Theory of the Earth, with Proofs and Illustrations by HUTTON, James - 1795

Edinburgh / London: printed for Cadell and Davies, London, and William Creech / Geological Society, 1795. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Edinburgh: printed for Cadell and Davies, London, and William Creech, 1795 (Vol. I and II); London: Geological Society, 1899 (Vol. III). Bound in three volumes, including the posthumous third part edited by Sir Archibald Geikie for the Geological Society. 4to (211 x 129 mm). viii, 620; viii, [103] 4-567 [1], xvi, 278, xiii [1] pp., including half-title in each volume and 6 folding engraved plates. Uniformily bound in fine 20th-century half calf, by Bayntun of Bath, spines ruled in gilt and with gilt-lettered morocco labels, original printed green wrappers of vol. III laid down and bound in at end (very slight fading to spines and light rubbing of extremities), brown sprinkled edges. Text and plates of first two volumes somewhat browned and foxed as usual (plate 2 in vol. II stronger), large folding plate of Mont Blanc with small defect in sky area (skilfully repaired and fairly unobtrusive with c. 4 x 3 cm section supplied in pen and ink like clouds). Provenance: Robert Dalley-Scarlett (1887-1959); David Branagan (ownership inscription to flyleaf of vol. I); small embossed stamp to upper outer corner of title and a few other leaves in vols. I and II). A very good set, collated complete. ----

PMM 247; Horblit 52a, Norman 1131 - EXCEPTIONALLY RARE FIRST EDITION of this classic work on geology. "His fundamental conception - now accepted as a matter of course, but then entirely new - was the doctrine of uniformatarianism. The formation of the surface of the earth is one continuous process which can be studied entirely from terrestrial materials without cosmological or supernatural intervention...Hutton had no clear idea of the significance of fossils for the theory of gradual evolution and not all his theories are now accepted, but his central ideas of uniformatarianism and of the effect of small changes in nature leading eventually to gigantic transformations have had far-reaching consequences in their influence on Charles Lyell and Darwin." PMM.