Item #5672 Familiar Illustrations of the Language of Mathematics, or, A new Picture-alphabet for well-behaved Undergraduates; wherein a Ray to illumine their Path is transmitted through Nine Plates of a Rare Medium by means of the Eccentrical Pencil of W.A.G. [bound with] Cambridge Customs and Costumes. John Lewis Roget.

Familiar Illustrations of the Language of Mathematics, or, A new Picture-alphabet for well-behaved Undergraduates; wherein a Ray to illumine their Path is transmitted through Nine Plates of a Rare Medium by means of the Eccentrical Pencil of W.A.G. [bound with] Cambridge Customs and Costumes...

1850. London: Ackermann, 1850-51.

2 vols, in one, title-page, 9 lithographed plates; title-page, 9 lithographed plates. Bound together in original green cloth, remnants of a paper label on backstrip. Binding repaired at hinges and top of backstrip, internally a very good copy.

§ First editions of both works, both genuinely rare. OCLC records one copy of the first title and two of the second. The first title is a collection of roughly 100 sketches illustrating mathematical phrases such as “Elimination of an unknown quantity” showing a man being booted out of a house, or “Radical expressions” showing a political rally. The second title, Cambridge: Customs and Costumes (London: Ackermann, 1851), shows about 150 scenes of Cambridge life. John Lewis Roget was the son of (and co-author with) Peter Roget, whose thesaurus is still the standard work today. Item #5672

Price: $1,875.00