Research methods

WorldCat (URL: worldcat.org) was searched using the title ‘characteres generum plantarum’, year ‘1775–1776’, and limiting the search to ‘books’. All hits were reviewed; queries were placed when either the characteristic pagination of the folio or the term ‘folio’ was given. Entries with quarto pagination or designation and online and electronic books were disregarded. WorldCat displayed 98 ‘hits’: confirmed were 1 folio dated 1775, 5 folios dated 1776, 1 quarto dated 1775, and at least 72 quartos dated 1776 (a few libraries reporting, in some instances ambiguously, more than one). Also searched was copac.ac.uk, a website reporting numerous academic, national, and specialist library catalogues in Ireland and the United Kingdom. 37 ‘hits’ additionally yielded 1 folio dated 1776 and 5 quartos dated 1776. Prominent antiquarian booksellers, book collectors, institutional librarians, auction houses, members of the Captain Cook Society and Georg-Forster-Gesellschaft, and booksellers’ catalogues were consulted. I attempted to locate library holdings of scientists with whom J.R. Forster had relationships at the time Characteres was published. A folio reported at the American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia) (Earp Reference Earp2013: 256) does not exist there. Universities with which the Forsters were associated that do not possess a folio include Cambridge, Halle, Kassel, Mainz, and Vilnius; St. John (Reference St. John1971: 568) incorrectly reported no folios at Berlin and Göttingen.

Census of copies

1. 1775. The King's copy. Location: British Library, London.

Book description: Contemporary brown calf, rebacked, gold-tooled armorial centerpiece with narrow perimeter frame and small fleurons, board edges and turn-ins tooled in gold, leaf edges yellow, spine tooled in gold with title label. Title verso bears red oval British Museum stamp. Front free endpaper bears penciled shelf mark “7k1”. Current shelf mark 40.i.13, ESTC number T150869. Two blank leaves preceding title leaf do not match the main text or plates, presumably binder's blanks. ‘GRISELINA’ not corrected by hand. No errata leaf. No inscription.

Comment: Until King George III (1738–1820) succeeded to the throne in 1760, there had been no royal library. The young monarch became an ardent collector and set about developing a vast working library that became known as the King's Library and which was made available to prominent scholars of the day. George III was the dedicatee of Characteres. J.R. Forster had told Spener on Thursday, 9 November, that he would present a copy to King George III ‘next Friday’, likely 17 November (Forster Reference Forster and Scheibe1978: 542). Georg Forster mentioned this copy in his Voyage (Forster Reference Forster1777, I: v), stating his father ‘inscribed and presented the first specimen of his labours to his majesty within four months after his return.*’ (The asterisk directs the reader to a footnote mentioning the 1776 quarto, an apparent error.) The return to Plymouth was 30 July 1775, thus presentation was 29 November or before. In 1823, King George IV, against his predecessor's intention that the library remain in royal custody, presented the King's Library to the nation (the British Museum). The library became state property in 1828. Portions of it were moved about over the years; it settled at the British Library at St. Pancras in 1997–1998 (Harris Reference Harris, Mandelbrote and Taylor2009: 296–320).

2. 1775. The Carl Linnaeus copy. Location: Linnean Society Library, London.

Book description: Full calf, gold tooling on boards and spine, marbled endpapers, sunken cords, silk marker ribbon torn away, rebacked, spine replaced, boards detached, extensive wear to spine, interleaved with tissue between the plates (18th century), lightly foxed throughout. On p. 45, ‘Verbesine Avenia. Linn.’ added in ink below ‘Viscosa. 1. ADENOSTEMMA.’ ‘GRISELINA’ scored through in ink, replaced with ‘SCOPOLIA’. Some marginal notes in James Edward Smith's hand (one initialed), others not. On the flyleaf verso in Smith's hand, in pencil, ‘Only 6 copies printed on this large paper’. At the head of the title, in Smith's hand in ink, ‘E Bibl. Linn. 1784. JESmith.’ (‘From the Library of Linnaeus.’) On the title verso, the Linnean Society ownership stamp. No errata leaf. No inscription.

