Item #17152 The Young Mathematician’s Guide. Being a plain and easie Introduction to the Mathematicks. In Five Parts. Viz. I. Arithmetic...II. Algebra...III. The Elements of Geometry…...V. Conick-Sections...V. The Arithmetic of Infinities….With an Appendix of Practical Gauging. John Ward.
The Young Mathematician’s Guide. Being a plain and easie Introduction to the Mathematicks. In Five Parts. Viz. I. Arithmetic...II. Algebra...III. The Elements of Geometry…...V. Conick-Sections...V. The Arithmetic of Infinities….With an Appendix of Practical Gauging.
The Young Mathematician’s Guide. Being a plain and easie Introduction to the Mathematicks. In Five Parts. Viz. I. Arithmetic...II. Algebra...III. The Elements of Geometry…...V. Conick-Sections...V. The Arithmetic of Infinities….With an Appendix of Practical Gauging.

The Young Mathematician’s Guide. Being a plain and easie Introduction to the Mathematicks. In Five Parts. Viz. I. Arithmetic...II. Algebra...III. The Elements of Geometry…...V. Conick-Sections...V. The Arithmetic of Infinities….With an Appendix of Practical Gauging.

London: Printed by Edw. Midwinter, for John Taylor... 1707. First edition of “a mathematical bestseller in Georgian England and Ireland… [It] was attractive not only to school boys trying to learn mathematics for the first time, but also… to adult readers eager to have an easy, portable mathematical compendium in the vernacular.” The work went through twelve printings in London, Dublin printings, and a French translation. With an engraved frontisportrait by Vander Gucht. Text supplemented with numerous tables, equations, and diagrams throughout. Some light wear and toning at top edge. Still, a fine copy, remarkably clean and fresh throughout, Finely bound in contemporary green morocco paneled in gilt. Gilt spine expertly rebacked to style with red morocco spine label. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers with contemporary bookplate of Yorkshire gentleman Ellerker Bradshaw of Risby and modern bookplate of computer pioneer and book collector Erwin Tomash (1921-2012). Bradshaw’s signature and inscription, dated 1707, to preliminary blank. Octavo. [viii], 451, [1, errata] pp. Item #17152

The title-page of describes John Ward (1648/9 – ca. 1730) as a former “Chief Surveyor and Gauger-General in the Excise,” and the title-page of the 1719 edition notes that he was a “Professor of Mathematicks in the City of Chester.” The first indication of Ward’s career in print is a 1695 broadsheet that advertised his beginner course in mathematics. Ward promised that his students “in a Month or Six Weeks, may know more in Arithmetick and Geometry, by help of this Analytics, than ‘tis possible he should Ever comprehend by any other Method.” The course was intended for boys of about twelve or thirteen years old. Ward’s first major publication was The Compendium of Algebra (1695), probably produced as a textbook for the course. The 1698 reprint of the work identifies him as a “teacher of the mathematicks, at the Globe i[n] Fleet street.”.

Ward dedicates the present work to Sir John Wentworth of North Elm’s Hall in West Yorkshire, who not only encouraged the publication of the work but actually read Ward’s manuscript. Ward also includes a laudation from two famous Newtonian mathematicians, Joseph Raphson (fl. 1689–1712), and Humphrey Ditton (1675–1714), which strongly suggests Ward’s connections with the rising Newtonian movement within the Royal Society. Ellerker Bradshaw of Risby (1680 – 1742) was MP for Beverly in 1727-9. Bradshaw’s inscription on the preliminary blank notes, in Latin, that he received the book from a friend. The fine morocco binding also indicates that it was a gift, possibly from the author or the dedicatee.

Price: $1,750.00

See all items by