THE

NATURAL HISTORY
OF CAROLINA, FLORIDA &
THE BAHAMA ISLANDS

BY

MARK CATESBY FRS

(1682-1749)

containing the figures of
BIRDS, BEASTS, FISHES, SERPENTS
INSECTS & PLANTS

PROSPECTUS

for the Facsimile Edition of the Original & Unpublished

Watercolour Drawings

to be published by

Alecto Historical Editions

LONDON


The Author went to CAROLINA in the Year 1722 where, after having described the
Productions of the low and flat Parts of the Country, he went from thence several
hundred Miles within Land, performing the same amongst the Mountainous Parts.
After three Years Continuous in CAROLINA and various Parts of Florida, he went to
the BAHAMA Islands amongst which he made as much Search into the like natural
Productions, as nine Months Stay would admit of...

MARK CATESBY
from his original prospectus


As FIGURES convey the strongest Ideas, and determine the Subjects treated of in
Natural History, the Want of which hath caused so great Uncertainty in the Knowledge
of what the antients have described barely by words, in order to avoid such
confusions, we shall take care to exhibit everything drawn by the Life.

MARK CATESBY
from his original prospectus

The Natural History of
Carolina, Florida & the Bahama Islands
by Mark Catesby FRS

PROSPECTUS

The original watercolour drawings, from which the plates for Catesby's Natural History
were etched, were purchased by King George III in 1768. They have remained,
unpublished, in the Royal Library ever since.

Catesby's celebrated work, begun in 1729 and not completed until 1747, is the first
major illustrated record of the flora and fauna of the British colonies in North America.
No comparable publication was undertaken until the first decades of the nineteenth
century.

This facsimile edition of the watercolours will comprise all two hundred and sixty-three
images in the Royal Collection and will be published in Parts over a three year period.
The edition will be limited to fifty complete sets, numbered 1/50 to 50/50, with an
additional ten sets hors de commerce, numbered HC I/X to HC X/X.

The facsimiles will be hand-printed, one colour at a time, by the stochastic
lithographic process on a flatbed proofing press.

The Royal Library has undertaken not to allow the publication of a subsequent
facsimile of the watercolours until at least fifty years have passed from the completion
of this first edition.


Mr Catesby, a Gentleman of a small fortune ...
pretty well skill'd in Natural History, who designs and
paints in water colours to perfection ...

WILLIAM SHERARD
a fellow botanist, writing to Dr Richardson in 1720

Mark Catesby and The Natural History

Between 1729 and 1747, the English naturalist Mark Catesby (1682-1749) devoted
himself to the preparation of the first major, illustrated publication on the natural
history of the British colonies of North America.' Tutored in his youth by, the
pre-eminent naturalist John Ray, Catesby had undertaken his first expedition to the
New World 'to search after Plants, and other Productions of Nature', between 1712
and 1719.² On this venture, he explored Virginia, from the tidewater region to the first
ranges of the Appalachians and, inspired by the first volume of Sir Hans Sloane's The
Natural History of Jamaica (1707), he made a voyage to the West Indies.

Although Catesby explored, botanized and collected, sent preserved and dried
specimens home to friends, and made his first specimen drawings of birds, he does
not appear to have formulated his plan to publish a natural history during this first visit
to America. He seems, instead to have arrived at the idea upon his return to England,
where the excitement expressed by his colleagues over his collections and his
drawings convinced him to recross the Atlantic in 1722 to continue his research in
Carolina and Florida. In 1726, after a nine month stay in the Bahama Islands, he
returned to London, which he described as 'the Centre of all Science', to begin his
work on an 'Essay Towards a Natural History', a detailed visual and verbal account of
the extensive region that he had explored.' The 'Essay' would take him twenty?one
years to complete.

As with this facsimile edition of the watercolours, Catesby published his work in
Parts, by subscription, periodically issuing groups of twenty plates. Although the
publication dates are printed on the titlepages as 1731 and 1743, in actuality the
plates were issued between 1729 and 1747, and have generally been bound into two
volumes. The map of the eastern seaboard of North America, copied by Catesby after
Henry Popple's Map of the British Empire in America with French and Spanish
Settlements Adjacent Thereto (London, 1733), and included in the second volume, will
be reissued with this publication.