Comment: J. R. Forster had barely arrived back in London after the voyage when, on 4 August 1775, he wrote a very lengthy letter to Linnaeus (Forster Reference Forster1775–1776: L5128) concerning the voyage and collections. Forster clearly held Linnaeus in very high esteem among botanists. Forster wrote to Spener on 9 November 1775 that he would be sending a parcel for Linnaeus containing a book, manuscripts, drawings, and plants (Forster Reference Forster and Scheibe1978: 542). On 10 November, Forster wrote directly to Linnaeus that the parcel, containing Characteres, would be shipped to Hamburg the following day (Forster Reference Forster1775–1776: L5163). Forster heard nothing from Linnaeus, thus he inquired on 20 February and again on 4 March 1776 (Forster Reference Forster1775–1776: L5188, L5201). Linnaeus wrote to Forster on 12 March to say the parcel had not yet arrived from the Swedish consulate in Hamburg (Linnaeus Reference Linnaeus1776: L5199). He finally received his copy in Uppsala on 6 April 1776 (Stafleu and Cowan Reference Stafleu and Cowan1976: 860), by which time he was in poor health and progressively incapacitated (Jackson Reference Jackson1923: 332–336). After Linnaeus's death in 1778, Banks was interested in purchasing his massive collections of specimens, letters, and books from Linnaeus's widow, but Linnaeus's son refused to sell. After their son's death in 1783, Banks was no longer interested, but he helped facilitate the sale to the preeminent British botanist John Edward Smith (1759–1828) for 1,000 guineas [£1,050]. Smith's wealthy father helped finance the acquisition (Jackson Reference Jackson1923: 342–357). Smith was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1785, was one of three founders of the Linnean Society of London in 1788, and was its president for the rest of his life. His extensive library and herbarium were purchased by the Linnean Society after his death.

3. 1776. The Joseph Banks copy. Location: British Library, London.

Book description: Plain brown quarter leather and brown buckram of British Museum, blind stamped with museum's armorial centerpiece. Paste-down endpaper stamped ‘Re-backed 1924’. Title verso bears 3.85 × 1.5 cm rectangular inked stamp Jos:Banks (Joseph Banks). Numerous penciled notations in text and especially plates. Originally bound with plates gathered after text as usual (evidenced by notations offset on adjacent plate versos); more recently plates bound amid text, each plate verso bears small green British Museum stamp. Current shelf marks 452.h.14. Pencil annotation on plate 73 reads, ‘It requires strong faith to believe that this is the flower of the same plant of the lower figures. DV[?]’. Errata leaf present, currently placed after Index Generum with offset on the errata leaf recto. No inscription.

Comment: Banks, one of the most influential naturalists of his generation, was an adviser to King George III and encouraged him to support voyages for scientific research. Hoare (Reference Hoare1976: 72–76) discussed the complex Banks–Forster relationship. Banks amassed an extraordinary library and herbarium, and in a codicil to his will put his collections under the superintendence of the prestigious botanist Robert Brown (1773–1858) until Brown's death or Brown's mutual agreement with the trustees of the British Museum, at which point the collections would pass to the British Museum. The final bequest occurred in 1827. Most of the Banks library was transferred to the British Library (Joppien and Chambers Reference Joppien, Chambers, Mandelbrote and Taylor2009: 222–243).

4. 1776. The William Hunter copy. Location: Special Collections, Library of the University of Glasgow.

Book description: 47.5 cm, original bluish-papered boards, quarter blue-brown paper, uncut, paper and boards flush, somewhat soiled, bookplate of William Hunter on the front paste-down endpaper. Bookplate features scene inside a library with ‘Bibliotheca Hunteriana Glasguensis’. Old inked, lined-through notation ‘Af. 1.19.’ on bookplate. Old inked ‘M. 1. 3’ beneath bookplate. All plates present, some out of sequence. These are 45, 48, 47, 46, 50, 49, 51. No blank leaves at front or rear. Paper watermarked. Errata leaf present, offset from Plate 1. No inscription.

Comment: William Hunter (1718–1783) was a Scottish anatomist and obstetrician, teacher of medicine, and physician to Queen Charlotte (wife of King George III). Hunter amassed superb collections including a library of 10,000 books covering a wide variety of subjects, history, medicine and obstetrics, anatomy, natural sciences, fine arts, exploration, and fiction. His library was one of the finest formed in the 18th century. Hoare makes no mention of a relationship between J.R. Forster and William Hunter, but notes his acquaintance with John Hunter (1728–1793), William's famous younger brother. William's ‘Hunterian Library’ was willed to his nephew, physician and pathologist Matthew Baillie (1761–1823). The library arrived in 1807 at the University of Glasgow, the college where William had studied divinity in his youth before going into medicine. Glasgow was the city to which he returned from London in 1770.

