Signed author's presentation copy

BRYAN, Margaret.

A Compendious System of Astronomy, in a Course of Familiar Lectures. .

London: Printed for the Author, and sold by Leigh and Sotheby, and G. Kearsley, 1797.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #003362

4to (276 x 218 mm). xxx, [2], 311 [3] pp., including errata leaf (corrections inserted by hand), stipple-engraved frontispiece portrait of the author and her daughters, 17 folding engraved plates, list of subscribers, advertisement leaf at end, bound without blank leaf 2H2. Early 19th century straight-grain blue morocco presentation binding, spine and boards with elaborate decoration and ruling in blind and gold, gilt-lettering to spine, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers (rubbing to extremities, lower board scratched, corners bumped and scuffed, hinges with short split at spine ends). Portrait foxed and dampstained at corners at outer margins, occasional minor spotting, but generally quite crisp and clean throughout. Provenance: Thomas Pinkett, present from the author (inscribed on third flyleaf "To Thomas Pinkett Esq. from the authoress as a token of her respect for the friend of the fatherless and widow, Margaret Bryan"). ----

RARE FIRST EDITION, AUTHOR'S DEDICATION COPY. 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 pra - Visit our website to see more images!

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