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4to (290 x 230 mm). xxx, [2], 311 [3] pp., including errata leaf, stipple-engraved frontispiece portrait of the author and her daughters, 17 engraved plates, list of subscribers, advertisement leaf at end, blank leaf 2H2 present. All pages uncut. Contemporary simple half vellum with marbled paper over pasteboards (paper edge chipping, bumping and heavier wear to edges). Text and plates bright and crisp throughout; frontispiece and title page a trifle dust-soiled; frontispiece working loose and with short tears at gutter; light finger soiling to p.74-75. Provenance: John Carteret Hyde Seale, Baronet of Mount Boone (armorial bookplate to front pastedown). Exceptionally well preserved, clean and unpressed copy internally. ---- RARE FIRST EDITION. Margaret Bryan was a pioneering female teacher of the natural sciences, running a boarding school for girls in Blackheath from 1795 to 1806. When she relocated to Margate the "curriculum in her schools differed from that of most peer institutions by including mathematics and science as suitable subjects for girls" (ODNB). In 1797 she published by subscription this Compendious System of Astronomy, with a portrait of herself and two daughters as a frontispiece, the whole engraved by William Nutter from a miniature by Samuel Shelley. She dedicated her book to her pupils. The lectures of which the book consisted had been praised by Charles Hutton after he received from her the manuscript fo his persual. In a letter dated Jan. 6, 1797 he replied: "I herewith return the ingenious MS. of Astronomical Lectures you favored me with the sight of, which I have read over with great pleasure; and the more so, to find that even the learned and more difficult Sciences are thus beginning to be successfully cultivated by the extraordinary and elegant talents of the female writers of the present day. Should you, Madam, give to your friends and to the public to benefit by the publication of these your learned and useful labours, I beg to have the honor of being considered one of the encouragers of so useful a work; Your most obedient, and most humble servant, Charles Hutton." Margaret was so pleased with Hutton's comments that she had the book printed before the year was out. Hutton's letter of praise was printed and dated at the end of the preface. Ref: W. B. Ashworth jr, Scientist of the Day - Margaret Bryan, Jan. 6, 2020, Linda Hall Library (web resources). - Visit our website to see more images! Seller Inventory # 003904
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