A New System of Modern Geography
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
| A New System of Modern Geography: or, A Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar, and Present State of the Several Nations of the World | |
 Title page from A New System of Modern Geography: or, A Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar, and Present State of the Several Nations of the World, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary. | |
| Author | William Guthrie |
| Published | Philadelphia: Printed for Mathew Carey |
| Date | 1794 |
| Edition | First American |
| Language | English |
William Guthrie (1708?–1770) was a historian and political journalist originally from Forfarshire in Scotland. His formal education occurred at King’s College, Aberdeen.[1] 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."[2]
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."[3] 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 Mathew Carey, owes much of its expansion to the bookseller, John Knox.[4]
Published: Philadelphia: Printed for Mathew Carey, 1794-1795.
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
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.
View this book in William & Mary's online catalog.
External Links
References
- ↑ David Allan, [http://www.oxforddnb.com.proxy.wm.edu/view/article/11792 Guthrie, William (1708?–1770)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004- ), accessed 24 Oct 2013.
- ↑ Alan Downes, "The Bibliographic Dinosaurs of Georgian Geography (1714-1830)," The Geographical Journal 137, No. 3 (Sep., 1971), 383, accessed October 11, 2013.
- ↑ Allan, "Guthrie, William."
- ↑ 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.
