A Journey to Paris in the Year 1698

Lomdon: Jacob Tonson, 1699. Third. Very Good.

8vo [6], 248 pp, plus 6 leaves of plates (some folding) of mollusc specimens It lacks the initial blank leaf but is otherwise complete Period speckled calf boards, rebacked, chipping to head and tail, wear to corners and edges Very small initials in early ink to title verso, four leaves with marginal chips (no loss), some occasional foxing, clean overall, Very Good Published after a six-month trip Contains various observations including those upon medical ethics, science, art, books, and others [ESTC R2460; Wing L2527]

Martin Lister FRS (1639 â€" 1712) was an English naturalist and physician His daughters Anne and Susanna were two of his illustrators and engravers

He contributed numerous articles on natural history, medicine and antiquities to the Philosophical Transactions He was the first arachnologist and conchologist, and provided an unprecedented picture of a seventeenth-century virtuoso Lister is recognized for his discovery of ballooning spiders and as the father of conchology, but it is less well known that he invented the histogram, provided Newton with alloys, and donated the first significant natural history collections to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford Just as Lister was the first to make a systematic study of spiders and their webs, this biography is the first to analyze the significant webs of knowledge, patronage, and familial and gender relationships that governed his life as a scientist and physician As a conchologist he was held in high esteem, but while he recognized the similarity of fossil mollusca to living forms, he regarded them as inorganic imitations produced in the rocks

This edition was preceded by two editions published the same year In 1697, Lister accompanied William Bentinck, Lord Portland, on a diplomatic mission to Paris as physician "His duties left him ample time to meet and talk with other intellectuals, to see their collections and gardens, and to explore the city He was there for six months and shortly after his return published A Journey to Paris in the Year 1698 The book ran to three editions within a year, but was lampooned by William King for its supposed triviality In fact, it is a unique first-hand account of Parisian scientific society, and a useful description of the city and its life" 248 pp.