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“THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT? IN THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE”: DARWIN’S VOYAGE ON THE H.M.S. BEAGLE, EXTRAORDINARILY RARE PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION COPY FROM DARWIN TO GEOLOGIST JOHN PHILLIPS
DARWIN, Charles, FITZROY, Robert, and KING, Philip Barker. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the Years 1826 and 1836, Describing their Examination of the Southern Shores of South America, and the Beagle’s Circumnavigation of the Globe. London: Henry Colburn, 1839. Four volumes. Octavo, period-style three-quarter light brown morocco, raised bands, burgundy spine labels.
First edition, presentation/association copy, of the account of the most famous voyage in the history of biological science and modern thought. Volume III is the first issue of Darwin’s Journal, his first published book, containing the observations and fieldwork that form the basis for On the Origin of Species; it is inscribed to geologist John Phillips, on the half title: “Professor Phillips From the Author.”
“The five years of the voyage were the most important event in Darwin’s intellectual life and in the history of biological science. Darwin sailed with no formal scientific training. He returned a hard-headed man of science, knowing the importance of evidence, almost convinced that species had not always been as they were since the creation but had undergone change? The experiences of his five years in the Beagle, how he dealt with them, and what they led to, built up into a process of epoch-making importance in the history of thought” (DSB). Darwin’s Journal, “his first published book, is undoubtedly the most often read and stands second only to On the Origin of Species as the most often printed” (Freeman, 31). It is “one of the most interesting records of natural history exploration ever written and is one of the most important, for it was on this voyage that Darwin prepared for his lifework, ultimately leading to The Origin of Species” (Hill I:104-05). Volume I contains Captain King’s account of the first expedition, which surveyed the coasts of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego; Volume II, with its appendix volume, is Captain Fitzroy’s account of the second voyage of the Beagle. Complete with 44 plates, six loose charts and maps (per binder’s instructions), and two large folding maps bound in Volume III, as often. Bound with half titles, except for Appendix to Volume II. Bound without publisher’s advertisements at rear of Appendix volume. Freeman 10. Norman 584. Hill I:104-05. Sabin 37826. Inscribee Phillips was trained in geology by his maternal uncle, the great William Smith, and was keeper of the Ashmolean Museum from 1854 to 1870 and keeper of the University Museum in Oxford from 1857 until his death in 1874. Phillips was a frequent correspondent of Darwin, and received from Darwin this set of the Narrative and a presentation copy of On the Origin of Species in 1859. During his tenure and under his aegis, the famous confrontation between T.H. Huxley and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce took place at the meeting of the British Association held in Oxford on June 30, 1860, when Huxley routed the anti-Darwin Bishop of Oxford. Phillips was one of the founders of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and served as its head until 1859. He coined the term ‘Mesozoic.
Occasional scattered light foxing to interiors; small closed tears to folds of some loose maps. Binding fine and handsome. A fine set of this landmark work, most rare with a Darwin presentation inscription.
