Illustrated with eight engraved plates, and bound in contemporary panelled calf, the 1699 first edition in the Earl of Macclesfield’s library made £600 at Sotheby’s on March 13.
Man and Ape
Edward Tyson’s Orang-outang, sive homo sylvestris: Or, the anatomy of a pygmiecompared with that of a monkey, an ape, and a man... was the first work to demonstrate scientifically the structural relationships between man and anthropoid ape and one which had a powerful influence on subsequent thoughts on man’s place in nature – albeit the orang-outang on which his work was based was actually a young chimpanzee.
