The Bioscope, or Dial of Life, Explained (Bioscope with working dial affixed to verso of front board); --Includes A Translation of St. Paulinus's Epistle to Celantia, or the Rule of Christian Life, and An Elementary View of General Chronology

Penn, Granville

Published by John Murray, London, 1814

About this Item

Original half calf and Florentined paper binding. Second edition (1814). Binding is a bit wobbly, but holding. Backstrip is present but there is no indication of a title. Affixed Bioscope is intact and in fine condition. Inked ownership name on title page. One endpage is loose. Internal text pages are clean, fresh, and unmarked. The book gave the world the word "Bioscope," which lives on in the world of cinema. On the origin of the word in Granville's text, the Bioscope, a defunct blog on early and silent cinema, explains it this way: Granville Penn's book included a separate card on which was illustrated a dial marked from nought to seventy, marking the ages of man from childhood to decay in decades, with eternity waiting before and after. A pointer was attached for the reader to mark out his current age, and hence to contemplate the lessons in Penn's book on the allotted span of human life and to avoid the belief â that life is a continuous now'. This dial was the Bioscope, and just as a horoscope was a measure of the heavens at the hour of birth, so the Bioscope was the "general measure of human life'." 12mo. 309 pp. plus three pages of "interesting works" by the publisher.

Seller Inventory # 96513

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Bioscope, or Dial of Life, Explained (Bioscope with working dial affixed to verso of front board); --Includes A Translation of St. Paulinus's Epistle to Celantia, or the Rule of Christian Life, and An Elementary View of General Chronology
• Publisher: John Murray, London
• Publication Date: 1814
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: Second Edition.
• Condition: Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Antiques & Collectibles