Perry's Arcana PDF
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PERRY’S Arcana \ PERRY’S Arcana A Facsimile Edition With a Collation and Systematic Review RichaRd E. PEtit temple university press philadelphia Temple University Press 1601 North Broad Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright © 2009 by The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia All rights reserved Published 2009 Digital restoration by Paul Callomon This work may be cited as Petit, R. E., 2009. Perry’s Arcana: a facsimile edition with a collation and systematic review. The Academy of Natural Sciences and Temple University Press, Philadelphia. This book is printed on acid-free paper for greater strength and longevity. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Perry, George, b. 1771. [Arcana, or, The museum of natural history] Perry’s Arcana. -- A facsimile ed. / with a collation and systematic review by Richard E. Petit. p. cm. Originally published in monthy installments, under the title Arcana, or, The museum of natural history. London : Printed by G. Smeeton for James Stratford. 1810-1811. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4399-0195-3 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Natural history illustration. 2. Animals--Pictorial works. 3. Plants--Pictorial works. 4. Perry, George, b.1771. 5. Natural history illustrators--Great Britain. I. Petit, Richard E. II. Title. III. Title: Arcana. QH46.P48 1810a 590.22’2--dc22 2009023265 Printed in China 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 contEntS Foreword by Paul Callomon vii PERRY’S ArcAnA collation and SYStEmatic REviEw Introduction 3 • Date and Format 4 • Title Page—Introduction 5 • Dedication 5 • Covers 6 • Collation 11 • Price 17 • Rarity 17 • Plates, Artists, and Engravers 20 Watermarks 22 • Publisher, Printer, and “Index” 22 Sources 23 • Text 24 • Taxa 25 Acknowledgments 45 Literature Cited 49 PERRY’S ArcAnA facSimilE Edition Readers Guide to Perry’s Arcana 563 Index 565 foREwoRd By Paul Callomon G eorge Perry was a gentleman student of natural history in Regency England who produced two of the finest illustrated works of his time. Apart from this, almost nothing is known about him. He was born in 1771, and spent his early life in Shropshire and Liverpool before moving to London in 1807. An architect and stonemason by pro- fession, he also lectured and wrote about natural history with considerable energy and enterprise. Between 1810 and 1811 he published the Arcana, a magazine of natural his- tory, and in 1811 the Conchology, a large illustrated book on shells. Immediately thereaf- ter, however, he returned to obscurity and no record can be found even of his death. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, London was the center of the scientific world. From the frontiers of Britain’s growing empire came a ceaseless flow of new animals and plants to delight and puzzle men of science, who formed clubs and societies before which to present their findings. Many of the leading figures of the age were “amateurs”, a term that in those days bore no negative connotation, and Perry was in no way unusual. In the heart of the city, “menageries”—private zoos—were operated for the education and entertainment of the public, stocked with live and preserved speci- mens imported by dealers. Parts of these collections later found their way into the natu- ral history museums of the Victorian era, and many of their specimens survive today. The advent of this wealth of new creatures coincided with explosive growth in the printing trade, and the result was a great bloom in scientific publication. There were large, lavishly illustrated books for those who could afford them, but some works were instead published in installments. This magazine format allowed readers to spread their cost or to select only those parts that interested them and to bind them as they wished. Complete sets of such works naturally tend to be scarcer nowadays than is the case with [ vii ] foREwoRd single-volume books, and Perry’s Arcana is no exception. His work was furthermore unjustly spurned by many naturalists of its day, for reasons at which one can only guess, and many sets probably were later plundered for their fine figures. An exhaustive search, detailed herein, has so far uncovered only thirteen complete sets worldwide. The Arcana reflects the views and enthusiasms both of its author and his audience. Descriptions of new and fascinating animals in often florid prose are presented alongside travelers’ reports from the lands of their origin. The eclectic content neverthleless main- tains a fine balance between scientfic examination and more general observation, and the level of conjecture is no higher than in many more serious and elaborate works of the time. In the spirit of its age, Biblical references and early evolutionary theory sit together in amiable co-existence. Above all, the figures delight the eye with their imaginative ar- rangements and assured draftsmanship, the majority having been sketched from actual specimens. Many of the new scientific names Perry introduced in the Arcana remain valid and all are listed here with their present-day treatments. With the two hundredth anniversary of its publication fast approaching, the for- tunate availability of a complete, disbound set of the Arcana has provided a wonderful opportunity to bring Perry’s work back into the public eye. Digital scanning and clean- ing have restored glowing life to the often dramatic figures, and Mr. Petit’s rigorous and erudite analysis guarantee that this new facsimile will be of considerable importance to natural historians in the twenty-first century. Technical noTes As Mr. Petit asserts, the typography in the Arcana is quite good. The general quality of text printing, however, was not. For this facsimile, the text and plates were digi- tally scanned and cleaned to remove foxing, stains and dirt. Pages that had been heav- ily skewed during printing were straightened, and “shadowing” caused by ink leaching between pages was removed. Naturally no attempt was made to correct the content, though errors in spelling and grammar abound. The colors of the plates were restored on the assumption that they were originally printed on off-white lithograph stock. This would not have been as bright as modern paper, and care has thus been taken not to overbrighten the colors. The sole botany il- lustration in plate 2 seems to have a strong green cast, but this was apparently the artist’s intent. Finally, Perry re-issued two numbers of the Arcana in order to standardize the layout so that each new part would start on a recto page. As new scientific names were intro- duced in both numbers, however, it was decided to reproduce the original versions here. [ viii ] PERRY’S Arcana collation and SYStEmatic REviEw
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