A NATURAL HISTORY CONTAINING MANY NOT COMMON OBSERVATIONS: Extracted Out of the Best Modern Writers. by Blount, Sir Thomas Pope - 1693

London: Printed for R. Bentley, 1693. Pp. [16], 469, [3, ads]. Contemporary plain full panelled calf, rebacked at some point, god and strong, with a little general wear and some rubbing, corners more worn and rounded, but firm. Contents clean and tight; good margins; title page strengthened along hinge with Japanese tisse. Contemporary engraved armorial bookplate to the verso of the title page above which written in manuscript '11. Apr. 1728 Collated & perfect.' A very good copy. [As its subtitles suggest, this was a work of synthesis rather than direct and original observation. Blount was a tireless reader and accumulator of other writers’ wisdom - his most notable work, Censura Celebrorum Authorum (1690), was a collection of things famous authors had said about each other and in this work he brings together observations from a wide range of contemporary authorities, accommodating them in an overall argument which reflects a belief in the divine authorship of the universe. As he writes in his preface, ‘Every Flower of the Field, every Fibre of a Plant, every Particle of an Insect, carries with it the Impress of its Maker, and can (if duly consider’d) read us Lectures of Ethicks or Divinity’. Among the aspects of natural history(amber, coral, tea and coffee, silver, diamonds, glow-worms, spiders etc.) that Blount considers are ‘VULCANO’s, or SUBTERRANEAN FIRES’ - Admin (Dr Ralph Harrington); Volcanism Blog.] . First Edition. Full Leather. Very Good. 12mo (10 x 16cm). Book.