A Collection of Letters Illustrative of the Progress of Science in England from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to that of Charles the Second

Description:

First edition. Includes 83 letters by, among others, Thomas Digges, Tycho Brache, John Dee, Thomas Lydyat, Charles Cavendish, John Pell. 'The contents of the present volume are so very miscellaneous, that it would be a difficult task to give a satisfactory analysis of them within the limits of a few pages. Perhaps it may be sufficient to state that the Editor has endevoured to form such a collection of early letters on scientific subjects as would be likely to assist any future author of a critical history of English science...' - Preface.

The central design to the front board of this book is the 'Monas Hieroglyphica', an esoteric symbol invented and designed by John Dee, the Court Astrologer to Elizabeth I; it is also the title of the 1564 book in which Dee expounds the meaning of his symbol. One of the letters included in this published collection is from John Dee.

James Orchard Halliwell (1820-1889) was an antiquarian, literary scholar and collector of English nursery rhymes. He published many books including 'Nursery Rhymes of England' (1842) and the 'Life of Shakespeare' (1848). He was accused of stealing manuscripts from Trinity College Cambridge, and eloped with, and married, the daughter of the the famous bibliomaniac, Sir Thomas Phillipps.

Condition

8vo, orig. cloth, blind-stamped acanthus scroll frame to boards, with central gilt symbol to front board, corners lightly bumped. Bookplate of Yatton Court, Herefordshire. From the library of K.G.V. Smith (1929-2017), British dipterist at the Natural History Museum, London, and book collector. Enclosed is a post card from Paul Latcham, scholar and collector of bookplates and former editor of the Bookplate Journal. He suggests that the bookplate is probably that of J.G. Rodney Ward (resident at Yatton Court from the late 1860s to 1880s). An attached pencil note to Ken Smith in a different hand states that Latcham was pleased to see a previously unknown County bookplate [Herefordshire].