Essay Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language.

WILKINS, John.

Published by Printed for Sa: Gellibrand, and for John Martin, printer to the Royal Society. 1668, 1668

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From Jarndyce, The 19th Century Booksellers, London, United Kingdom

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[20], 454, [2]pp blank; [157]pp, [7pp] blank, [4] leaves of plates, additional woodcut illus. in text. Folio. Small internal hole to lower margin of N1 not affecting text, occasional light creasing, a few contemp. ink notes in second section. A nice clean copy. Tear to upper corner of leading free endpaper. Contemp. full mottled calf; some expert repairs to hinges & extremities. Amorial bookplate of William Westby with his signature on titlepage; 20th century bookplates of Edward Nevill da Costa Andrade and Nigel Stoughton. A handsome copy. Alston VII 290; ESTC R21115. FIRST EDITION. John Wilkins, 1614 1672, theologian and natural philosopher. The most influential of Wilkins' works, his Essay sought to establish a new universal language for use in scholarship, trade, travel and politics. It was intended partly as a replacement for Latin which was the existing international language of scholarship. Wilkins' language was a series of symbols (all listed in a folding table) intended as a pasigraphy, a writing system where each written symbol represents a concept rather than a word or sound or series of sounds in a spoken language. Part two of the volume, which includes a separate titlepage, is entitled An Alphabetical Dictionary Wherein All English Words According to their Various Significations, are either referred to their places in the philosophical tables, or explained by such words as are in those tables. Having worked on his Essay for many years, Wilkins lost his house, and many of his papers, to the Great Fire of London. Determined to finish his work, he enlisted help from John Ray, Francis Willoughby, Samuel Pepys, and also the Royal Society of which he was a Fellow. Edward Nevill da Costa Andrade, 1887-1971, was an English physicist, writer, and poet best known for his scientific work (with Ernest Rutherford) that first determined the wavelength of a type of gamma radiation. Seller Inventory # 89821

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Bibliographic Details

Title: Essay Towards a Real Character and a ...

Publisher: Printed for Sa: Gellibrand, and for John Martin, printer to the Royal Society. 1668

Publication Date: 1668

Edition: 1st Edition

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ABA, ILAB & PBFA member. Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers have been selling 18th & 19th Century English books, especially first editions of English Literature and Social History since 1969 and are world leading specialists in Dickens. Our premises are opposite the British Museum in Bloomsbury, London. We publish between 4 and 6 major catalogues per annum. As traditional and professional booksellers, we prefer to develop a personal relationship with collectors - and customers via the internet.

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Jarndyce, The 19th Century Booksellers
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