by William Blake.

"The chief source of Erasmus Darwin's literary fame during his lifetime, The Botanic Garden contains a great deal of important and frequently advanced scientific information in the nearly 300 footnotes and the 115 pages of appendices to its verses. Part I, 'The Economy of Vegetation,' involves a far-reaching survey of science and technology, with significant sections on evolutionary theories and numerous footnotes on electrical phenomena. Part II, 'The Love of the Plants,' is a 'single-minded catalogue of vegetable sex-life" (Norman). Darwin describes plant reproduction according to the Linnaean system "by means of a most ingenious… and amusing personification of each plant, and often even of the parts of the plant. It is significant that botanical notes are added to the poem, and that its eulogies of scientific men are frequent" (Britannica). Darwin's Garden is also important for the five plates in Part I engraved by William Blake: "The Fertilization of Egypt," engraved after the painting by Henry Fuseli, and four engravings of the Portland Vase. Darwin, the grandfather of Charles, is notable for his "exposition of the form of evolutionism afterwards expounded by Lamarck" (DNB). Inexplicably, Part II was published first, in 1789 (here present in the 1791 third edition); Part I followed in 1791 (present in the first edition). Wilson, 343. Hunt II, lxvii. Nissen 451. Bentley 450A. Keynes 103. Bookplate; early ink shelf markings to front flyleaf.

Occasional spotting or offsetting from plates to text. Some wear to corners and board edges. A very good copy.