A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida

The University of Florida Press is engaged in a new program which is the facsimile reproduction of rare Floridiana. This series is under the editorship of Professor Rembert W. Patrick. The Bernard Romans reproduction is the first facsimile book of this venture. Romans (1720-1784) was born in the Netherlands, migrated to England, came to America in 1757, and in 1769 was named assistant to the Surveyor General. By 1760 he “may have arrived in Florida” when he was deputy surveyor for Georgia. His Florida book is one of the best descriptions—if not the best—of early Florida. Since Florida had just become English (1763) and since Romans had probably seen Spanish Florida, the Romans book is considered a part of Spanish Florida sources. It had become one of the rarest—if not the rarest—Florida item. Patrick says that “in 1917 a copy of Romans’ rare work sold for $610, and since that date a complete copy with maps and charts has brought double that amount.” Therefore the University of Florida Press is to be praised for bringing out this well done facsimile. And the forty-one pages of introduction by Patrick are scholarly and interesting, and certainly enhance the reprint. An index is added. The cover and format are beautiful.