Conchylia Insularum Britannicarum. By William Turton. First Edition, First Printing. MA. Nattali. London, 1822.

William Turton was a British naturalist in the early nineteenth century. He made important contributions to taxonomy, conchology, and the dissemination of natural sciences. He is credited with bringing the work of Carl Linneaus’s Systema Naturae to England through his first English translation. Turton himself borrowed much of Linnaean taxonomy to his own work, too, especially in the domain of shells. In that regard, Conchylia Insularum Britannicarum is probably Turton’s most significant work. It is a large study on the shells of the British Isles. It contains dozens of mollusk shells collected, measured, catalogued, and taxonomized by Turton in the early 1820s. There are numerous illustrations–most hand-colored–of the varieties of shells and their species. Published several years before Darwin outlined his theories of evolution, Conchylia Insularum Britannicarum is one of many examples of the period’s growing interest in the incremental connections of the animal kingdom. Yet the work is probably the most notable from the subfield of conchology.

This first edition, first printing is in near-fine condition. Rebound in quarter leather over decorated boards, fine. Raised bands. Tooled and gilt stamped spine label. New endpapers. Hinge of front board just starting. Text block about-fine, only minor paper repair to title page and page 101, some former library stamps and pencil marks, some offsetting of hand-colored plates, some minor foxing. All hand colored plates present.

A superb hand-colored first edition on the shells of the British Isles.