Milestones of Science Books

DARWIN, Charles.

Über die Entstehung der Arten im Thier- und Pflanzen-Reich durch natürliche Züchtung, oder Erhaltung der vervollkommneten Rassen im Kampfe um's Daseyn. Nach der zweiten Auflage mit einer geschichtlichen Vorrede und andern Zusätzen des Verfassers für diese deutsche Ausgabe aus dem Englischen übersetzt und mit Anmerkungen versehen von H. G. Bronn.

Stuttgart: E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagshandlung und Druckerei, 1860.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002749

8vo (220 x 138 mm). viii, [6], 520 pp., including half-title and lithographed plate. Contemporary cloth over marbled boards, spine with floral gilt decoration and gilt lettering (extremities little chipped and rubbed, minor chipping to hinges and spine ends, corners bumped). Internally little age-toned throughout, occasional brown spotting, a few ink smudges, frequent weak text markings in pencil. Still a very good copy of this work. ----

Freeman 672 (2nd edition); PMM 344b and Horblit 23b (both first English ed.). THE RARE FIRST GERMAN EDITION OF "THE MOST INFLUENTIAL SCIENTIFIC WORK OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Its publication aroused world-wide criticism and controversy, both religious and scientific" (Grolier/Horblit). The whole edition of 1250 copies was sold on the day of publication. Though the work was initially prompted by observations, made during his travels aboard the Beagle from 1831 to 1836, of the biology and geology of isolated islands, Darwin spent nearly 25 years after his return to England accumulating evidence and considering his theory before publishing. "Although the theory of evolution can be traced to the ancient Greek belief in the 'great chain of being,' Darwin's greatest achievement was to make this centuries-old 'underground' concept acceptable to the scientific community by cogently arguing for the existence of a viable mechanism -- natural selection -- by which new species evolve over vast periods of time. Darwin's influence on biology was fundamental and continues to be felt today" (Garrison-Morton 220).
Erste deutsche Ausgabe, übertragen vom großen Paläontologen Hch. Gg. Bronn (1800-1862), der "trotz der Verschiedenheit der Meinung der erste war, der, die eminente Bedeutung von Darwin's Buch richtig einschätzend, demselben in einer vorzügl. Übersetzung die weiteste u. rascheste Verbreitung verschaffte u. dadurch nicht wenig beitrug zu dem raschen Siege der Theorie" (ADB III, 360). - Visit our website for additional images and information.

Sold