Phenomenon of Man First Edition - Pierre Teilhard de chardin

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Phenomenon of Man

Pierre TEILHARD DE CHARDIN

Item#: 109434 We're sorry, this item has been sold

"A GREAT MAN OF SCIENCE AND A GREAT SOUL" (ARNOLD TOYNBEE)

TEILHARD DE CHARDIN, Pierre. The Phenomenon of Man. New York: Harper & Brothers, (1959). Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition in English of Pierre Teilhard's de Chardin's most important work.

A Jesuit trained as an archaologist, Teilhard de Chardin was insistent on the importance of reconciling science (and evolution in particular) with faith, which increasingly led him towards mystical understandings of both; this placed him in almost constant conflict with the Catholic church, which forbade him to publish his masterwork, The Phenomenon of Man. Although written in the 1930s and early 40s, it first published in 1955 in French, shortly after his death.

Only very minor spotting to cloth rear board. A fine copy.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
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Doublure Pastedowns made not of paper but of leather, for decorative purposes.
Duodecimo (12MO) Smaller than an octavo, typically less than six inches tall; smaller formats, such as 24mo and 32mo, are uncommon.
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Engraving Illustration produced by carving lines into a metal plate. This is an intaglio process, in which ink is poured over the plate, then wiped from the surface, leaving ink only in the recesses made by the engraver’s tools. The image is then transferred by pressing thick dampened paper against the metal plate with great force—requiring engravings to be printed on a separate stock and separate press from any text.
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Wood-Engraving Engraving made with the graver or burin on the cross-section of a piece of boxwood; the harder wood and finer tools allow for more delicate, finely detailed images, while the block can still be set in the page alongside text and printed on the same stock as the text. While much older, wood engravings enjoyed an important renaissance in the late eighteenth century through Thomas Bewick and continued in popularity thorugh the nineteenth century.
Wormhole Tiny pinhole-sized trails left by bookworms as they eat through a text block. Much more common in older books printed on handmade papers with a high rag content than in books printed on manufactured papers made from wood pulp with a higher acidic content.
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