Lectures on the Science of Language delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in April, May, and June, 1961.

FIRST EDITION. The Earl of Elgin's copy. Large 8vo. (22 x 14.5 cm). pp.xii+399+[1, colophon]. Publisher's original coarse-grained russet cloth by Edmonds & Remnants (London), spine lettered in gilt, brown-coated endpapers printed in black with publisher's advertisements, binder's sticker to back pastedown. Ex libris Lord Elgin, with his book label ('Sit sine labe decus')and signature to verso of flyleaf. Some light fading to spine and minor discolouration to boards, generally an excellent copy. Contains the texts of nine lectures on various topics, including the origin of language, morphology, comparative grammar, the growth of language, its classification and genealogy, etc.; and an appendix containing four tables of language trees. An interesting and informative overview by a leading philologist of the day. Born in Germany and trained in Greek, Latin and Sanskrit, Friedrich Max Müller (1823–1900) settled at Oxford, where he would become the university's first professor of comparative philology. Best known for his work on the Rig Veda, he brought the comparative study of language, mythology and religion to a wider audience in Victorian Britain. His lectures at the Royal Institution, published in two volumes between 1861 and 1864, were reprinted fifteen times before the end of the century. Hugely successful at the time - George Eliot was particularly enthused - the lectures remain instructive reading in the history of linguistics.…