Burnet, Telluris theoria sacra, London, 1681, red morocco cottage roof binding

BURNET, THOMAS

Telluris theoria sacra: orbis nostril originem & mutationes... R. [Norton] For Walter Kettilby, 1681

4to, FIRST EDITION, two parts in one volume, part 2 with separate title page, continuous pagination, two folding maps (one of North and South America), numerous engravings in the text, with initial blank and final advertisement leaf, FINE CONTEMPORARY BINDING IN RED MOROCCO, tooled in gold to a cottage-roof design with massed small tools, outer double fillet and pointillé border enclosing rich alternating tools of carnations and other flowers, inner cottage-roof panel adorned with various flowers, fruits and leafy sprays, enclosing central lozenge decorated with similar tools, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, some very slight occasional staining and browning, hinges repaired, upper joint slightly cracked, some slight wear to edges of binding

First edition of the first two parts of Burnet’s Theory of the Earth. There appear to be two separate issues, though this is not recorded by Wing. The present lot conforms to ESTC R6547, collating to A⁴ a⁴ B-2Q⁴ 2R², with an initial blank and final advertisement leaf. Some copies previously offered for sale call for an engraved frontispiece, but this is only noted in the collation for ESTC R200980, which has different pagination and appears to be a different setting of the text. These first two parts were reissued in 1689, with Burnet adding two additional parts on the Conflagration and Millenium. English versions appeared in 1684 and 1690.

The binding is similar to the contemporary binding illustrated in Foot, The Henry Davis Gift, Vol.II, no.121, and also bears some similar features to no.127 in the same volume, a London binding by the Small Carnation Binder.

LITERATURE:

Wing B5948

PROVENANCE:

Ja. Clayton, inscription on title-page

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