As the parts of the Natural History appeared, the publication came to be recognized
by Catesby's international network of colleagues as the most comprehensive
compendium of knowledge about the flora and fauna of North America to date. Carl
Linnæus, Johann Friedrich Gronovius, Johann Jacob Dillenius and Phillip Miller drew
heavily upon Catesby's illustrations and descriptions of animals and plants to
complete their own taxonomic identifications of North American species. Many
colonial naturalists, including Cadwallader and Jane Colden and John and William
Bartram, relied upon Catesby's work as well. No comparable illustrated publication on
the natural history of North America was undertaken until the first decades of the
nineteenth century. Catesby's Natural History thus remained an important pictorial
reference in the private libraries of naturalists, as well as in the libraries of scientific
institutions, from the Royal Society in London to the American Philosophical Society
in Philadelphia.

THE WATERCOLOUR DRAWINGS FOR THE Natural History
IN THE ROYAL LIBRARY

In the introduction to his Natural History, Catesby clearly stated the importance he
placed on the visual depiction of the natural world in the scientific quest for an
accurate understanding of Creation:

The Illuminating Natural History is so particularly Essential to the perfect
understanding of it, that I may aver a clearer Idea may be conceiv'd from the figures of
animals and Plants in their proper Colours, than from the most exact Description
without them .... 4

Catesby was joined by many of his colleagues, including the English naturalist -
artists Eleazar Albin and George Edwards, in expressing his belief in the superiority of
illustrations over words as a means for conveying the results of empirical observation.
This commonly held faith in visual images as imparting the most truthful view of the
natural world derived from the tenets of empirical science as they had developed in the
sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

Sensorial, and particularly visual, experience came to be understood as the basis for
achieving an accurate understanding of the character of physical Creation. Drawings
(and the prints that derived from them) were believed to replicate visual experience as
closely as possible; indeed in Albin's words, they provided an experience 'next to a
view of the things themselves'.

Catesby clearly expended most of his energy in creating his drawings, and prints, for
his Natural History precisely because he believed them to be the most critical aspect
of the contribution that he would make to a scientific understanding of the natural
history of the New World. In his original prospectus for the Natural History, which will
also be reissued with this publication, he proudly advertised that the 'original paintings'
could be seen at 'the Author's ... in Hoxton'. Not only would these works give the
potential subscriber a sense of the full range of subjects to be embraced by the
publication, but, from Catesby's vantage point, they would serve as visual proof of the
immediate empirical experience upon which the prints for the Natural History were
ultimately based.

As the cornerstone of his work, Catesby saved the original drawings for his
publication, and these works are now preserved in the Royal Library at Windsor
Castle. The drawings, bound into three volumes, were purchased by King George III in
1768 from the London bookseller and publisher, Thomas Cadell. The price of one
hundred and twenty pounds paid by the King, a considerable sum by the standards of
the day, indicates something of George III's interest in natural history, the set of
Catesby's drawings being only one of a number of important purchases made by him
in the area of natural history illustration.

The collection in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, represents a unique, master
edition of Catesby's Natural History assembled from the finished drawings that formed
the basis for his prints. Since several drawings often served as the model for an
individual plate, the set of watercolour drawings is much longer than the published
Natural History, comprising 263 drawings as opposed to the 220 prints contained in
the volumes of etchings.

Catesby did not sign the drawings in the Windsor set. Although his highly
characteristic palette, approach to composition, and handling of paint are apparent in
most of the works, there are noticeable exceptions to this consistency in style.
Continuing research on the drawings has shown that at least eleven of them can be
assigned to Catesby's friend and colleague, George Dionysius Ehret, the most highly
regarded botanical artist of the period, and there are other works by as yet unidentified
hands. The Royal collection demonstrates that Catesby's publication was actually an
important collaborative effort, including the work of notable naturalist-artists from the
eighteenth century as well as a small group from the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries whose work was adapted by Catesby for his Natural History.

Amy R. W. MEYERS, Curator, American Art
The Henry E. Huntington Library, Art Collections
& Botanical Gardens

THE FACSIMILE EDITION
AND THE STOCHASTIC PROCESS

The plates in the Alecto edition will be printed by stochastic lithography. This process
represents a completely new advance in printing technology. Unlike conventional
lithographic origination which employs the mechanical cross-line screen and the equal
spacing of half-tone dots, computer-controlled stochastic, or frequency modulated
screening, delivers a random effect from microdots whose distribution varies according
to tonal value.



Alecto's master printers will be operating on a proofing press, to allow the
hand-printing of each impression, one colour at a time. In this way they will build up a
richness and perfection of result not possible on commercial multi-unit presses; the
originals will be matched with extraordinary accuracy.

To guarantee perfect quality for each impression we have found that the print run has
to be limited to no more than sixty copies: only by doing so can the necessarily
unhurried and careful process be made possible.

When the print run for each image has been completed the plates will be destroyed.

