Musaeum Regalis Societatis or a Catalogue & Description Of the Natural and Artificial Rarities Belonging to the Royal Society and preserved at Gresham Colledge. Made By Nehemiah Grew M. D. Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the Colledge of Physitians. Whereunto is Subjoyned the Comparative Anatomy of Stomachs and Guts. By the same Author

London: Hugh Newman, 1681. FIRST EDITION. Hardcover. Fine. Including thirty-one full-paged engraved plates (one folding) of the marvelous and exotic subjects of the collections of the Royal Society, and the engraved portrait of the dedicatee Daniel Colwall (d. 1690), the Society's benefactor. Bound in contemporary paneled calf, very nicely rebacked re-cornered, endpapers renewed, some wear to the surface of the boards. An excellent, clean copy. Short worm-trail in the inner margin of the opening leaves, small hole in inner margin of leaf F2. This copy has the usual pen corrections (found in all copies.) Leaf Aa1, Bb1, Pp2 and Pp4 have a few small ink spots (courtesy of the corrector.) Provenance: With the Gaddesden Library bookplate of Sir Walter Halsey (1868-1950). The Gaddesden Library was built 1768 to 1773 by Thomas Halsey, Esq. (1731-1788), in Hertfordshire, England. First edition of the first catalogue of the collections of the Royal Society's collections of ethnographic objects and natural history specimens. At the core of the collection are the donations from the "curiosity cabinets" of the Society's membership, and Robert Hubert's cabinet of "natural rarities", purchased in 1665. The catalogue is the work of Nehemiah Grew, one of the most distinguished scientists of the 17th century, best known for work in plant anatomy, and one of the earliest comparative anatomists to use the microscope. This book also includes his study of the digestive organs, "the first zoological book to have the term 'comparative anatomy' on the title page, and also the first attempt to deal with one system of organs only by the comparative method." (Garrison-Morton 297). The illustrations include a hippopotamus skull, the buttock skin of a rhinoceros, tortoise shells, the skeleton of a crocodile, the sea unicorn, a coconut, fish, bird's nests, shells, insects, and more.

American Specimens:

Grew describes numerous American specimens, and many are illustrated. There are descriptions of "Virginian money" (a string of hare's teeth), wampum, maize, and a sloth that breeds in Florida. Illustrations include an armadillo, Indian plum stone, coconut, Indian filbert, Butter Nut, and an Indian gourd.

"The Sloath. Ignavus sive Pigritia. An Animal of so slow a motion, that he will be three or four days, at least, in climbing up and coming down a Tree. And to go the length of fifty Paces on plain ground, requires a whole day. The Natives of Brasile call him Haii, from his voice of a like sound: which he commonly repeats about six times together, descending, as if one should sing, La, sol, fa, mi, re, ute Whatsoever he takes hold of, he doth it so strongly (or, rather stifly) as sometimes to sleep securely while he hangs at it. See his Description in Clusius, Marggravius, Piso, and others. They all seem to omit the length of his fore feet, which is almost double to that of his hinder. From the shag of his Body, the shape of his Legs, his having little or no Tail, the slowness of his gate, and his climbing up of Trees, as little Bears are us'd to do, he seems to come near the Bear-kind: from which he chiefly differs, In having but three Claws upon a foot. He breedeth principally in Florida and Brasile". (p. 11)

"Several sorts of Indian money, called Wampam-Peage. 'Tis made of a sort of Shell, formed into small Cylinders, about a ¼ of an inch long, or somewhat more or less: and so being bored, as Beads, and put upon Strings, pass among the Indians, in their usual Commerse, as Silver and Gold amongst us. But being loose, is not so currant".... "A string of Virginian Money. A Row of Teeth in shape like the fore-Teeth of a Hare: all woven together at one end, with brown twisted thread, into one piece ¼ yard long."(p. 370)

"Several Spikes or Heads of Mayz or Indian-Wheat; with the Grains, as is not unusual, of three or four colours. The Description of the Plant, with a large Account of its Culture, and Use, were communicated by Mr. Winthrop sometime since Governour of Connecticut in New England: and by me lately published, in a succinct but full Relation, with some alteration of the Method. The Plant grows to the height of six or eight feet; and is joynted like a Cane. 'Tis also full of a sweet juyce like that of the Sugar-Cane. On the Spike grow several strong thick Husks, which, before it is ripe, shut it close up round about. Thereby defending it, not only from all Weathers, but also the Ravine of Birds, to which, the Corn, while tender, is a sweet and enticing food". (p. 222)

The Collections of the Royal Society:

The Royal Society was officially founded in 1660. It soon established a 'repository', to be displayed first at Gresham College, Bishopsgate, to further the fellows' understanding of the natural world. In 1663, Robert Hooke was appointed the repository's first keeper.

Fellows of the Society presented gifts and in 1665 the Society purchased Robert Hubert's cabinet of 'natural rarities'. This had been displayed to the public at Hubert's house near St Paul's Cathedral. While Hubert had charged an entrance fee to make money from the collection, the Society used it for research. 'Employed for philosophical and useful purposes' the repository helped further the fellows' understanding of the natural world. In 1678, Nehemiah Grew was ordered to compile a catalogue of the (still rapidly growing) collection.

The world surrendered its most notable artifacts, natural and otherwise. Some of the 'oddities' described include: an Egyptian mummy, a male human fetus, the "skin of a moor", the skeleton of an abortive human fetus, human skulls, a penis, the womb of a woman, a sloth, a monstrous calf with two heads, a crocodile, a chameleon, a senembi lizard of Brazil, the skin of a few snakes from Brazil, a great bat from the West Indies, a Bird of Paradise, the leg of a dodo, several loons, an auk (now extinct), many eggs and nests, coral, stones, gems, an air pump, a condensing engine, a weather clock, two microscopes, an otocoustick, a reflecting telescope, a model of a winding stair case, a double bottomed ship, a canoe, a poisoned dagger, a cider press, Virginian money, a hammock, many Native American everyday objects, Icelandic gloves, the fan of an Indian king, a snow shoe from Greenland, and much more.

Further reading: Jennifer Thomas, "A 'Philosophical Storehouse': The Life and Afterlife of the Royal Society's Repository", and Michael Hunter on the Royal Society' "Repository" in Impey and MacGregor, pp. 159-168, and his "Establishing the new science: the experience of the early Royal Society"(1989).