The first and only publication of The Skottowe Manuscript since its creation in 1813. This full colour-facsimile and study of the famous manuscript in the Mitchell Library won the prestigious Galley Club of Sydney Award for Excellence.

The first and only publication of The Skottowe Manuscript since its creation in 1813. This full colour-facsimile and study of the famous manuscript in the Mitchell Library won the prestigious Galley Club of Sydney Award for Excellence.

Celebrated as the best designed, illustrated adult book in the Australian Book Publishers Association Design Awards, The Skottowe Manuscript is a rare and valuable collector's piece. It is also a remarkable natural history of New South Wales. David Attenborough writes in his foreword that the book's beauty lies in its representation of '…a land full of marvels seen with wonder and innocence'.

This is the first and only publication of The Skottowe Manuscript since its creation one hundred and seventy-five years ago. In 1813, Thomas Skottowe, an early colonial official, and convict artist Richard Browne compiled a remarkable record of the birds, animals, insects, reptiles, and fish of the New South Wales region, comprising 27 watercolours and 26 pages of hand-written copper-plate text. For each illustration in Volume I, Skottowe records his own excited comments and the native name for the subject, making The Skottowe Manuscript a delight to read as well as admire. To place the work in its historical context, author and historian Tim Bonyhady writes knowledgeably about the content of the manuscript in Volume II.

The publication was limited to 550 numbered copies, but this example is one of a small number marked "Out of series" as a publisher's presentation copy.