The Philosophical Grammar
by Benjamin Martin
Martin's first publication The Philosophical Grammar (1735), consisted of an epitome of current knowledge in the various branches of natural philosophy presented in a single inexpensive volume. An enlarged second edition (1738) was reprinted six times up to 1778, and was translated into Dutch, French, and Italian. In 1737 he produced a complementary work on non-mathematical subjects, Bibliotheca technologica, which considered the literary arts and sciences under twenty-five headings, ranging from theology to heraldry; it was later translated into French and Italian. The Bibliotheca was published by subscription, and the 564 names listed show that Martin by this time was becoming well known. Other volumes written at Chichester include Arithmetic (1735), Trigonometry (1736), Geometry (1739), Logarithms (1739), and Optics (1740). Astronomy was presented in a large copperplate print, Synopsis scientiae Caelestis (1739). [1]
Bibliographic Information
Author: Benjamin Martin, (bap. 1705, d, 1782)
Title: The Philosophical Grammar: Being A View Of The Present State Of Experimented Physiology, Or Natural Philosophy In Four Parts. Part I. Somatology, ... Part II. Cosmology, ... Part III. Aerology, ... Part IV. Geology, ... : The Whole Extracted From The Writings Of The Greatest Naturalists Of The Last And Present Age
Published: London: Printed for J. Noon, 1735.
Edition:
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as Martin’s Philosophical grammar. 8vo. and given by Thomas Jefferson to his grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph. The precise edition owned by Wythe is unknown. George Wythe's Library[2] on LibraryThing indicates this, adding "Octavo editions were published at London in 1735, 1738, 1748, 1753, 1755, 1762, 1769, and 1778." The Brown Bibliography[3] lists the second London edition published in 1759 based on the copy Jefferson sold to the Library of Congress.[4] The Wolf Law Library chose to purchase the 1735 (first) edition.
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
Bound in full calf and rebacked in leather. Pages are white, bright, unmarked and unfoxed. The front endpapers have the bookplates of Earl of Roden and of Mr. and Mrs. Gerald W. Chase. Purchased from Adams & Adams Booksellers.
External Links
References
- ↑ John R. Millburn, ‘Martin, Benjamin (bap. 1705, d. 1782)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 11 June 2013
- ↑ LibraryThing, s. v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on November 13, 2013, http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe
- ↑ 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
- ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 2nd ed. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983), 4:31 [no.3728].
