Ffeil NLW MS 24052E. - Lewis Morris' De Historia Piscium

The second edition (or reissue), [1740], of Francis Willughby's De Historia Piscium Libri Quatuor (Oxford, 1686) [ESTC N51867, where it is dated c. 1743]. The work is made up of the De Historia Piscium Libri Quatuor (ff. 2-177), together with 'Appendix ad historiam naturalem piscium' (London, 1740) (ff. 178-205) and a sequence of some 187 engraved plates from the first edition (on the rectos of ff. 206-392). The plates have been extensively annotated (with English and Welsh names, and eyewitness accounts), and sometimes further illustrated (on ff. 215, 224, 244, 248, 281 verso, 283, 295, 341 verso, 347), by Welsh polymath Lewis Morris.
Morris' marginal notes glossing the printed text appear on ff. 4 recto-verso, 85, 88 verso-90, 92, 97-104 verso, 115 verso-116, 118, 137, 146, 165 recto-verso, 175 verso-176, 178, 188 verso-189, 191, 192, 194 verso-195 verso, 197, 198 verso-199, 200, 202-204; his Welsh translations of fish names on ff. 16 verso-18; and extensive notes on fish on ff. 206-391 passim. These last set of notes reflect Morris' retrospective interest in fish seen on the coast of Anglesey (ff. 189, 213, 215, 227, 240, 242, 250, 251 verso, 280 verso, 281 verso, 283, 284, 285, 286, 341 verso, 347) and elsewhere (ff. 224, 248, 295 verso) before his departure to Cardiganshire in 1742. Further accounts of fish seen in Cardigan Bay are on ff. 241, 243 verso, 295 (dated 1747) and 311 (dated 1745). It is possible that these notes form the basis of Lewis Morris' projected, but unpublished, Natural History of Anglesey (see Dafydd Wyn Wiliam, Lewis Morris: Deugain Mlynedd Cyntaf ei Oes 1700/1-42 ([Bodedern], 1997), p. 150). See also Maredudd ap Huw, 'Pysgod Lewis Morris', Tlysau'r Hen Oesoedd, 37 (Ebrill 2015), 3-10.