Printed at the Theatre, Oxford.1677, Folio, contemporary calf gilt, with engraved title, folding engraved map, and 16 engraved plates.
First Edition,
Born in Borden, Kent 1640 and died in Borden, 1696, Plot was a British Naturalist, Professor of Chemistry at Oxford University and the first keeper of the Ashmolean Museum.
He is known for looking for natural curiosities in several English counties, writing Natural History of Oxfordshire in which he described the fossilised femur of a giant (now known to be from the dinosaur Megalosaurus) and Natural History of Staffordshire, in which he describes a double sunset.
In 1677 he became a fellow of the Royal Society due to his exhibit of minerals, and in 1682 became the society’s Secretary and joint editor of the Philosophical Transactions In the field of chemistry he searched for a universal solvent that could be obtained from wine spirits, and believed alchemy was necessary for medicine. After 1686 Robert Plot focused more on archaeology, but misinterpreted Roman remains as Saxon. He stressed the unusual, studied echoes to learn about air, mineral waters, and recognised types of earth in layers, but believed fossil shellfish were coincidental mineral crystallisations, and that some spring water must originate from the sea flowing through underground channels.