5. 1776. The Thomas Pennant copy. Location: Parks Library, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA.

Book description: Brown cloth. Old Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts label at upper right of front paste-down endpaper with catalogue number QK5 F774c, accession number 331420, Cage 1 ‘Do not circulate’. Inked ‘The Gift of the Author’ on blank leaf preceding title with penciled ‘Thos Pennants writing’ beneath. On the title recto, small handwritten penciled ‘124–47’ beneath second E of CHARACTERES and pinhole stamp ‘IOWA STATE COLLEGE LIBRARY AMES IA’ in centre. On dedication leaf recto, catalogue number penciled at upper right and small ink stamped accession number at foot. On blank leaf after the plates, penciled notation ‘M.A.’ and in another hand ‘Fiedler 6–22–42 B.’ Errata leaf present. No inscription.

Comment: This copy was presented to Thomas Pennant (1726–1798) of Downing Hall, distinguished Welsh naturalist and author of zoology and travel books and papers, member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Fellow of the Royal Society of London. Forster won Pennant's friendship and support during the latter's Warrington years (Hoare Reference Hoare1976: 57–61, 65–66; O’Brien Reference O’Brien1989), and the two remained on good collaborative terms well after the voyage's return (Hoare Reference Hoare1976: 201–202). The Downing Estate including Pennant's library was put up for sale and dispersal completed in 1913. The penciled notation after the plates indicates Iowa State's acquisition on 22 June 1942, and the ‘B.’ may refer to Charles Harvey Brown, library director at the time.

6. 1776. The Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin copy. Location: National Library of Australia, Canberra, Australia.

Book description: Old calf binding, front free endpaper verso bears penciled authors and title and oval stamp of Commonwealth National Library (with crown). Two binder's blank leaves (different laid paper, chain lines, and watermark than text) precede the title; second blank's recto bears inscription ‘Botanicorum nostri avi Principi / Nicolao Josepho / Jacquin / D.D.D. / Auctores’ (see Fig. 4), verso has offset from title. (D.D.D. is likely ‘Dederunt, Dixerunt, Dedicaverunt’.) Title recto bears circular stamp ‘Botanisches Institut D.K.K. [der Kaiserliche-Königlich] Universität Wien’. Dedication leaf bears the Commonwealth National Library accession register number and accession date stamp.

Fig. 4.

Inscription in the Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin copy. Reproduced by permission from the National Library of Australia.

Comment: The authors presented this copy to Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin (1727–1817) who became Professor of Botany and Chemistry and director of the botanical gardens at the Vienna University in 1768 and was later knighted. The inscription may be loosely translated as, ‘To Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, our mentor among botanists, [this book is] presented, devoted, and dedicated by the authors.’ The university's botanical library record shows a low inventory number (575) indicating early acquisition, probably from Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher (1804–1849), an Austrian botanist who became director of the botanical gardens of Vienna and professor at the University in 1840. He presented his library and herbarium to the state, helping the university's botanical library to become one of the world's finest. The book was not filed as state property at the time but was later stocked officially and signed with the circular stamp. Although the stamp was outdated upon the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, it remained in use until the collapse of the empire in 1918 at the end of World War I. In the war's aftermath, the library became desperately short of funds and was forced to deaccession holdings. This book was handed over to a commercial second-hand bookstore in 1924 and sold on the open market. The Commonwealth Parliament Library (of Australia) came into being in 1901. From 1923 two names were used concurrently, Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library to designate the national and parliamentary collections, respectively. During that period, the library acquired the folio from the Karl W. Hiersemann antiquarian firm of Leipzig at a cost of 120 Reichsmarks (equivalent then to US$48). In 1960 the National Library of Australia was created by act of parliament, and the two collections were separated.

7. 1776. The Anna Blackburne copy. Location: Unknown. Book description: Unobtainable.

