Discours préliminaire
1812 Publication of Georges Cuvier’s Discours préliminaire, brought into English (1813) as: Essay on the Theory of the Earth. Image: James Thomson, Portrait (engraving) of Georges Cuvier. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.
In this work, Cuvier reads the fossil record as the evidence of a series of great terrestrial catastrophes, a view that notably affected the Romantic imagination.
Exact month of publication unknown; if you have information about the correct date, please email felluga@purdue.edu with this information.