Edition : First Edition [with Second Edition Appendix], Full contemporary calf, with double gilt ruling on upper and lower boards. Spine in seven compartments of raised bands with gilt ruling. Red morocco label with gilt title on two. All edges speckled red. , Nicolas Bion was engineer for mathematical instruments to the King of France. Despite his fame, only a few of his instruments survive. Edmund Stone was the son of a gardener to the Scottish Duke of Argyle. He eventually rose from his low-born station to become a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1725. This is the first edition, together with the appendix to the second edition of 1758, making this nearly identidical to the second expanded edition with the exception that, in this copy, there is no separate title page for the Appendix. This copy of the first edition of 1723 has the second edition appendix bound in at the rear in such a fashion as to appear continuous. The appendix with 4 more plates was issued by Richardson in 1758 for his reprint of the work. In the Richardson Second Edition the pagination and register are continuous after page 264 apart from the addition of a separate title page and prelims for the appendix. However, in this copy the first 264 pages are the first edition issue and the appendix (pp.265-325) is Richardson?s appendix continuously paginated, but with a separate register, showing this to be a separate issue of the appendix designed to make up copies of the first edition. The verso of the last leaf of the appendix is an advertisement for J. Richardson?s books. This is most unusual. The ?second edition? published by Richardson is identical in text and plates until the appendix, but copies of this edition have a continuous register. \\\"[Construction and Principal Uses of Mathematical Instruments] gives a fairly complete list of instruments normally constructed during the first quarter of the eighteenth century.\\\" (DSB II pp. 132/133) The book deals in many areas of science: astronomy, navigation, geography, artillery, and all the tools used by architects and engineers for design. , Size : Small folio (341x215mm), Illustrated with 30 fold-out copper engravings consisting of various diagrams and depictions of mathematical instruments. , Edmund Stone, P. Title, Blank, Dedication (iii-iv), Translator?s Preface (v-vii), Errata, 1-325, Advertisement. A handsome copy. Text and plates are clean and crisp.

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Bibliographic Details

Title: The Construction and Principal Uses of Mathematical Instruments. Translated from the French of M. Bion, Chief Instrument-Maker to the French King. To which are Added, The Construction and Uses of such Instruments as are omitted by M. Bion; particularly of those invented or improved by the English.
Publisher: John Senex, William Taylor c. 1723 [1758], London
Publication Date: 1723
Binding: Hardcover

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