Comment: Anna Blackburne (1726–1793) was an amateur botanist, of Orford Hall, Lancashire, near Warrington (Wystrach Reference Wystrach1977: 148–168). ‘Mrs. Blackburne’, as she was known although she never married, was a knowledgeable collector of plants and well acquainted with some of the best-known naturalists of the day including J.R. Forster and Linnaeus. Anna's father John Blackburne (1693–1787) was a well-known horticulturalist with whom Anna was very close and shared a love of natural history. The two eventually became the sole residents of the family manor. They had a cordial relationship with Forster; he tutored Anna in biology, entomology, minerology, and other sciences during his tenure at Warrington Academy from 1767 to 1770 (Hoare Reference Hoare1976: 56–64): the academy was one of England's foremost colleges of liberal education at the time (Hoare Reference Hoare1976: 48–49). Forster dedicated the new genus Blackburnia (No. 6 in the ‘Index Generum’) to Anna and her father. Given the Blackburne-Forster relationship, it is not surprising that Forster presented Anna with a folio Characteres. After her death, her collections were bequeathed to her nephew John Blackburne, a Member of Parliament for Lancashire. It is believed that the bulk of her collections were dispersed or sold at public auction by the early 20th century. What is known about this copy derives from St. John (Reference St. John1971: 567–568), who noted its advertisement for sale in 1944 by the Francis Edwards antiquarian firm, London (catalogue 670, entry 594, £12), a 1776 large folio, half calf, joints cracked, with presentation inscription on the flyleaf, ‘To Mrs. Blackburne from the authors’, with another manuscript note on the same leaf, ‘only 8 large copies of this book were struck off, J.B.’ St. John plausibly identified ‘J.B.’ as John Blackburne, misidentifying him as Anna's husband. (The St. John paper contains a number of errors concerning the Blackburne history.) The antiquarian C. Kirke Swann (Reference Swann1956: 124) reported this copy in 1955 with the same inscription and note, that he had handled it ‘some years ago’, while misidentifying ‘J.B.’ as Mrs. Blackburne herself. Most likely J.B. was Anna's father with whom she shared residence at the time the folio was presented, but the annotation could have been a later addition by Anna's nephew of the same name. Earp (Reference Earp2013: 256) suggested that this copy might be the same one advertised by Bernard Quaritch in 1870 (Quaritch Reference Quaritch1870: 242, item 213) as the catalogue used the unusual term ‘struck off’ in describing ‘the Text reprinted in folio, very few copies struck off, roy[al]. folio, 75 plates [sic], old calf, 18s [£0.90]’. Quaritch had advertised a folio in 1868 (Quaritch Reference Quaritch1868: 362, item 5104) with the same description and price, presumably the same copy. (The Quaritch entry indicates his awareness that the quarto had priority.) According to St. John, ‘[T]his copy was sold to a book dealer in California. When queried he replied that his only memory was of selling it, but that he could not be precise as a subsequent fire had destroyed his records in that shop.’

8. 1776. The King of Spain copy. Location: Special Collections, Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA.

Book description: Contemporary brown calf, gilt, 7 raised bands, red label piece on spine ‘FOSTER / NOVA / GENERA / PLANTARUM’ with Forster misspelled, front cover bearing gilt oval device ‘THE SOCIETY OF WRITERS TO THE SIGNET’ and Hanoverian coat of arms, front cover detached, text edges gilt, boldly marbled endpapers in gray, red, yellow-orange, and white. Front free endpaper verso bears small blue label ‘O:g:11’ (the ‘11’ in pencil). Two binder's laid paper blank leaves at front and rear (bearing similar watermarks; text and plate leaves unwatermarked). Inscribed on second blank leaf recto, ‘Regi Hispaniarum / sacrum esse voluerunt / Auctores’ (see Fig. 5) with some offset on the verso from the title leaf; offset of the inscription on verso of first blank leaf. Errata leaf follows text, verso bears offset from title. Paper used for plates slightly thinner than text. Pencil notation on plain side of rear marbled flyleaf, ‘v[ery] rare large paper copy / 275–’.

Fig. 5.

Inscription in the King of Spain copy. Reproduced by permission from Special Collections of the UCLA Young Research Library.

