| Description | 'Geologische Elementarkarte' (plates 3-5), lithographed by H Klöpfel for Im Verlage des Landes - Industrie - Comptoirs, Weimar, 1838. Hand coloured, printed theoretical section through the Earth's crust intended to show the order of deposition of stratified rocks and their relations to unstratified rocks. Underneath are detailed engravings of fossils, views and other images illustrating what was known of geology at the time of publication, arranged according to the time period that they derived. Covers Transition to Quaternary only, three plates out of a probable six.
Plate 3 - Uebergangs-und secundaere gebilde (Transition to Secondary structures). [Most of the fossil illustrations are from the Bridgewater Treatise.]
Plate 4 - Tertiaere gebilde (Tertiary structures). [Only one image (the skull of a Dinotherium) is from the Bridgewater Treatise, the rest from other publications.]
Plate 5 - Quartaere und vulkanische gebilde (Quaternary and volcanic structures). [Images of the bone caves and the Kirkdale Cavern specimens taken from 'Reliquiae diluvianae'.] |
| Administrative History | The front of each as been annotated by George Bellas Greenough that the illustrations have been taken without acknowledgement from William Buckland's 'Bridgewater Treatise' (1836). Whilst the main section is clearly from the 'Bridgewater Treatise', the illustrations are in fact taken from a number of unacknowledged sources, including Buckland's earlier 'Reliquiae diluvianae' (1823), his famous account of the excavation of Kirkdale Cavern, Yorkshire.
Not much is known about the three plates, other than that they were in the possession of George Bellas Greenough, and formed part of the bequest given to the Society in 1856. The plates still bear Greenough's original labels on which he states that the contents had been taken without acknowledgement from William Buckland's 'Bridgewater Treatise' [Geology and mineralogy considered with reference to natural theology, published in 1836]. Whilst the striking top section is obviously based on the one included in the ‘Bridgewater Treatise’, in fact the publishers, Im Verlage des Landes-Industrie-Comptoirs, reference a number of contemporary works from other leading scientists of the day including Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), Charles Lyell (1797-1875) and Georges Cuvier (1769-1832). |
| Publication Note | Based on: Buckland, W. 'Geology and mineralogy considered with reference to natural theology', [Bridgewater Treatise 6] London: William Pickering, 1836; Buckland, W 'Reliquiae diluvianae; or, Observations on the organic remains contained in caves, fissures, and diluvial gravel, and on other geological phenomena, attesting the action of an universal deluge', London: John Murray (1823). |