Mark Catesby's The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands: an e-etext

This electronic version of Mark Catesby's Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands is divided into two volumes, following Catesby's own organization of his work. Readers can browse each volume or go directly to specific entries from the contents pages. Another way to navigate this etext is through the Linnaean index. The binomial nomenclature provided here is taken from the 1771 edition of Natural History published by Benjamin White. Selecting the small image on each page will open a window with a larger copy of this image.

I have not altered Catesby's idiosyncracies in spelling, grammer or punctuation, but for the sake of legibility I have bolded words which Catesby italicized. To the same end, I have normalized the appearance of the long s.

In this electronic edition Catesby's preface appears at the start of Volume II. This is how the sections were bound in most copies of the first edition, as well as in subsequent editions, but this does depart from the copy I used in which the preface begins Volume II. While the text in every edition of Catesby's work is in French and English, I have only reproduced his words in English. This electronic edition also departs from each printed edition in that illustrations appear on the same page as the text while Catesby's illustration and relevant text were each on a separate page. Readers wishing to view a larger image, should click on the thumbnail.

Originally published on the XRoads site for the UVA American Studies program. Years range from 1995-2005. Content is captured at the level of functionality available on the date of capture.