Comment: The recipient of this copy, King Charles III of Spain (1716–1788), was described by historian Stanley Payne as ‘probably the most successful European ruler of his generation. He had provided firm, consistent, intelligent leadership. He had chosen capable ministers . . . [his] personal life had won the respect of the people (Payne Reference Payne1973, II: 371). The Latin inscription may be translated as, ‘To the King of Spain, at the wish of the Authors.’ The device on the front cover indicates that the book had resided in the Signet Library, founded in 1722, of the Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet, a private society of Scottish solicitors and part of the Parliament House complex in Edinburgh. The device was in use from 1815 to 1869 with the exception of 1831 to 1836 (after which the Hanoverian coat of arms was replaced with the Royal Arms of Scotland). The book was purchased by the Signet Library under the aegis of chief librarian David Laing (1793–1878), one of Scotland's great antiquarians and librarian of the Signet from 1837 until his death. His record keeping and cataloguing were lax, however, as repeatedly noted in the Society's minutes; annual lists of books purchased were not kept until 1852. With no mention in the annual lists, this book was purchased before 1852. The first mention is in the Library's 1871 catalogue noting the shelf mark O:g:11 that placed the folio in the Upper Library, at the northwest end of the room. In the late 1950s, the Signet Library disposed of the bulk of its non-Scottish, non-legal collections at a time of financial hardship, and the folio was sold at Sotheby's London on 19 October 1959, lot 53, for £38, to the antiquarian firm of Francis Edwards, then in London. The folio was acquired by the well-known and respected San Francisco bookseller David Magee (1905–1977), originally from Yorkshire. In 1961, the UCLA Library purchased the vast and remarkable collection of books, papers, and memorabilia concerning James Cook assembled by noted Cook bibliographer Maurice Holmes (1885–1964) (UCLA Librarian 22 November 1961). Presumably encouraged by the Holmes acquisition, the UCLA Library then purchased for an unknown sum this ‘large paper’ issue of Characteres (as described in the UCLA library records) between 1962 and 1966 from Magee. Based on the pencil notation on the rear flyleaf, Magee's asking price was US$275.

9. 1776. The Rodolph Valltravers copy. Location: Botanical Library, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, Netherlands.

Book description: Old full reddish-brown calf binding, 6 raised bands, spine panels ornately gilt, spine label in the second panel ‘PLANTA / INSULAR / MARIS / AUSTRAL’ (clipped at right with letter deletions), covers with gilt borders, boldly marbled endpapers in red, blue, white, yellow, and green. Title-leaf recto bears two rubber stamps below date, ‘ACAD’ and ‘LVGD’. Inscribed, ‘To Rodolph Valltravers, Esq. / from the / Authors’ (see Fig. 6) on a quire of two leaves between front free endpaper and title bearing different watermark than text. Errata leaf present, no offset on verso.

Fig. 6.

Inscription in the Rodolph Valltravers copy. Reproduced by permission from the Botanical Library of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center of Leiden.

Comment: Johann Rodolph von Valltravers (1723–ca.1815) was born in Switzerland and became a naturalised British citizen. His own scientific accomplishments were few, but he was kindly and a strong facilitator of science; he befriended many well-known naturalists of the day including Pennant and Linnaeus and was elected to prominent societies. Presumably Forster and Valltravers had a relationship, but neither Hoare nor de Beer mention it. Valltravers had significant rapport with the Universiteit Leiden (van Strien Reference van Strien2000: 6–10), and it is therefore possible this folio passed directly from him to the institution's library. The title-leaf rubber stamps stand for ‘Academia Lugduno Batava’, the Latin name of the Universiteit Leiden that owns this copy. The folio has been on loan to the Naturalis Biodiversity Center since 1961.

10. 1776. The Royal Society of London copy. Location: Library of the Royal Society, London.

Book description: Old brown leather binding, covers detached, crumbling around the spine. Penciled annotation ‘337/10’ on title recto; the Royal Society's stamp ‘Soc. Reg. Lond. ex dono Auctoris’ on title verso; modern online catalogue record number RCN 39578 and class mark ‘Cook–very large’ on front paste-down endpaper. Some water stains at the bottom of the papers about 4 to 5 cm wide. Errata leaf present, verso has offset from Plate 1. No inscription.

Comment: The stamp translates as, ‘A gift from the author to the Royal Society of London’. The Royal Society was founded in 1660. A folio was recorded in its library in 1839 (Royal Society 1839: 400), presumably this one.

11. 1776. The Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin copy. Location: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (The Berlin State Library), Germany.

