A New Systeme of the Mathematicks: containing I. Arithmetick, as well Natural and Decimal, as in Species, or the Principles of Algebra. II. Practical Geometry, together with the first Six Books of Euclid's Elements, as also the Eleventh and Twelfth, symbolically demonstrated. III. Trigonometry Plain and Spherical. IV. Cosmography, or a description of the heavens. V. Navigation, or Sailing by a Plain or Mercator's Chart; as also by the Arch of a Great Circle, &c. VI. The Doctrine of the Sphere, grounded on the Motion of the Earth, according to the Old Pythagorean and Copernican Systeme. VII. Astronomical Tables, with Tables of Logarithms, Natural and Artificial Sines and Tangents, and Versed Sines. VIII. A New Geography, or a Description of

Moore, Sir Jonas

Verlag: A. Godbid and J. Playford for Robert Scott 1681, London, 1681

FIRST EDITION. Engraved title followed by a letterpress title page printed in black and red. Individual title pages for the parts. Parts I. to VI. in volume one, containing 40 engraved plates, 12 of them folding, one with a vovelle. Numerous illustrations in the text, one with vovelle. Parts VII. and VIII. in volume 2, part VIII includes 49 engraved leaves with a total of 60 maps, 2 of which are folding. Maps of North America included are 'New England', 'Virginia', 'New Mexico', and 'Florida'. The section on South America includes, among others a map titled 'The Leeward Islands' showing what we would today call the Caribbean. With some individual title pages dated 1680. Bound in contemporary mottled calf boards which have a 19th century rebacking. Hinge visible in volume 1. Some rubbing and loss to surface of the joints. Six of the plates for volume 1 have been bound in the wrong places, one has a small loss at its corner, another has a tiny hole in the centre. Jonas Moore was influential in the setting up of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and together with Samuel Pepys he set up the Royal Mathematical School within Christs Hospital, with the declared intention of teaching boys navigational skills for use in the Navy. This two volume opus was put together by him, with help from others, to be a standard work in that aim. It was published posthumously. The second volume is particularly scarce and it is only rarely seen at auction in two volumes. 235mm x 180mm. Moore's scarce mathematical work was a lavish production, with finely engraved series of plates and maps of astronomy, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, cosmography, navigation and geography. Surveyor of Ordnance and a Fellow of the Royal Society, Moore had made the Tower of London a center of scientific observation and patronage. He had instructed the young John Flamsteed and Edmund Halley. Flamsteed and another pupil, Peter Perkins, prepared the present work for posthumous publication, after Moore's sudden death in 1679. The work was priced at 35s, "an exceptionally high figure" according to Taylor, especially since it was intended for the mathematical school at Christ's Hospital. The engravings and trigonometrical and logarithmic tables were finely prepared for the press. Moore himself had completed the sections on arithmetic, practical geometry, trigonometry and cosmography; while three parts were in the press, he employed Perkins to write the sections on algebra and Euclid. Perkins had begun the section on navigation before he too suddenly died. Flamsteed's section on the sphere was also included, not edited for school use. The engravings include depictions of the forestaff, quadrant, astrolabe, semi-cross, plough, bow, Davis's quadrant, nocturnal and azimuth compass, and specimens for the use of the traverse-board and of a correctly kept journal. The figure of the compass between pages 254 and 255 in volume 1 includes a volvelle. In the second volume is A New Geography, with Maps to each Country, and Tables of Longitude and Latitude, in which several parts of America are described. A definitive collation of the work has not been established. The copy described in Crone has an additional plate at 2E1. Adams & Waters 2557; Crone 295-96 (includes one additional plate); Houzeau & Lancaster 8796; Sabin 50415; Taylor Mathematical Practitioners 413; Wing M-2579 4to. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 72346

Bibliografische Details

Titel: A New Systeme of the Mathematicks: ...
Verlag: A. Godbid and J. Playford for Robert Scott 1681, London
Erscheinungsdatum: 1681
Einband: Full Calf
Zustand: Very Good
Auflage: First Edition.