[Rarebooks] FS: 1st ed. of John Ray's 1713 work on natural history with interesting American provenance

[karmbooks at aol.com]

(NATURAL HISTORY) Ray, John. SYNOPSIS METHODICA AVIUM & PICIUM; Opus
Posthumum... Cum Appendice, & Iconibus. London: Gulielmi Innys. 1713. 2
parts in 1. Each volume with a separate title page.
(4),198,(20);(2),166,(12)pp. Indices. Plus (2)pp. publisher's ads.
Illustrated with a copper engraved frontispiece portrait, and 4 folding
copper engraved plates (2 of fish off Cornwall, and 2 of birds of
India). Cont. mottled calf, nicely rebacked, burgundy morocco spine
label. With the engraved armorial 18th century bookplate of Dr. John
Jeffries on the front pastedown. An autograph note on a blank
preliminary from Jeffries' grandson, Dr. Benjamin Joy Jeffries, dated
March 16, 1869, gifts this book to the Boston Society of Natural
History (which has its faint blindstamp on the main title page and the
first section title. The Society's library ceased and the bulk of it
wound up at the University of Southern California.) Some old soiling
(from an old damp stain) towards the top of the text leaves).   
$1,500.00
(trade discount allowed)
The first edition of Ray's (1627-1705) work. It was completed in 1694,
but not published until his friend William Denham edited the work in
1713. John Jeffries (1745-1819) was an early American patriot, but
switched his loyalty to the Crown during the Revolutionary War. While
in England in 1785, he and Jean-Pierre-Francois Blanchard made the
first flight across the English Channel in a hot air balloon. He is
known as the first American to fly. After the war, John Jeffries
returned to Boston and regained his eminence in American medicine.
Keynes. JOHN RAY #105.

Kenneth Karmiole, Bookseller, Inc.
P.O. Box 464
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