View source for New System of Modern Geography

{{DISPLAYTITLE:''A New System of Modern Geography: or, A Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar, and Present State of the Several Nations of the World''}}
===by William Guthrie===
{{BookPageInfoBox
|imagename=GuthrieNewSystemOfModernGeography1794-95v2.jpg
|link=https://wm.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01COWM_INST/g9pr7p/alma991017498619703196
|shorttitle=A New System of Modern Geography
|author=[[:Category:William Guthrie|William Guthrie]]
|edition=First American
|lang=[[:Category:English|English]]
|publoc=[[:Category:Philadelphia|Philadelphia]]
|publisher=Printed for Mathew Carey
|year=1794-1795
|set=2
|desc=[[:Category:Quartos|4to (27 cm.)]]
|shelf=C-3
}}[[wikipedia:William Guthrie (historian)|William Guthrie]] (1708? &ndash; 1770) was a historian and political journalist originally from Forfarshire in Scotland. His formal education occurred at [[wikipedia:King's College, Aberdeen|King's College]].<ref>David Allan, "[http://www.oxforddnb.com.proxy.wm.edu/view/article/11792 Guthrie, William (1708?–1770)]" in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', accessed October 24, 2013.</ref> Labeled in the twentieth-century as one of the "bibliographic dinosaurs of Georgian geography”, he wrote for “a general public interested in the new learning and world-wide commerce."<ref>Alan Downes, "[http://www.jstor.org/stable/1797275 The Bibliographic Dinosaurs of Georgian Geography (1714-1830)]," ''The Geographical Journal'' 137, no. 3 (Sep., 1971): 383, accessed October 11, 2013.</ref>

[[File:GuthrieNewSystem1794Illustration.jpg|left|thumb|350px|<center>Illustration comparing the Brahean and Copernican systems, volume one.</center>]]
Guthrie published his most successful work, ''Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar'' in 1770, the year of his death. In this 700-page tome, Guthrie "developed a fluent simplification of Scottish Enlightenment historical and political analysis."<ref>Allan, "Guthrie, William."</ref> This work saw several later editions (rather than revisions) and was eventually translated into French. The first American edition, ''A New System of Modern Geography'' printed for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathew_Carey Mathew Carey], owes much of its expansion to the bookseller John Knox.<ref>Robert Watt, ''Bibliotheca Britannica, or A General Index to British and Foreign Literature'' (Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Company, Edinburgh; and Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green; and Hurst, Robinson & Co., London, 1824), 1:452.</ref> 

==Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library==
Listed in the [[Jefferson Inventory]] of [[Wythe's Library]] as "Guthrie’s geography 2.v. 4to." This was one of the titles kept by [[Thomas Jefferson]]. He later sold a copy of the first American edition to the Library of Congress in 1815. Both the [https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433 Brown Bibliography]<ref>Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433.</ref> and [http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe George Wythe's Library]<ref>''LibraryThing'', s.v. "[http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe Member: George Wythe]," accessed on November 11, 2013.</ref> on LibraryThing include this edition (1794-1795) based on Millicent Sowerby's entry in ''Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson''.<ref>E. Millicent Sowerby, ''Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson'',(Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, 1952-1959), 4:89-90 [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015033648125;view=1up;seq=104 [no.3826]].</ref> While the Jefferson volumes no longer exist to conclusively verify the edition or signs of Wythe ownership, the Wolf Law Library's [[George Wythe Collection]] includes the edition recommended by Sowerby.

[[File:GuthrieNewSystemOfModernGeography1794v1Inscription.jpg|left|thumb|350px|<center>Inscription, front pastedown, volume one.</center>]]

==Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy==
Bound in contemporary American tree sheep with the smooth spines gilt-ruled in six compartments. Red morocco lettering-piece in the second, small green morocco numbering-piece in the fourth. Includes previous owner's signature, "J. Hunter", on each title page and the inscription "Ex libris Ja. Hunter, 28 June 1799, Price 16 <illegible>" on the front pastedown of volume one.

Images of the library's copy of this book are [https://www.flickr.com/photos/wolflawlibrary/sets/72157637698344726 available on Flickr.] View the record for this book in [https://wm.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01COWM_INST/g9pr7p/alma991017498619703196 William & Mary's online catalog.]

===Full text===
<div style="overflow: hidden;">
*[http://lawlibrary.wm.edu/wythepedia/library/GuthrieNewSystemOfGeography1794Vol1.pdf Volume I] (47MB PDF)
*[http://lawlibrary.wm.edu/wythepedia/library/GuthrieNewSystemOfGeography1795Vol2.pdf Volume II] (65MB PDF)
</div>

[[File:GuthrieNewSystem1794Illustration2.jpg|right|thumb|250px|<center>Illustration of an Armillary Sphere, volume one.</center>]]

==See also==
<div style="overflow: hidden;">
*''[[General History of England|A General History of England: From the Invasion of the Romans under Julius Cæsar to the Late Revolution in MDCLXXXIII ]]''
*[[George Wythe Room]]
*[[Jefferson Inventory]]
*[[Wythe's Library]]
</div>

==References==
<references/>

==External Links==
*Read volume one of this book at [https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433000988570 HathiTrust.]
*Read volume two of this book at [https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433000988588 HathiTrust.]

__NOTOC__
[[Category:Geography and Travel]]
[[Category:George Wythe Collection at William & Mary's Wolf Law Library]]
[[Category:Jefferson's Books]]
[[Category:Titles in Wythe's Library]]
[[Category:William Guthrie]]

[[Category:English]]
[[Category:Philadelphia]]
[[Category:Quartos]]