Description: Recent half cloth binding, G 12.1.56 on endpaper, penciled notation at upper right of title recto, ‘2° L.z. 23209a’ (plus some erasures), circular ink stamp on the title verso, ‘Ex / Biblioth. Regia / Berolinensi.’, three-line penciled notation present on p. 35 under ‘Tacca sativa’. Errata leaf present, verso has offset from Plate 1. No inscription.

Comment: Upon J. R. Forster's death in Halle in 1798, his highly regarded library of 7,000 volumes, plus manuscripts and documents were left to his family (Hoare Reference Hoare1976: 325–326). His cash-strapped widow received generous offers for the collections, and while Banks and others helped secure her finances, royal librarian Johann Erich Biester (1749–1816) successfully approached the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm III (1770–1840) for a grant to purchase the collections for the Königliche Bibliothek (Royal Library) in Berlin, the precursor to the Staatsbibliothek, to guarantee retaining the Forster treasures for the nation. A catalogue prepared before accession (Hoare Reference Hoare1976: 330–331) survives and notes a copy of Characteres dated 1775 without folio or quarto designation. If the date is correct, then it may be the 1775 quarto now in Melbourne, but how it would have left the state's property and how this particular 1776 folio was acquired are unknown, but it would have been by 1795 to 1840 when the circular ink stamp (translation, ‘From the Royal Library of Berlin’) was in use.

12. 1776. The Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen copy. Location: Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen (Library of the University of Goettingen), Germany.

Book description: Light brown full calf binding, 6 raised bands, title label reading, ‘FORSTER / CHARACTERES / PLANTARUM / INSUL. / MAR. AUSTRAL.’ Small library labels in top spine panel, ‘H.N. Botan. / v / 9600’ and ‘rara’. Inscription on a blank leaf preceding title, ‘Bibliotheca publica / inclyta / Universitatis Goettingensis / sacrum esse voluerunt / Auctores’ (see Fig. 7). Oval accession stamp on title-leaf verso, ‘Ex / Bibliotheca / Acad.Georgiæ / Augustæ’. The library's records show an accession date of 25 March 1776. Errata leaf after text.

Fig. 7.

Inscription in the Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen copy. Reproduced by permission from the Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen.

Comment: The inscription may be loosely translated as, ‘Presented to the renowned library of the University of Göttingen, at the wish of the authors.’

13. 1776. The Bibliothèque Nationale de France copy. Location: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris (The National Library of France), France.

Book description: Red morocco binding, gilt edges, bearing the stamp No. 24. Library filing number RES-S-375. Errata leaf present after the text with offset on the verso from Plate 1. No inscription.

Comment: The stamp No. 24 corresponds to an entry in the collections of the library between May 1833 and 1848.

14. 1776. The Edinburgh University copy. Location: Centre for Research Collections, Edinburgh University Library.

Book description: Plain sheep binding, narrow gilt ornamental bands on spine, red leather title label with gilt ornamentation ‘FORSTER’S / GENERUM / PLANTARUM’, gilt library stamp at head of spine, front board detached, edges yellow, Edinburgh University ownership inscription and shelf mark ‘A.A.A.N.i.10’ on title, shelf mark ‘K.15.6’ on front paste-down endpaper. Errata leaf present. No inscription.

Comment: The shelf mark ‘A.A.A.N.i.10’ was a distinctive type in use from 1753 to 1827 indicating the library's early acquisition of this copy. The shelf mark ‘K.15.6’ was of a type that came into use when a new library building was opened in 1827; the library relocated again in 1967.

15. 1776. The Bjarne Kroepelien copy. Location: Universitetsbiblioteket, Oslo (The University Library of Oslo), Norway.

Book description: Original light gray papered boards, partially torn off-white fragile paper back strip, uncut, joints cracked, with a later paper label on spine noting title, author, and year; bookplate of Bjarne Kroepelien on front paste-down. No blank leaves at front or rear. No errata leaf. No inscription.

Comment: Bjarne Kroepelien (1890–1966) was born in Bergen and as a young man lived for two years in Tahiti where he fell in love with a Tahitian girl who died in the 1918 influenza epidemic. Kroepelien became a wine merchant, returned to Norway, and amassed an impressive collection of 5,000 books on the Polynesian islands. His library was acquired by the University Library of Oslo. Rolf Du Rietz recorded this copy (Du Rietz Reference Du Rietz1969: 151). The history of this folio before Kroepelien's acquisition has not been traceable.

