Mark Catesby, Cromwell Mortimer and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1730–1748): summarizing Catesby's The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama islands

Abstract

An autograph manuscript written after late October 1747 by Mark Catesby, now in the collections of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA, reveals that he was the author of a summary of the final (eleventh) part of his own book, The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama islands (1729–1747). The summary was read to the Royal Society by Cromwell Mortimer in February 1748 and was then published under Mortimer's name in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Mortimer only lightly edited Catesby's manuscript and added an encomium. In his summary, Catesby took the opportunity, several months after the publication of the final part (“Appendix”) of his two-volume book, to enlarge on a few details.