Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1740-[1747] (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
i, 393 ff. (foliated throughout at NLW in 2014 for digitisation) ; 370 x 240 mm.
Original calf boards, double blind fillets, rebacked spine divided into 7 compartments with 6 raised bands.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Archival history
Unidentified 'WS' monogram written in ink [s. xviii] on title-page. Bookplate of 'J. A. Ormerod B.N.C. Dedit Meliora Dabitque' [Ormerod (d. 1864) was a Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford]. Sold at Bonhams, London, 12 November 2013, lot 269.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Bernard Quaritch Ltd.; London; Purchase; November 2013; 006684994.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The second edition (or reissue), [1740], of Francis Willughby's De Historia Piscium Libri Quatuor (Oxford, 1686) [ESTC N51867, where it is dated c. 1743]. The work is made up of the De Historia Piscium Libri Quatuor (ff. 2-177), together with 'Appendix ad historiam naturalem piscium' (London, 1740) (ff. 178-205) and a sequence of some 187 engraved plates from the first edition (on the rectos of ff. 206-392). The plates have been extensively annotated (with English and Welsh names, and eyewitness accounts), and sometimes further illustrated (on ff. 215, 224, 244, 248, 281 verso, 283, 295, 341 verso, 347), by Welsh polymath Lewis Morris.
Morris' marginal notes glossing the printed text appear on ff. 4 recto-verso, 85, 88 verso-90, 92, 97-104 verso, 115 verso-116, 118, 137, 146, 165 recto-verso, 175 verso-176, 178, 188 verso-189, 191, 192, 194 verso-195 verso, 197, 198 verso-199, 200, 202-204; his Welsh translations of fish names on ff. 16 verso-18; and extensive notes on fish on ff. 206-391 passim. These last set of notes reflect Morris' retrospective interest in fish seen on the coast of Anglesey (ff. 189, 213, 215, 227, 240, 242, 250, 251 verso, 280 verso, 281 verso, 283, 284, 285, 286, 341 verso, 347) and elsewhere (ff. 224, 248, 295 verso) before his departure to Cardiganshire in 1742. Further accounts of fish seen in Cardigan Bay are on ff. 241, 243 verso, 295 (dated 1747) and 311 (dated 1745). It is possible that these notes form the basis of Lewis Morris' projected, but unpublished, Natural History of Anglesey (see Dafydd Wyn Wiliam, Lewis Morris: Deugain Mlynedd Cyntaf ei Oes 1700/1-42 ([Bodedern], 1997), p. 150). See also Maredudd ap Huw, 'Pysgod Lewis Morris', Tlysau'r Hen Oesoedd, 37 (Ebrill 2015), 3-10.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Usual copyright laws apply.
Language of material
- English
- Latin
- Welsh
Script of material
Language and script notes
English, Latin (mostly printed text), Welsh.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Upper cover detached on receipt at NLW, and volume re-backed in 2014; back cover loose (March 2015); light dampstain in lower fore-corner of text; minor tears on ff. 217, 281; parts of ff. 51 (upper fore-corner), 124, 170, 220, 234 (lower fore-corners) missing, with no loss of text.
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Digital version available http://hdl.handle.net/10107/4627942 (viewed March 2017)
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Note
Digitised at NLW in 2015; the versos of ff. 206-242, 244-250, 252-279, 282-293, 296-340, 342-393, being blank, were deliberately ignored.
Note
Preferred citation: NLW MS 24052E.
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Willughby, Francis, 1635-1672. (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Description follows NLW guidelines based on ISAD(G) 2nd ed.; AACR2; and LCSH
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
January 2015.
Language(s)
- English
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
Description compiled by Maredudd ap Huw;
Digital object metadata
Latitude
Longitude
Media type
Image
Mime-type
image/jpeg