3 parts bound in 2 volumes, 8vo. Frontispiece portrait, folding map and 19 plates. Contemporary half calf (joints repaired). Provenance: Sir John Lubbock (bookplates, signed on half-title with ex-dono inscription from the translator William Blackmore, dated 20 November 1876, and presumably his pencil annotations at end).

 

FIRST EDITION. John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury, 4th Baronet (1834-1913), was an English banker, Liberal politician, philanthropist, scientist and polymath. Lubbock worked in his family company as a banker but made significant contributions in archaeology, ethnography, and several branches of biology. He coined the terms "Paleolithic" and "Neolithic" to denote the Old and New Stone Ages, respectively. He helped establish archaeology as a scientific discipline. He corresponded extensively with Charles Darwin, who lived nearby in Down House, and was influential in nineteenth-century debates concerning evolutionary theory. William Blackmore was translator and also the dedicatee of this work. Howes D-404.