''Prodromus Entomology'' is one of the earliest books about Australian natural history, and the first book about Australia containing plates engraved in Australia. The full title of the first edition is ''Prodromus Entomology. Natural History of Lepidopterous Insects of New South Wales, collected, engraved and faithfully painted after nature''.

History

The author and illustrator, John William Lewin, travelled from England to the new British settlement of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

in 1799 (arriving in January 1800), becoming the colony’s first professional artist. His journey was sponsored by wealthy

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

Dru Drury, who was to be repaid with specimens of new

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s. Despite initial delays and distractions, Lewin began his investigations of the natural history in the general vicinity of Sydney, eventually producing illustrated books on

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

s and

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s, of which the ''Prodromus'' was the first.

First edition

The ''Prodromus'' was published in 1805 in London. The first edition contains 18 colour plates of moths found in the vicinity of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, with accompanying descriptive and scientific text, with which Lewin was considerably assisted in the identification and classification of the species depicted, by entomologist

Alexander Macleay Alexander Macleay (also spelt McLeay) MLC FLS FRS (24 June 1767 – 18 July 1848) was a leading member of the Linnean Society, a fellow of the Royal Society and member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. Life Macleay was born on Ro ...

. The moths are shown accurately with the food plants of their larvae, from which they were cultured by the author. Lewin etched the copper plates for the illustrations in Australia and then sent them to his brother Thomas in London for printing. The book was offered for subscription at varying prices for different qualities of plate colouring, and issued in imperial

quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

, medium quarto and demy quarto sizes. It was dedicated to The Right Honourable Lady Arden. In the preface Thomas Lewin says:

”The contents of this little Volume are Lepidopterous Insects, indigenous of New South Wales, were there collected, painted, and engraved, by the Author; and sent to London by him for publication, to furnish him with the means of returning to England, his native country, after an absence of near eight years, which he has spent almost solely in the pursuit of natural history, principally in the branches,
Ornithology Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
and Entomology; in which he has in New South Wales, and in
Otaheite Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austra ...
, made some hundred of original paintings; from which it is hoped he may, by the profits of this little first effort, be enabled to return and reap an honourable benefit, as their publication, under his ingenious hand, we flatter ourselves, would somewhat redound to the honour, reputation, and increase of those branches of the sciences in Britain. The insects here figured are new, and some of them extraordinary in their natural history, the singularity of which, with the correctness of the figures, must render this Work, we conceive, particularly valuable. For till this author, none has discovered, or expected to find lepidopterous insects of the families here figured, as the destroyers of timber, or the depredators of massy and hardest trees, in the way which is here made known. And it should be observed also, that the natural history, as well as the engraving, was done on the spot, and not from dry specimens, or notes still more abstruse.”

Later editions

After Lewin’s death in Sydney in 1819 and his wife’s return to England, a second edition of the book was issued in demy quarto format, including an additional plate as a frontispiece, with the full title reduced to ''Natural History of the Lepidopterous Insects of New South Wales, painted after nature''. The date on the title page is 1822, though many issues of the second edition were not printed until later, some as late as 1827. A third, facsimile, edition was published in 2007 by Gaston Renard of Melbourne, limited to 212 copies in the Edition Renard series. As well as the text and illustrations of the early editions, it contains historical,

bibliographical Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

and publication notes, a list of the current scientific names of the moths depicted, an appendix with a table indicating the ownership and whereabouts of known surviving copies of the early editions, with acknowledgements to those assisting with the bibliographic research. The ''Prodromus'', in both its first and second editions, is a bibliographic rarity. Julien Renard comments:

”A survey of auction records since 1896 reveals ten copies of the 1805 edition of which five are explicitly identified in later collections represented in the table. Bookseller’s records available to me indicate a possible further four copies, making a maximum total of thirty-four copies of the first edition (in all forms) identified or identifiable. Similarly, auction records show twenty-two possibly distinct copies of the 1822 edition of which one is positively identified in the table and bookseller’s records indicate a possible four additional copies, making a maximum total of fifty copies of the second edition identified or identifiable. There are undoubtedly at least several more copies in private hands and still others as yet unidentified in institutional collections, but this survey gives some indication of the absolute rarity of the work.”Renard (2007), p.52.

References

Notes

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