JOHN WILKINS 1614-1672 An Intellectual Biography

f/piece+unpaginated prelims+333, previous owner's small gilt label top front pastedown which also has a small trivial mark of indeterminate nature, otherwise internally clean, tight and unmarked in clean, bright, unworn red cloth covers; unclipped jacket in protective sleeve as acquired is clean with virtually no edge-wear, there is however an only partially visible internally repaired tear extending from top spine across to centre of back, slight associated rubbing to top spine and possible short spur from tear to front spine edge, this all now quite effectively 'muffled' if not hidden. Important biography of Wilkins whose early scientific work included speculations about possibility of life on the Moon, who played an important role in the Royal Society and who is now best remembered for his extraordinary 'An Essays Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language' (1668), he also wrote on mathematics and, being a bishop, on religion. He spent most of his life at Oxford where he became Warden of Wadham College.…