Forster, Joannes Reinoldus and Georgius:

$7,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

CHARACTERES GENERUM PLANTARUM, QUAS IN ITINERE AD INSULAS MARIS AUSTRALIS, COLLEGERUNT, DESCRIPSERUNT, DELINEARUNT, ANNIS 1772 - 1775. First edition, first issue of this important botanical work on Australia and New Zealand, also published in a folio edition of eight copies the same year. This was the first scientific work, and in fact one of the earliest publications of any kind, published as a result of Cook's second voyage. It lists the botanical discoveries made during the voyage, following a Linnaean classification system. The descriptions are by Anders Sparrman, and the engravings are after drawings by the younger Forster.The Forsters, father and son, travelled as scientists on the second voyage. Characteres... was one of the earliest publications resulting from that journey. Marra's surreptitious narrative had been published the previous year, and in 1776 only this and the anonymously written Second Voyage Around the World appeared. In 1777 both the Forsters' narrative and the official account by Cook were published, along with Wales and Bayly's Astronomical Observations, followed a year later by the Forsters' Observations.... The rush to get Characteres in print should probably be seen in the light of the quarrel with the Admiralty over the Forsters' claims to publishing rights for their official account of the voyage. This preemptive scientific publication may well have been intended to show the strength of the Forster claim.The Forsters' intellectual arrogance has e

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