DARWIN Erasmus Zoonomie ou lois de la vie organique, traduit de l’anglais par J.F. Kluyskens.

First edition of the French translation. Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), an English physician, was Charles Darwin’s grandfather. Although Darwin claimed that reading his grandfather’s work had not influenced him, the first manuscript of the Origin of Species is curiously entitled Zoonomia. The present work is an overview of the complete English work as stratd in the preface : “esquisse rapide [des] divisions et [de] l’esprit de l’ouvrage complet dont la traduction complète venait d’être entreprise”. The half-title indicates : Analyse raisonnée de la Zoonomie de Darwin. Some light foxing, a very good copy.

Together with (in identical bindings) :

DARWIN, Erasmus. Zoonomie ou Lois de la vie organique. Gand, de Goesin-Verhaeghe, 1810-1811. 4 vol. 8vo (204 x 123 mm) 4 unn.ll., 20 pp., pp.[17] – 23, 614 pp., 1 nn.l. and 3 engraved and colored plates for vol. I; 2 nn.ll., 659 pp., 4 engraved and colored plates for volume II; XIV, 586 pp., 3 engraved plates for volume III; 1 nn.l., 570 pp., 1 plate for volume IV.

Garrison-Morton, 105 (for the first edition);DSB, III, 577-80; cf. PMM, 344.

First edition in French, translated from the English by Joseph-François Kluyskens. “In his recurrent discussions of evolution and natural selection Darwin rejects the theory of special creation as enunciated by Linnaeus and holds that species are variable and constantly changing… Darwin further drew upon the notion of inheritance of acquired characteristics, as did Lamarck” (DSB).

Good copy.