MAVOR, William Fordyce (1758-1837)]. A New Dictionary of Natural History; or, Compleat universal display of animated nature ... by William Frederic Martyn. London: Harrison, 1785 [i.e. 1784-87]. 2 volumes, 2° (365 x 234mm). Titles printed in red and black, 100 hand-coloured woodcut plates by and after Moses Harris (Lacks half titles, occasional light scattered spotting, marginal tear reaching into text of Y1 in vol I.) Contemporary tree calf, morocco labels and numbering pieces, yellow edges (joints of vol. 1 starting, lightly rubbed and scuffed). Provenance : Walter Honywood Yate, St. John's College, Oxford, 1797 (later Justice of the Peace and deputy lieutenant for Gloucester; inscription) -- Boevy-Crawley (armorial bookplate). A 'capital publication'. The publishers, when advertising the appearance of the first number of 'Martyn's' dictionary in 1784, called it 'a most capital publication ... to be continued weekly till the whole is compleated in one hundred numbers, making two large folio volumes'. There was a current vogue for specialist dictionaries of all forms, the verso of the same broadsheet advertising 'a valuable family book ... the compleat family physician ... by Hugh Smythson'. Although the title to the New Dictionary is dated 1785, the plates themselves are dated 1784-87. Nissen ZBI 2729. (2)
MAVOR, William Fordyce (1758-1837)]. A New Dictionary of Natural History; or, Compleat universal display of animated nature ... by William Frederic Martyn. London: Harrison, 1785 [i.e. 1784-87]. 2 volumes, 2° (365 x 234mm). Titles printed in red and black, 100 hand-coloured woodcut plates by and after Moses Harris (Lacks half titles, occasional light scattered spotting, marginal tear reaching into text of Y1 in vol I.) Contemporary tree calf, morocco labels and numbering pieces, yellow edges (joints of vol. 1 starting, lightly rubbed and scuffed). Provenance : Walter Honywood Yate, St. John's College, Oxford, 1797 (later Justice of the Peace and deputy lieutenant for Gloucester; inscription) -- Boevy-Crawley (armorial bookplate). A 'capital publication'. The publishers, when advertising the appearance of the first number of 'Martyn's' dictionary in 1784, called it 'a most capital publication ... to be continued weekly till the whole is compleated in one hundred numbers, making two large folio volumes'. There was a current vogue for specialist dictionaries of all forms, the verso of the same broadsheet advertising 'a valuable family book ... the compleat family physician ... by Hugh Smythson'. Although the title to the New Dictionary is dated 1785, the plates themselves are dated 1784-87. Nissen ZBI 2729. (2)
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