16. 1776. The Malahide Castle copy. Location: Private collection.

Book description: Contemporary tree calf, gilt rolled borders, rebacked, original 7-paneled spine laid down, green spine label ‘FORSTER / PLANTAE / IN MARE / AUSTRALI’, marbled endpapers, yellow edges, small piece torn away from lower right corner of Plate 67. Errata leaf present with offset from Plate 1. No inscription.

Comment: This copy was sold in the ‘Fingal’ book auction, property of the Fingal Pastoral Company, Malahide, Tasmania, at Christie's Melbourne on 4 May 1988, lot 38, for AU$14,300. A succession of Talbots had dwelt at Malahide Castle, near Dublin, Ireland, since 1184 until the death of Lord Milo Talbot (1912–1973) (Talbot Reference Talbot2012). Milo was an enthusiastic collector of plants including Australian species, created the castle botanical gardens, and commissioned The endemic flora of Tasmania, a 6-volume work. The castle and its contents were inherited by Milo's sister, Rose Talbot (1916–2009), who, in order to pay death taxes, was forced to sell castle furnishings privately, then the castle itself to the state. The Talbot family already owned a large sheep farm in Tasmania, Malahide in Fingal County, and Rose moved there in 1976. Books from the library were consigned to Christie's Melbourne in 1988. It seems a virtual certainty this folio had belonged to Milo at Malahide Castle. The folio was acquired from the ‘Fingal’ sale by Franklin Brooke-Hitching of London, who, over the course of forty years, assembled what is widely acknowledged to be the finest library of British travels, voyages, and exploration ever assembled. The folio was sold for £47,500 at Sotheby's London, ‘Exploration and discovery 1576–1939: The Library of Franklin Brooke-Hitching, Part I, A-C’, 27 March 2014, sale L14411, lot 299.

Comments and conclusions

The folio issues of Characteres Generum Plantarum are dramatic in their large appearance. As such, and considering the provenances of extant copies, it seems clear that they were created for presentation to selected individuals and institutions, not for purpose of sale. Earp (Reference Earp2013: 257–259) suggested that both 1775 quarto and folio issues were proofs based on rarity, absence of a publisher's imprint, and correction by the same individual of an error in the unique quarto and one of the two folios. J.R. Forster had two 1775 folios prepared because he intended one for the King and one for Linnaeus, the ‘binomial king’, while he would retain the (or a) 1775 quarto, as suggested by the catalogue of Forster's library prepared when the Prussian state acquired Forster's library after his death.

The 1776 folios are not proofs, but they were also not published in the usual sense; only the 1776 quartos were (Earp Reference Earp2013: 253, 259; Reference Earp2014). The number of 1776 quartos produced is not known: J.R. Forster had written to Spener that 200 copies were reserved for him to distribute (Forster Reference Forster and Scheibe1978: 551). The quarto is scarce and, owing to perpetual demand, commands a high price in the market-place; but it is not rare based on its apparent prevalence in institutional libraries, antiquarian booksellers’ inventories, and private collections. Probably several hundred copies were produced to satisfy the needs of what would have been primarily a scientific and institutional audience.

Regarding the number of folios, J.E. Smith wrote in the Carl Linnaeus copy, ‘Only 6 copies printed on this large paper’, but on what he based his notation is unknown. In the Anna Blackburne copy, ‘J.B.’ wrote, ‘only 8 large copies of this book were struck off’. If the notation was made by Anna's father, John Blackburne, then there was a direct connection to J.R. Forster, but Forster would have known that more than 8 copies were printed since he paid for them. If the notation were by Anna's nephew of the same name to whom her collections were bequeathed after her death in 1793, then the proximity to the Forsters is dubious. Regardless, the Smith and ‘J.B.’ notations are obviously incorrect; these and later iterations should now be considered obsolete and disregarded, with the exception that the longstanding assumption of only 2 copies of the 1775 folio (Earp Reference Earp2013: 253, 256) continues to stand the test of time. St. John (Reference St. John1971: 568) of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu reported that a Dr. Schad of the Universitätsbibliothek Kassel communicated to him, ‘Es existieren 25 Exemplare in Imperial-Folio, welche als Geschenke an Bibliotheken un[d] berühmte Botaniker vertheilt worden sind.’ [There exist 25 copies in imperial-folio that have been distributed as gifts to famous libraries and botanists.] No distinction was made between 1775 and 1776 folios. The Kassel contact was Dr. Elfriede Schad (1913–ca.2010) who worked there for many years. Neither Schad nor St. John (ca.1892–1991) is still alive, and as no record of the correspondence can be found at either institution, there is no verifiable basis for Schad's statement.