NOTES

1 Unless otherwise noted, all factual information on Catesby's life and work contained
within this Prospectus is derived from George Frederick Frick and Raymond Phineas
Stearns, Mark Catesby The Colonial Audubon (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
1961) and Amy R. W. Meyers, the Wilderness: Changing Conceptions of Nature in
American Natural History Illustration, 1660-1880 (Yale University doctoral dissertation,
1985).

2 Mark Catesby, The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands.
Containing the Figures of Birds, Beasts, Fishes Serpents, Insects, and Plants, 2 vols
(London, 1731-43 11729-4-1, 1, p.

3 Mark Catesby, Proposals for Printing an Essay towards a Natural History of
Carolina Forida and the Bahama Islands, (London: c.1729)

4 Catesby, 1, pp.xi-xii.


THE ROYAL COLLECTION

The present Royal Library at Windsor Castle was created in the 1830s at the
command of William IV. In addition to books, the Royal Library holds virtually all of the
Royal Collection of Old Master drawings, watercolours and prints which has been
accumulated by successive Sovereigns over the last five centuries and numbers over
200,000 individual items. It is housed in the Print Room, situated on the north front of
the Upper Ward of the Castle, below the book section of the Library and adjacent to
the State Apartments. George III took a particular interest in watercolours of natural
history subjects and added a number of beautiful examples to the collection. The
Library is not open to the public, but bona fide researchers can apply to the Librarian
to see unique material.

ALECTO HISTORICAL EDITIONS

publishes material of especial historic and artistic significance, and is a division of
Editions Alecto Limited, established in 1962. Recent publications include Banks'
Florilegium, the thirty-five volume set of previously unpublished botanical engravings of
the plants collected on Captain Cook's First Voyage, 1768-71, published in
association with the British Museum (Natural History); a portfolio of six engravings
from John James Audubon's Birds of America, 1828-36, printed from the original
plates, and published in association with the American Museum of Natural History.
Bodmer's America, Karl Bodmer's illustrations to Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied's
Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-34, published in association with the
Joslyn Art Museum; and the official facsimile of King William the Conqueror's
Domesday Book, 1086-87, published at the invitation of the Keeper of Public Records.


TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

EDITION SIZE 50 complete sets of all 263 watercolours numbered 1/50 to 50/50 with
an additional 10 sets hors de commerce numbered HC I/X to HC X/X.

IMAGE SIZE The majority of the watercolours are uniform in size: 10½ x 14½ inches
(268 x 372 mm).

PAPER 100lb text (150 gsm) acid-free Mohawk Superfine soft-white eggshell paper
applied by chine collée to a special making of 80lb cover (250 gsm) acid-free
Somerset mouldmade paper. Overall sheet size 19 x 24 inches (487 x 609 mm).

PROCESS Stochastic lithography hand-printed, one colour at a time, on an FAG
flatbed proofing press.

IDENTIFICATION The title of each plate and the Royal Library catalogue number will
be hand-written in pencil immediately below the printed image. A blind-embossed
chop incorporating the publishing marks of the Royal Library and Alecto Historical
Editions, the copyright symbol C and the year of publication will be stamped on the
bottom right-hand corner of each sheet on the recto.

PRESENTATION Each of the 263 plates will be protected by a sheet of acid-free
Okashi White Japanese tissue.

TEXT Title-page, list of plates, list of subscribers to this edition, and colophon sheet.

BOXING The plates will be contained as loose sheets in three hand-made Solander
cases, gold-blocked with King George III's Royal Cypher on the face. Overall size of
each case 20¼ x 25¾ x 4½ inches (513 x 644 x 113 mm).

OPTIONS Individually designed cases or binding can be arranged to subscribers' own
specification. The plates may also be presented in acid-free museum board matts,
suitable for exhibition and framing.

LIMITATION The Royal Library has undertaken not to allow the publication of a
subsequent facsimile of the watercolours until at least fifty years have passed from the
completion of this edition.


METHOD OF PAYMENT, TERMS & CONDITIONS

1. Payments should be made by bank transfer or by certified cheque in favour of
Editions Alecto Limited. For Bank transfers please give your Bank the following
instructions in full:

Forward payment to: State Street Bank International, New York
(SWIFT: SBOSUS3N)
For credit to. Royal Bank of Scotland, International Division,
London
(SWIFT: RBOSGB2L)
For onward credit to, Editions Alecto Ltd, held at Great Tower Street
Please request that a SWIFT MT 100 be sent direct to RBS International
Division in London

2. In the event of the edition being oversubscribed your payment will be returned
immediately.

3.The Subscription Price is based on, inter alia, the costs of materials, printing,
labour, currency exchange rates and statutory obligations ruling at the date of the
Company's acceptance of the Subscriber's order and if before delivery of part or the
whole of the Publication there occurs any increase, howsoever arising, in the cost to
the Company of supplying the Publication, including (without limitation) any of the
above matters, the Company shall be entitled to adjust the Subscription Price by a
reasonable amount to take account of such increases.

