Fourmi

1778 — pp. vi, (1), 455, (10) [Index, Proposals and Advertisement] + Twenty-seven engraved plates, many folding. Engraved and decorated title page. Some offsetting from plates. Foxed. All edges decorated red. 4to. Rebound in three quarters leather over marbled boards. Spine paper label. Hardbound. Thomas Pennant (1726-1798) was probably the foremost 18th century Welsh intellectual. A naturalist, zoologist, and antiquary, he is best known for this 'A Tour in Wales'. In his famous autobiography The Literary Life (1793) he states that he sometimes marvelled at his own industry. His first book was the 1766 folio, British Zoology. This made a financial loss as it had been printed on paper that was too large. Thereafter all his major works appeared in smaller formats, either octavos or quartos. The current view of his contribution to natural history is that its importance lies in the fact that he popularized and promoted its study. His tours and topographic works also display his insistence on detailed research. Among the accounts of tours he published are those of two separate visits to Scotland, a tour from Chester to London, and an account of London itself. His A Tour in Wales (1778-1783) is regarded as being quite outstanding and easily the finest work in a considerable corpus of Welsh tour literature published from ca. 1770 onwards. Pennant also became a collector more as a scholar than as a connoisseur. As a patron he tended to purchase pictures which were directly commissioned from the artist. First Edition. **PRICE JUST REDUCED! TRAVEL/7