[Rarebooks] fa: ENGLAND'S IMPROVEMENT BY SEA AND LAND 1677 (re. Civil Engineering - w/ folding maps)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, October 13. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/m3hzuff

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Andrew Yarranton: England’s Improvement by Sea and Land: To Out-do the Dutch without Fighting, to Pay Debts without Moneys, to set at Work all the Poor of England with the Growth of our own Lands. To prevent unnecessary Suits in Law; with the Benefit of a Voluntary Register. Directions where vast quantities of Timber are to be had for the Building of Ships; with the advantage of making the Great Rivers of England Navigable. Rules to prevent Fires in London, and other Great Cities; with Directions how the several Companies of Handicraftsmen in London may always have cheap Bread and Drink. London: Printed by R. Everingham for the Author, and are to be sold by T. Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns in Cheap-side, and N. Simmons at the Princes Arms in S. Paul’s Church-yard, MDCLXXVII [1677]. FIRST EDITION. Small 4to (20.5 x 15 cm) in early half calf and marbled boards, gilt-lettered  morocco spine label; [18], 71, [1], 97-179 [i.e. 195] pp.; erratic pagination but text is continuous and complete (the ESTC variant with pp. 193-195 misnumbered 177-179); with 8 (of 9?) folding plates and maps. Wing Y13aA; ESTC R221084.

Binding with rubbing and wear, joints cracked but both boards are secure; bound without the imprimatur leaf preceding the title-page; one (of three) front free-endpapers coming loose at the bottom; intermittent browning and spotting to the leaves, occasional small stains, folding plates with some old tidy paper repairs, a few short tears to the edges or folds of the larger plates; otherwise clean and sound, securely bound.

As evidenced by the lengthy subtitle, a wide-ranging work by the pioneering civil engineer and agriculturalist Andrew Yarranton (1619-1684). A leading Roundhead during the English Civil War, Yarranton fell under suspicion at the Restoration, but eventually "settled down as a kind of consulting engineer… giving advice as to ironworks, canals, and improvements of all sorts" (DNB). He is reported to have died under mysterious circumstances, the writer and natural philosopher John Aubrey alleging that "the cause of death was a beating and throwne into a tub of water," a harsh end, but fitting, perhaps, for one who is best remembered for his work on rivers and canals. The work contains illustrations of schemes for the Thames, Avon and Severn Rivers, and canals in Dublin, as well as an ingenious scheme for preventing a repeat of the Great Fire of London of 1666.