Turner, MOSSES, ireland, hand-col PLATES, 1804, RARE!

** Very rare work on the mosses of Ireland - with exquisitely hand-coloured plates **

Muscologiae hibernicae Spicilegium
by
Dawson Turner

* * See below for more pictures * *

 DETAILS: (Yarmouth): J. Black, 1804. First edition. Hardcover with dustjacket. [4], xi, [1], 200pp, xiv. Illustrated with 16 hand-coloured engraved plates. Text in Latin. 8vo (standard sized book).

CONDITION: Near Fine to Very Good (book/jacket - see table below for details). A little sunning and edgewear to boards and spine. Foxing to endpapers and edges, very light spots to a few pages at margin. Dirt to title page, last text page, margins of a few pages, and top edge of a couple of plates. Tiny stain to top of margin of first two preface pages, no text affected. Engravings in nice condition, with just the slighest hint of sunning. Collated and complete. *Photo(s) given of actual book.

CONTENTS: An extremely rare copy of this botanical work on the mosses of Ireland by banker, antiquary and botanist Dawson Turner (1775-1858). Dawson's primary botanical interests were mosses, lichens and algae, and this volume is a classified list of mosses and lichens found during his travels in Ireland. The work is dedicated to fellow botanist Robert Scott (c1757-1808) and is written in Latin.

After the classified list, the work is indexed by the scientific name of each species, and concludes with a list of the species illustrated in the plates. There are 16 beautiful hand-coloured plates showing numerous specimens, with impressive attention to detail. A couple of the plates have light dirt to the top edge, but the images are still in superb condition, stunningly engraved and exquisitely hand coloured.

Only 250 copies of the work were printed for Turner (there were no later editions), and this volume is in its original binding (bound by Diboll and Son of Yarmouth, Turner's home town). We cannot find any other original editions for sale, which makes this a desirable volume for any botanical enthusiast.