LINNAEUS, Carolus. Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Holmiae: Laurent Salvi. 1758-9.
8vo. 2 vols. Contemporary full tree calf, marbled endpapers, marbled edges, in custom-made brown leather backed solander box by James Brockman of Oxford; pp. I: [iv], 823 [1]; II: [iv], 825-1384; occasional spotting, old paper repairs to blank flyleaf of vol I and rfep of vol II; very good; erased signatures to front pastedowns, old ink shelfmarks to pastedowns and ffeps.
Tenth edition, the crucial and revolutionary edition in which Linnaeus carried out the definitive plan of binomial nomenclature and applied it to zoology for the first time. He lays out the definitions of different taxonomic classifications and the use of the generic and trivial names to form the specific name of individual organisms. Even before this edition, this work had proved visionary in its division of the natural world into the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms, and had staked its claim as one of the great books in the history of science for its fundamental contributions to both taxonomy and nomenclature. It was this version, though, that really marked the start of a new epoch in natural science.
Hulth, pp. 6-7; Soulsby, 58.
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