Annotated Published Works by Sir Charles Lyell, 1830-1874

Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, planned since 1827 when he was aged 30 and published in 1830, was the culmination of his interests, education and travel. He would go on to dedicate his life to writing science and travel books. Lyell lived, worked and published in an age distinguished by growing public interest in the sciences and by publishers keen to meet that interest. This was a period marked by the appearance of new scientific journals and literary periodicals, and by scientific societies. Publishers were keen to promote new ideas and theories, producing books in expensive quarto editions and in cheaper and more widely available octavo format, and they encouraged illustrations of different sorts to illuminate their texts. Lyell benefitted from and responded to these circumstances. He had a good working relationship in particular with the publisher John Murray (1778 - 1843) who produced several editions of Lyell’s Principles of Geology, Lyell’s first and most influential book. Lyell’s writing process is evidenced throughout this collection – data gathering in the notebooks, the correspondence, the lectures and correspondence.
This series contains Lyell’s own - at times heavily - annotated copies of his publications, with specific copies acquired to physically record the changes, with inserts, pinned cut sections, and notes.
Lyell's printed books also exist in the University Library collection, as copies bought by the University for use by students, and, as gifts back to the Library - many appear to have been awarded as prizes, reflecting the seminal nature of the text as the scienfitic work of its time.