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Sponsor a book! update, September 2009

Michael McKimm with news of the Library scheme to repair and restore its most precious volumes.


Geoscientist 19.9 September 2009


Sponsor a bookThe Library would like to thank Mr Anthony Brook, Mr Phil Clarke, Mr Warren Jones and Dr Richard Symonds for very generous donations which allowed us to restore George Cuvier’s 'Recherches sur les ossemens fossils de quadrupèdes...' (1812). The five-volume title, which was in urgent need of conservation, was returned to the Library in June, fully restored to its former glory by Aquarius Book Restorers.

The Library is appealing for donations to help preserve one of the Society’s most important archive manuscript books. A prized treasure from the archive, this manuscript book includes numerous letters, tracts and memoirs from eminent early thinkers in geology, including:
  • James Sowerby’s ‘On Kimmeridge and other coals’ [Carbonaceous sediments of Dorset], a letter to the Secretary for the nomenclature enquiry. Read 3 June 1808.
  • Charles E. Coquebert de Montbret ‘On examining the bottom of the sea’. Letter to G.B. Greenough, 16 Feb 1816
  • Charles Bathurst’s ‘Some account of the geology of the country between Stamford and Bedford’ (1826).
  • Comte de Bournon’s ‘Memoire sur la Société Géologique de Londres’ With a covering letter to W. Babington [c.1808]

For information on the great significance of the Comte de Bournon’s memoir see ‘Chapter 1. The Creation’ in Herries Davies, Gordon L. Whatever is under the earth: the Geological Society of London 1807 – 2007 (London: The Geological Society, 2007).

The total sum needed to restore this item is £2500. Donations of any size are welcomed gratefully to help us reach this target!

We are only £85 away from the total needed to conserve 'Oeuvres de Bernard Palissy, revues sur les exemplaires de la bibliothèque du Roi', by Bernard Palissy (1510?-1590). This edition, published in 1777 with notes by Barthélemy Faujas de Saint Ford and Nicolas Gobet, was presented to the Society by George Bellas Greenough.
  • Please contact Michael McKimm for more information. E: [email protected]  or T: 020 7432 0999