The theory of the earth, from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Hutton, James,1726-1797.
[Edinburgh : s.n.,
1787?]
The first volume of Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh was not published until 1788. However, the work was published "as an author’s separate sometime after January 1786 (at which time its text was still open for additions). A small number of copies dated 1786 were apparently run off; of them, only one is presently known. Others, also rare, are dated 1788, the year in which the Society’s Transactions finally appeared. An author would normally have received some advance copies, called “separates”, to distribute as he saw fit." (Dennis R. Dean, “James Hutton and the history of geology” (Ithaca and London, 1992).  On 25 August 1787, Josiah Wedgwood wrote James Watt a letter informing him that Josiah Wedgwood, Junior, would soon send "two books to Mr Watt's address, one for himself and the other for Mr [Matthew] Boulton; they are 'Theory of the Earth', which he has brought with him from Scotland from Doctor Hutton" (Dominic Winter sale catalogue 2011).
The final leaf contains the explanation of plate I.
The caption title on A1 names the author as James Hutton.
ESTC