[item] 23b

DARWIN, Charles Robert 1809-1882

On the Origin of Species.

London, John Murray, (pr. W. Clowes & Sons), 1859.

PAGINATION: ix, [i]; 502 .

COLLATION: [a]⁴, b¹; B-X¹², Y¹¹. TOTAL: 256 leaves plus plate.

These signatures are unusual in that the first two leaves are marked, for example, "F₁" and "F₂" and the 5th leaf is marked "F₃". Thus, it appears that each 1-2-leaf signature is composed of a 4-leaf signature folded inside an 8-leaf signature. These could have been printed originally as a 12-leaf broadsheet which was later cut into the 4- and 8-leaf signatures, or could have been separately printed 8- and 4-leaf broadsheets (see McKerrow, p. 79).¹

PLATE: 1 double-page folding diagram facing page 117.

SIZE: Duodecimo: 8's+4's. 20.0X12.4 cm., uncut.

Published in dark green blind stamped cloth binding, with light brown endpapers. Most copies also contain, at the end, two signatures (b-c⁸ or 32 pages) of advertisements dated June 1859. These extra leaves were, however, printed by a different printer, Bradbury & Evans, on different paper and earlier than the book.

The most influential scientific work of the nineteenth century was this statement of the Darwinian concept of evolution. Its publication aroused world-wide criticism and controversy, both religious and scientific.

[with facsimile of the title page of Origin facing]

¹ McKerrow 1928.