Natural History.- Grew (Nehemiah) Musaeum Regalis Societatis. or A Catalogue & Description Of the Natural and Artificial Rarities Belonging to the Royal Society And preserved at Gresham College, 2 parts in 1, first edition, engraved portrait frontispiece, 31 plates, one folding, ms corrections in ink on I3v, M1r, Aa3r, Hh4r, Rr4v, Xx4r, tear/hole in C1 part 2 in text but not affecting legibility, rust hole in N4 part 1 with slight loss of text, slight staining to upper corner at beginning, some light foxing, last couple of plates with marginal browning, contemporary speckled calf, rebacked, [Wing G1952; Osler 2840], folio, Printed by W. Rawlins, for the Author, 1681.

⁂ Grew (1641-1712) is best known for his important contributions to plant morphology and anatomy. From about 1672, the Royal Society became the focal point of much of Grew's scientific activities and most of his works originated as papers read before the Society. By 1677 he had become one of the Society's secretaries and he was 'requested' to publish this description of the Society's museum - a description which not only lists, but describes in detail, with illustrations, the rarities collected by the Society. The second part, The Comparative Anatomy of Stomachs and Guts, was an important contribution to animal anatomy.

The manuscript corrections are possibly in the hand of Richard Frewin (1681-1716, physician and professor, whose ink inscription dated 1707 is on the front free endpaper. Frewin assembled an impressive library of over 2000 volumes of science and medicine and left various scholarly trusts and an Oxford house (Frewin Hall). The correction on Xx4 inserts in an otherwise blank space before the name "Henshaw", the word "Thomas".