[Rarebooks] FS: Astle, Origins & Progress of Writing, 1803

[Isabel's Books]

For sale:

Astle, Thomas. THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF WRITING, AS WELL HIEROGLYPHIC AS ELEMENTARY, ILLUSTRATED BY ENGRAVINGS TAKEN FROM MARBLES, MANUSCRIPTS AND CHARTERS, ANCIENT AND MODERN, ALSO SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PRINTING. London: T. Bensley for J. White, 1803.
 
Second edition with additions. 4to. Rebound in plain paper-covered boards. [viii], xxiv, 240 pages. 31 tables in 32 plates, 8 folding, 9 hand-colored by Benjamin Thomas Pouncy and quite attractive. Errata slip tipped in. Faint foxing to preliminaries. Pages and plates generally crisp. Bigmore and Wyman (I, 20) note that Astle “was an eminent English antiquary, who paid especial attention to the deciphering of ancient manuscripts. He was Keeper of the Records, and was engaged in the preparation of the Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts at the British Museum.” Astle was responsible for publication of many other important works form the archives, including the Rolls of Parliament. Horace Walpole observed that “In the paper-office there is a wight, called Thomas Astle, who lives like moths on old parchments.” According to the new Oxford DNB, “Astle's most substantial work was The Origin and Progress of Writing (1784); a second edition, slightly enlarged (notably by
 the addition of a portrait of the author), was published in 1803. It is a wide-ranging piece of scholarship, with excellent plates of facsimiles of scripts, engraved by B. T. Pouncy: universal in its scope, it includes a history of printing as well as accounts of the materials used for writing, numerals and the characters used for numerals, and secret writing and ciphers. It must have been inspired by Astle's continental books or acquaintances—he is said to have been ‘several times on the Continent on literary pursuits’ (Nichols, Lit. anecdotes, 3.203n.)—though for its immediate sources he drew on his own collection of charters, manuscripts, and facsimiles (such as those in Stowe MSS 1060–1061). It was an authoritative source for the history of writing well into the nineteenth century, and was last reprinted in 1876. Today it seems remarkable more for its out-of-the-way learning than for any methodological advance upon its continental precursors.”  Very Good.
 $300.00 postpaid.
 
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Michael

Michael Levine-Clark
Isabel's Books
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