Lot 8: 

JOHN LATHAM (1740-1837)
A General Synopsis of Birds. London: vol. I for Benj. White, vols. II-III for Leigh and Sotheby, 1781-1785. 3 vols in six. [With:] Supplement to the General Synopsis of Birds. London: Leigh and Sotheby, 1787 & 1801. 2 vols. [And:] Index Ornithologicus. London: Leigh and Sotheby, 1790. 2 vols. Together 10 vols, small 4° (236 x 187mm). 8 etched titles with hand-coloured vignettes, and 142 hand-coloured etched plates by and after the author. (Occasional light spotting, text offset onto plate CVII, not touching image.) Contemporary tree calf, spines gilt, with red and green morocco labels lettered in gilt (vols IV, VI and VII rebacked, old spines expertly laid down, vols I, III, V and X joints cracked but firm).

FIRST EDITIONS. A FINE SET IN A HANDSOME CONTEMPORARY BINDING. Latham's work forms an English parallel to Buffon's Histoire naturelle (1770-83), which was nearing completion at the time, and includes much material not available to Linnaeus. Latham was able to include species recently discovered by explorers in Australia, the Pacific and the Americas, examples of which were flooding into England at the time. In his division of the birds into two main groups, land birds and water birds, Latham follows the system which Ray employed in his edition of Willoughby's Ornithology (1678). However, whilst the birds are referred to by their vernacular names, the list of synonyms included under each species does include the Linnean name as well, and in the classification of genera the system followed is mainly that of Linnaeus. Anker 277-279; Sitwell p.114; Nissen IVB, 532; Wood p.427.
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