[Rarebooks] fa: 1764 Gentleman’s Magazine CERNE ABBAS GIANT + JETHRO TULL + BEN FRANKLIN's Narrative of Lancaster Indian Massacre

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Monday, November 4. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/l4zttbk

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.




The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle. Volume XXXIV. For the Year MDCCLXIV [1764]. London: Printed for D. Henry and R. Cave, at St. John's Gate, [1764]. Presumed first edition. Twelve monthly issues (Jan.-Dec.), plus the supplement, volume title, indices and preface. Twelve monthly issues (Jan.-Dec.), plus the supplement, volume title, indices and preface. Thick 8vo in early quarter calf and marbled boards; [4] + 638 + [18] pp.; with 16 copper-engraved plates, five of which are folding (complete except for the four parts of the "Map of the Country 16 miles round London, to be joined together and inserted at the end of the volume", which are not present). Wear and rubbing to the boards; joints cracked but the boards are holding; intermittent toning and spotting to the leaves (mostly light), a few corners bumped; otherwise quite clean and sound, securely bound. Front paste-down with the engraved armorial bookplate of J. Comyns, Wood [Devon].

An exceptionally lively and interesting volume of this mighty organ of the Age of Enlightenment, the first and longest-running "magazine" in the modern sense, containing the following PLATES, with accompanying text:
	  THE FIRST PUBLISHED DRAWING OF THE "CERNE ABBAS GIANT": A Gigantic Figure cut on the Surface of a Hill near Cerne, Dorset (complete with the rampant phallus omitted from many later depictions).
	  Map of England and part of France, shewing where the GREAT SOLAR ECLIPSE of April 1, 1764, will be visible.
	  View of the BAY OF GASPEE in the Government of QUEBEC, Situate in the Gulf of St. Laurence (folding).
	  JETHRO TULL: Two separate plates (one folding) of Mr. Tull's Drill-Plow, accompanied by "An Account of the Life of Mr. Jethro Tull, and his Progress in what is called the New Husbandry." Additonally, the volume contains another plate depictiing Mr. Randal's new invented Seed-Plow.
	  SPERM WHALE: A representation of the Spermacoeti-Whale, drawn from the life.
	  MAP OF ITALY, shewing the track of the Duke of York's Journey through that Country in 1763 and 1764 (folding).
	  The second part of a Plan of the Cities of LONDON AND WESTMINSTER, the first part having been issued with the Supplement to the year 1763 (folding; a long closed tear and a small hole at the middle fold).
	  An UNCOMMON FISH taken near Bristol.
	  A REMARKABLE BRIDGE in Wales (Newbridge, Glamorganshire).
	  PEAK'S-HOLE & POOLE'S-HOLE in Derbyshire.
	  View of the Demolishment of the Cross in Cheapside.
	  Seven Species of the ZOOPHYTE, called Sea Pen.
	  Two kinds of SHREW-MOUSE.
	  ETRUSCAN PAINTINGS lately discovered in Italy (folding).

Other features of note:
	  BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S "Narrative of the Late Massacres in Lancaster County in the Province of Pensylvania, of a Number of Indians, Friends of this Province, by Persons Unknown." This is likely the first printing outside of America of what has been described as "the most enraged piece of penmanship ever to come off his press," displaying "a degree of entirely humorless anger that Franklin rarely used in his writing" (Bruce E. Johansen, Forgotten Founders: Benjamin Franklin, the Iroquois and the Rationale for the American Revolution, 1982). In his prefatory note submitting the Narrative to the magazine's editor, John Hawkesworth (signing himself "J.H.") writes, "the whole is written by Doctor Benjamin Franklin, a Man equally aimiable for his Character, and eminent for his Abilities:… it has all the Plainness and Force, all the Quietness and Philanthropy of the Author's Mind and Manner, which equally characterise and recommend it." There later appears "An Attempt to extenuate the Massacre of the Indian Men, Women, and Children," an apologia for the so-called "Paxton Boys" who had perpetrated the massacre.
	  LONGITUDE: An authentic Narrative of Mr. Harrison's Progress in his Attempt to discover the Longitude, by a Machine called a Time-Piece, which he invented and has been many Years improving. "In 1714, the British government offered a prize of £20,000 to anyone who could invent a clock capable of keeping accurate time at sea. In 1730, John Harrison, a Yorkshire carpenter, submitted his first sea chronometer, and over the years he greatly improved the design and stability of his timepieces. In 1759, he produced a chronometer that was accurate to one-tenth of a second per day. This won him the prize, although it took the Government some years to pay him in full…" ("The Gentleman's Magazine: the 18th-Century Answer to Google"; Special Collections, University of Otago Library, New Zealand, 2012).
	  Experiments with an ELECTRICAL KITE: A Letter from M. [Jacques] de Romas to the Abbé Nollet (with references to Benjamin Franklin and lightning rods).
	  THE AMERICAN COLONIES & TAXATION: An Account of a Pamphlet, intitled, "the Administration of the Colonies," written to prevent the passing of an Act for a New Tax on their Inhabitants…
	  MARYLAND: An Account of the Number of Souls in the Province of Maryland, in the Year 1756 (full-page table).
	  MEDICINE: The Practice of Inoculation Truly Stated; State of the Controversy between Mr. Gataker and Mr. Guy, concerning the Cure of Cancers (ongoing debate over the application of caustics for breast cancer); The Diseases of Prisons considered; A Dissertation on the Amputation of Limbs, shewing that the Operation is not as necessary so often as it is practised; A new Regimen and Remedy for the Cure of Scurvy at Sea; Some Hints for the better Regulation of Hospitals; etc.
	  ROUSSEAU: the Religious Opinions of the celebrated Rousseau of Geneva exhibited [in]… an Abstract of the Savoyard Curate's Creed.
	  JONATHAN SWIFT'S "Satirical Elegy on the Death of a late famous General [John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough].
	  An Account of the Life of a Person who went by the Name of GEORGE PSALMANAZAR, compiled from his own Papers: He was by Birth a Frenchman, but pretended to be a Native of Formosa, subject to the Japanes; and wrote a fabulous account of that Country.
	  An Original Letter from Lord Bolingbroke to Mr Pope, on the universal Depravity of Mankind; and the Poetry of Addison.
	  The Natural History of Kamtschatka.
	  The Trial of Lord Grey for Seduction; The Trail of Major Campbell for Murder.
	  A Scheme for civilizing the American Indians.
	  An Account of the Seduction of the Palatines to come to England, by one Stumpel, who obtained Grants of Lands in America, which he wanted to people.
	  and much, much more...