Elements of Conchology: or, An Introduction to The Knowledge of Shells by Emanuel Mendes da Costa - 1776

London : Benjamin White, 1776 A very good copy of this scarce work, with 7 folding hand-coloured plates. Emanuel Mendes da Costa (1717-1791) was a very knowledgeable and respected 'amateur' with a focus on fossils. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1747. In his preface to this work he states that he did not see himself as a conchologist, but came to the study through his fossil work, where shells, sometimes in near perfect condition, were very frequent. He decided to study them in more detail: giving a series of public lectures on the subject which formed the substance of this work. This copy is in a recent near fine half leather binding with raised bands, gilt titles and blind tooling to spine; and marbled boards. The pastedowns are new - the front with the name of Dwight W Taylor stamped to the top. Contents include Preface pp i-viii; text pp 1-296; folding tables pp 297-8; Index pp 299-318; errata 1p; publisher's advert 1p; 7 folding hand coloured plates. The contents are in very good clean condition. There is a repair to the edge of the side margin of p 155 where the book was poorly opened. There are 2 old pencil annotations (pp 160 and 194) to the effect that the numbering of the figures is transposed. Pages 169 and 176 have a darkened line to the side margin not affecting text. A lovely copy of an extremely rare work.