On the origin of species, by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. (1859)

London : John Murray, 1859. First edition (with two quotations only, from Whewell and Bacon, on the verso of the half-title leaf). Octavo, original publisher’s gilt-lettered green cloth by Edmonds & Remnants of London with their binder’s ticket to rear pastedown (very slightly bruised at head and foot of spine, a couple of very small marks); original endpapers, early owner’s name to front pastedown; pp. ix, [blank], 502, 32 (publisher’s catalogue dated June 1859), folding lithographed plate; , upper hinge slightly cracked, preliminaries a little foxed, but a fine, clean and fresh copy. Housed in a custom quarter-morocco box.

An entirely unrestored, crisp and sharp copy of one of the most significant publications in the history of science.

Freeman, 373 (“… the most important biological work ever written.”); Dibner, 199 (“… the most important single work in science.”); Printing & the Mind of Man, 344b (“… revolutionized our methods of thinking and our outlook on the natural order of things. The recognition that constant change is the order of the universe had been finally established and a vast step forward in the uniformity of nature had been taken.”)