4. Editions Alecto Limited reserves the right to charge interest and/or to cancel the
order with forfeiture of the whole or part of the deposit if the balance of the purchase
price is not paid within thirty days of notification than an issue is ready for despatch.

5. Editions Alecto Limited and Alecto Historical Editions accept no liability for delay or
non-delivery due to damage to the plates, fire, shortage of materials or other
circumstances outside their control.

6. These conditions of sale, together with the details set out under Publishing
Specifications and on the Order Form, shall form the basis of all contracts for
purchase between Editions Alecto Limited and the Subscriber and the placing of an
order by the Subscriber shall be acceptance by the Subscriber of these conditions.

The Facsimile Edition of the Watercolours for
The Natural History of Carolina, Florida
& the Bahama Islands
by Mark Catesby FRS (1682-1749)

PUBLISHING SPECIFICATIONS

EDITION SIZE: 50 complete Sets Of all 263 watercolours numbered 1/50 to
50/50 with an additional 10 sets hors de commerce numbered HC I/X to HC X/X

PUBLISHING POLICY: The 263 watercolours will be divided into 52 Parts, each
containing 5 plates. [Parts 50 - 52 will contain 6 plates]

Four Parts, totalling 20 plates, will be issued every quarter. The first issue will be
made in May 1996; the final and thirteenth will be made in May 1999.

SUBSCRIPTION Policy: The pre-publication price for the first issue of four Parts is
$4,000 ($200 per plate).

After 31 May 1996, if any sets remain available, the publication price for the first issue
will be $5,000 ($250 per plate).

Subscribers who elect to pay in advance for the complete collection of all 263 plates
may do so at the special price of $39,450 ($150 per plate).

PAYMENT TERMS: Subscribers will be asked to pay a deposit of 50% of the
applicable subscription price for the first issue of four Parts.

The balance for the first four Parts, together with a deposit of 50% of the subscription
price for the next four Parts, will become due when Subscribers are notified that their
plates are ready for despatch; and so on throughout the publication.


With each complete set of the
CATESBY Facsimile EDITION
twenty-six additional hors de commerce prints
will be given

FREE OF CHARGE

It has become the custom in the twentieth century for publishers of limited edition
prints to issue a small number of additional impressions as hors de commerce prints,
'outside the commercial edition'.

One, or sometimes two, sets of these hors de commerce, or HC, prints are kept as
copies of record; the others are customarily distributed by the publisher to people who
have collaborated in the publication.

In this edition of the Catesby watercolours there are ten sets of hors de commerce
prints, numbered HC I/X to HC X/X The first five of these sets will be distributed by the
publisher in the normal way; the second five will be divided between the fifty
Subscribers to the numbered edition.

With each of the thirteen issues of the Catesby edition two additional HC prints from
sets HC VI/X to HC X/X will be included so that, when the publication is complete,
each Subscriber will have received 26 individual prints over and above the full set Of
263 watercolours. The individual prints for each set will be selected to ensure that
each Subscriber receives a representative group of prints.

This new policy has been introduced to give Subscribers the opportunity to frame
individual images without 'breaking the set' of the complete collection and to provide
suitable 'thank you' presents for donors who have helped to raise funds for an
institutional subscription.

ORDER FORM

[ ] I/We wish to subscribe to a complete set of the first facsimile edition of Mark
Catesby's original watercolour drawings from the Royal Collection in the Royal Library
at Windsor. I/We understand that the edition is limited to 50 numbered sets of all 263
watercolours, and that the 52 Parts of the edition will be issued in 13 quarterly
instalments. [Edition numbers will be issued on a strictly first come first served basis.]

[ ] I/We would like to take advantage of the advance subscription price for the
complete collection and I/we have remitted my/our Payment of US$39,450.

[ ] I/We wish to subscribe to the complete collection in thirteen instalments. I/We
enclose my/our deposit of US$2,000 for the first issue [Parts

[ ] I/We understand that the balance of US$2,000 for Parts I-IV plus the deposit of
US$2,000 for Parts VI-VIII will be payable before the first four Parts are despatched.

[ ] I/We understand that subscription prices are ex-Alecto's studios in London, and
that insurance and shipping will be invoiced separately at cost.

[ ] Please send me/us details of alternative boxing and binding options.


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