Ɛpsilon

From R. F. Cooke   8 October 1875

50A, Albemarle Street, London. W.

Octr. 8 1875

My dear Sir

It is Sigr. Canestrini, who owes us still £10 for the Electro’s supplied in 1869 for the 1st. edition of “Domestication” & now he wishes I presume the new woodcuts in the edition now printing.1 Are there any & many?

The price for a set of the ones in the Expression is also £10.2

I have seen Messrs. Clowes & urged them on with the printing. It does not much matter as we have “Climbing Plants” ready, if “Domestication” is not finished before Decr. We can show a made up copy of Vol 1.3

I will write about Lyell’s work direct to Chiantore.4

Yours faithfully | Robt. Cooke

Chas. Darwin Esq

I suppose you have not heard whether they want a set of stereotypes of Domn for America.?5

CD annotations

1.1 Canestrini] underl blue crayon
1.3 Are there any & many?] triple scored red crayon
2.1 a set of … also £10.] triple scored red crayon
7.1 I suppose … for America.? 7.2] scored red crayon
End of letter: ‘How many Copies printed off & Stereotypes’ red crayon
Verso of last page: ‘8.2.9’ ink
1
Giovanni Canestrini had ordered electrotypes of the illustrations from the first edition of Variation for his translation, which remained unpublished; he had evidently asked for information about the illustrations for the revised translation that he was about to publish with a new publisher, Unione Tipografico-Editrice (Canestrini trans 1876); see letter from R. F. Cooke, 5 October 1875 and n. 4.
2
The Italian translation of Expression was also published by Unione Tipografico-Editrice (Canestrini and Bassani trans. 1878).
3
William Clowes & Sons were printers to John Murray. Climbing plants 2d ed. was published in November 1875 (Publishers’ circular, 16 November 1875, p. 932). Variation 2d ed. was published in February 1876 (Publishers’ circular, 1 March 1876, p. 168), although it had an 1875 imprint. Cooke planned to have a ‘made-up’ copy of vol. 1 of Variation 2d ed. for John Murray’s November sale dinner (see J. Murray 1908–9, p. 540).
4
G. Chiantore was the director of Unione Tipografico-Editrice of Turin. Murray may have been discussing a possible translation of the posthumous edition of Charles Lyell’s Principles of geology (Lyell 1875), but no Italian translation has been identified.
5
There was some doubt over whether CD’s US publisher, D. Appleton & Co., could publish the second edition of Variation, since the first US edition had been published by Orange Judd & Co. D. Appleton & Co. did publish Variation 2d US ed. from Murray’s stereotypes in 1876. See letter to R. F. Cooke, 1 September [1875] and n. 5, and letter from D. Appleton & Co., 11 October 1875.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10187,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10187