This census has established the existence of 16 copies. This figure is the new floor, but it may not be the ceiling. The Schad figure of 25 copies is plausible given how many cordial and collegial contacts J. R. Forster had in the years preceding 1772 (Hoare Reference Hoare1976: 37–76) for whom he might have considered folio presentation. Most, if not all, of the folios would likely have survived given its size; perhaps a few succumbed to natural, wartime, or other disaster or were broken up to scavenge plates. However, if copies beyond these 16 exist today, they must be very few given the dragnet of the internet age in searching library databases and facility in contacting and querying colleagues. Copies may exist in secluded libraries, and the unaccounted-for Anna Blackburne copy is a reminder that no census can ever be assumed perfect or complete.

Of the 14 folios dated 1776, the William Hunter and Bjarne Kroepelien copies remain uncut in their original boards and backstrips to reveal how the 1776 copies were delivered by the printer, even though the materials used were not exactly the same. How the 1775 folios were delivered can probably never be known. The two 1776 folios in original bindings do not have blank leaves at front or rear, only the plain paper flyleaves and their conjugate paste-downs. In the former copy the errata leaf was bound in whereas in the latter it was absent. The errata leaf was likely a singleton prepared after the text was printed, then laid, tipped, or bound in, as it lacks a signature marking and in one copy (King of Spain) picked up significant offset from the title leaf before being bound into the errata leaf's usual but unprescribed position after the text. The printer also used different laid papers as some are watermarked and some are not.

Four 1776 copies with original inscriptions were inscribed in either Latin or English by the same individual with flowery handwriting (see Figs. 4–7). The individual was J.R. Forster himself, as the writing matches exactly his handwriting in his signed holograph letters to Linnaeus in 1775 and 1776 (Forster Reference Forster1775–1776: L5128, L5188, L5201, L5214, L5227). (The Anna Blackburne copy had an original inscription at last account but has not been seen.) The four observed inscriptions were penned on binder's blank leaves that were either laid inside boarded volumes or installed in bound volumes. It is unknown whether the Forsters themselves had any volumes removed from the original boards and bound in calf or other materials prior to presentation. Perhaps other copies at one time had inscriptions on their original flyleaves or laid-in sheets that were later removed, explaining why such a small portion of the folios have inscriptions from the authors today. None of the inscriptions seen was dated; the Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen record indicates distribution of 1776 folios in approximate conjunction with publication of the 1776 quarto.

Given that only a small number of folios were to be printed, it would make economical sense if the typesetting used for the quartos were used for the folios after the entire printing of the 1776 quarto were run off. In point of fact, the font and line breaks throughout the quarto and folio texts are the same (with the exception of the title and dedication leaf font sizes), strongly implying this is exactly what was done. In order to minimise the number of text pages required, the folio text crowds the upper and lower margins somewhat, but there was still not enough space to fit two quarto pages onto one folio page, so that spillover was necessary.

Of interest is that on both 1775 and 1776 folio title leaves there is an identical defect in the R of PLANTARUM. In observing this, Earp (Reference Earp2013: 257) suggested that the printer, not wanting to obligate the typesetting for long, ran off all the title leaves at once, then added the imprint and date later. Given that the printer also had to add the ‘LL.D.’ after J. R. Forster's name and recentre the line, and that the time frame in November 1775 between printing the 1775 and 1776 folio title leaves was very short, it seems more probable that the printer, knowing there would be 1776 folios, had deliberately not yet distributed the type of either the title leaves or text and simply made the adjustments, running off the 1776 title leaves a short time after the 1775 title leaves.

As for locations of the folios, 14 originally or eventually found their way to public institutions or libraries, one remains under private ownership (the Malahide Castle copy), and the whereabouts of one is unknown (the Anna Blackburne copy).

Pursuit of bibliographical information pertaining to the folio issues of the Forsters’ Characteres Generum Plantarum should not end with this report. New material coming to light in the future will be of interest, and I would be pleased to receive any notable communication.