The origin of species (1891)

by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London : John Murray, 1891. Sixth edition, with additions and corrections (forty-first thousand). Octavo, original publisher’s gilt-lettered green cloth (edges slightly rubbed, small stain to lower board), small nicks to head and foot of spine, original patterned endpapers (foxed, neat owner’s name dated 1946), small snag to head of half-title, pp xxi, [blank], 432, (1 – publisher’s catalogue), folding lithographed plate, some foxing to preliminaries and a couple of leaves, but a very good, crisp copy, uncommonly so.

A very good copy of the sixth edition of one of the most important texts in the history of science. The first edition, a great rarity, is described in Freeman as “… the most important biological work ever written.”; Dibner, “… the most important single work in science.”; Printing & the Mind of Man, “… 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.”