Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-mzp66 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T08:02:47.515Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The folio issues of the Forsters’ Characteres Generum Plantarum (1775 and 1776): a census of copies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2014

Michael H. Rosove
Michael H. Rosove*
Affiliation:
UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Characteres Generum Plantarum of Johann Reinhold Forster and Georg Forster was the principal printed botanical work emanating from James Cook's second voyage of 1772–1775. The printing most frequently encountered is a 31.2 cm quarto dated 1776 that was probably run off in several hundred copies. A single 1775 quarto was recently discovered. Also produced was a well-known but very rare 47.5 cm folio. In this first-ever census of folio copies, two dated 1775 and 14 dated 1776 are verified; their locations, descriptions, and provenances are detailed herein.

Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 51 , Issue 6 , November 2015 , pp. 611 - 623
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beaglehole, J.C. 1961. The Voyage of the ‘Resolution’ and ‘Adventure’ 1772–1775. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (published for the Hakluyt Society).Google Scholar
Beaglehole, J.C. 1974. The life of Captain James Cook. London: Adam & Charles Black.Google Scholar
de Beer, G.R. 1946. Rodolph Valltravers, F.R.S. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. London 4 (2): 216–226.Google Scholar
Du Rietz, R. 1969. Bibliotheca Polynesiana: a catalogue of some of the books in the Polynesiana Collection formed by the Late Bjarne Kroepelien and now in the Oslo University Library. Oslo: Privately published by the heirs of Bjarne Kroepelien (printed in Sweden by Almqvist and Wiksells Boktryckeri AB, Uppsala).Google Scholar
Du Rietz, R.E. 1981. Anders Sparrman. In: The journal of H.M.S. Resolution 1772–1775 by Captain James Cook. Guildford, Surrey: Genesis Publications Limited in association with Hedley Fine Art Books, 1981: 74–85 (reprinted as How Anders Sparrman came to participate in Cook's second voyage. Banksia 6. Uppsala: Dahlia Books, 2002).Google Scholar
Earp, C. 2013. The date of publication of the Forsters’ Characteres Generum Plantarum revisited. New Zealand Journal of Botany 51 (4): 252–263.Google Scholar
Earp, C. 2014. Proposals to add folio versions, and any quarto version dated 1775, of Characteres Generum Plantarum by J.R. Forster & G. Forster to the ‘Opera utique oppressa’. Taxon 63 (2): 446–447.Google Scholar
Edgar, E. 1969. Preface to Characteres Generum Plantarum by J.R. and G. Forster, 1776; a translation. New Zealand Journal of Botany 7 (4): 311–315.Google Scholar
Forster, G. 1777. A voyage round the world in His Britannic Majesty's sloop, ‘Resolution’, Commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the Years 1772, 3, 4, and 5. London: B. White, J. Robson, P. Elmsly, and G. Robinson. 2 vols.Google Scholar
[Forster, Georg.] 1978. Georg Forsters Werke. Band 13. Briefe bis 1783 (edited by Scheibe, S.) Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.Google Scholar
Forster, J.R. 1775–1776. Letters to Carl Linnaeus, 4 August 1775 (L5128), 10 November 1775 (L5163), 20 February 1776 (L5188), 4 March 1776 (L5201), 9 April 1776 (L5214), 26 July 1776 (L5227). The Linnaean correspondence. Uppsala: Swedish Linnaean Society (Published by the Centre International d’Étude de XVIIIe Siècle, Ferney-Voltaire). URL: www.linnaeus.c18.net. (accessed 2 August 2014).Google Scholar
Fosberg, F.R. 1993. The Forster Pacific islands collections from Captain Cook's Resolution voyage. Allertonia 7 (2): 41–86.Google Scholar
Harris, P.R. 2009. The King's library. In: Mandelbrote, G. and Taylor, B. (editors). Libraries within the library: the origins of the British Library's printed collections. London: British Library: 296–317.Google Scholar
Hoare, M.E. 1976. The tactless philosopher: Johann Reinhold Forster (1729–98). Melbourne: The Hawthorn Press.Google Scholar
Hoare, M.E. (editor). 1982. The ‘Resolution’ journal of Johann Reinhold Forster 1772–1775. 4 vols. London: The Hakluyt Society.Google Scholar
Jackson, B.D. 1923. Linnæus. London: H. F. & G. Witherby.Google Scholar
Joppien, R. and Chambers, N.. 2009. The scholarly library and collections of knowledge of Sir Joseph Banks. In: Mandelbrote, G. and Taylor, B. (editors). Libraries within the library: the origins of the British Library's printed collections. London: British Library: 222–243.Google Scholar
Linnaeus, C. 1776. Letter to J.R. Forster, 12 March 1776 (L5199). The Linnaean correspondence. Uppsala: Swedish Linnaean Society (Published by the Centre International d’Étude de XVIIIe Siècle, Ferney-Voltaire). URL: www.linnaeus.c18.net. (accessed 2 August 2014).Google Scholar
Merrill, E.D. 1954. The botany of Cook's voyages and its unexpected significance in relation to anthropology, biogeography and history. Chronica Botanica 14 (5/6): 161–384.Google Scholar
Nicolson, D.H., and Fosberg, F.R.. 2003. The Forsters and the botany of the second Cook Expedition (1772–1775). Vienna: A.R.G. Gantner Verlag K.G. Google Scholar
O’Brien, P. 1989. Warrington Academy, 1757–86: its predecessors and successors. Wigan: Owl Books.Google Scholar
Payne, S.G. 1973. A history of Spain and Portugal. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. 2 vols.Google Scholar
Quaritch, B. 1868. A general catalogue of books, arranged in classes, offered for sale by Bernard Quaritch. London: Bernard Quaritch (15 Piccadilly, W1).Google Scholar
Quaritch, B. 1870. A general catalogue of books, arranged in classes, offered for sale by Bernard Quaritch. London: Bernard Quaritch (15 Piccadilly, W1).Google Scholar
Royal Society. 1839. Catalogue of the scientific books in the library of the Royal Society. London: Richard and John E. Taylor.Google Scholar
Sotheby's London. 2014. Exploration and discovery 1576–1939: The Library of Franklin Brooke-Hitching, Part I, A-C. London: Sotheby's (Auction in London. 27 March 2014. Sale L14411).Google Scholar
St. John, H. 1971. The date of publication of Forster's Characteres Generum Plantarum and its relation to contemporary works. Le Naturaliste Canadien 98: 561–581.Google Scholar
Stafleu, F.A. and Cowan, R.S.. 1976. Taxonomic literature: a selective guide to botanical publications with dates, commentaries and types. Vol. 1. A–G (2nd Edn). Utrecht: Bohn, Scheltema & Holkema (Series: Regnum Vegetabile 94).Google Scholar
Swann, C.K. 1956. Natural history from a bookseller's point of view: an address delivered before the Society on April 27, 1955. Journal of the Society of Bibliography of Natural History 3 (3): 117–126.Google Scholar
Talbot, S.E. 2012. Into the lion's den: a biographical history of the Talbots of Malahide. London: Stephen Edward Talbot.Google Scholar
van Strien, K. 2000. Thomas Hollis and his donation to Leiden University Library, 1759–70. Quærendo 30 (1): 3–34.Google Scholar
Wystrach, V.P. 1977. Anna Blackburne (1726–1793) – a neglected patroness of natural history. Journal of the Society of Bibliography of Natural History 8 (2): 148–168.Google Scholar