Overview

The scientific letters of Sir Joseph Banks are an unprecedented and continuous record of 50 years of technological and intellectual development. Through his letters, this work provides an insight into the development of science and discovery from the 18th to the early 19th century. Sir Joseph Banks was a man of science and of letters. He circumnavigated the globe with Lieutenant James Cook on H.M.S. Endeavour, 1768-1771, taking with him a team of naturalists, illustrators and assistants at a personal cost of u10,000. Together they made unprecedented collections of flora and fauna at many of the places H.M.S. Endeavour visited. Banks also led the first British scientific expedition to Iceland in 1772. Later, he settled in London, and assembled an enormous library and herbarium, both of which were housed at 32 Soho Square from 1777 onwards. His collections were remarkable for their size, and especially for the unique material they contained from the Pacific. In 1778 Banks was elected President of the Royal Society, a position he held for over 41 years - the longest anyone has served in that capacity.

Full Product Details

9781851967667

Table of Contents

Reviews

'An indispensable resource' Rare Book Review 'This magnificent collection of more than 2,200 letters will restore Banks to his rightful position as one of the most influential men of the Enlightenment.' The Guardian 'Accessible and attractive ... illuminating volumes' Isis 'These six volumes offer entertaining reading as well as a rich resource for future scholarship.' Medical History 'Chambers's collections of Banks's letters not only provide an invaluable scholarly resource, but give a wonderful flavour of the world that produced Banks, and which he then proceeded to shape.' Times Literary Supplement

'An indispensable resource' Rare Book Review

'This magnificent collection of more than 2,200 letters will restore Banks to his rightful position as one of the most influential men of the Enlightenment.'- Andrea Wulf, The Guardian'An indispensable resource'- Lynn Glyn, Rare Book Review'The edition as a whole is a wonderful resource that will be mined for years to come by both historians of science and historians of British culture.'-R.W.Home, Historical Records of Australian Science

Author Information

Editor Neil Chambers is Research Curator of the Banks Archive Project at the Natural History Museum, London

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available