[Rarebooks] fa: DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE in 1776 Gentleman's Magazine (+ Battle of Long Island, Capt. Cook & the South Pole, &c.)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, March 17. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/mnokg2h

Thanks for looking,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle. Volume XLVI [46]. For the Year MDCCLXXVI [1776]. London: Printed at St. John's Gate, for D. Henry, [1776]. Twelve monthly issues (Jan.-Dec.), plus the supplement, volume title, indices and preface. Thick 8vo in early/period marbled boards, sympathetically rebacked in modern sheepskin with raised bands; [4] + 608 + [16] pp.; with numerous in-text charts and tables, woodcut diagrams and illustrations, plus 13 copper-engraved plates and maps, ten of which are folding. Lowndes, 876. Sabin 26954.

A supremely important volume, containing what is likely the first printing in a British periodical — and one of the earliest printings anywhere — of the complete text of the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, as well as extensive contemporary coverage of the history-shaping events taking place in America in 1776, including:

	- A folding map of the Country round Philadelphia including Part of New Jersey, New York, Staten Island & Long Island.
	- A folding map of of Long Island illustrating the late Engagement.
	- A folding map of Connecticut and Rhode Island, with Long Island Sound, &c.
	- A folding map of the Progress of His Majesty's Armies in New York.
	- Monthly summaries of Parliamentary Debates regarding the Colonies, including Debates on Mr. [Edmund] Burke's Conciliating motion, Debates on Mr. Fox's Motion to enquire into the Causes of the ill-success of his Majesty's Troops, Lord North's Proposition for reasonable Terms of Accommodation, etc.
	- Semi-monthly accounts of the Proceedings of the American Colonists.
	- Remarks of the American Congress on the King's Proclamation.
	- American Act for fitting-out Privateers.
	- Gen. Carleton's Account of the Attack on Quebec.
	- Gen. Washington's Proclamation at Boston.
	- Observations on the Situation of the Armies on the Eastern Side of America.
	- Thoughts on the late American Declaration of Independency [and] Thoughts on the American Declaration disputed [and] Remarks on the Defence of the American Declaration.
	- Dr. Tucker's Scheme for separating from the Colonies.
	- Authentic Account of the Attack on Sullivan's Island.
	- Battle in Long Island, with lists of the killed, wounded, missing and of prisoners returned.
	- Gen. Howe's Letter on taking New York —on the setting the Town on Fire, &c. —his Declaration to the Americans.
	- The Case of Mr. James Rivington, Printer at New York (publisher of the rabidly Loyalist New York Gazetteer whose home and print shop were regularly attacked, burned and/or ransacked by patriots. Rivington would later change his political stripes and become a spy for George Washington).
	- Col. Paterson's Interview with Gen Washington.
	- Letters from Lord Howe to the Admiralty.
	- A poem, "America, addressed to the Rev. Dean Tucker," by Soame Jenyns, wittily advocating separation from the colonies ("Crown'd be the man with lasting praise / Who first contriv'd the pin / From vicious steeds to loose a chaise, / And save the necks within…")
	- Etc., etc.

This volume also contains important material related to CAPTAIN JAMES COOK AND HIS SECOND VOYAGE, including:
	- A folding Map of the South Pole, with the Track of his Majesty's Sloop Resolution in Search of a Southern Continent.
	- A folding Chart of the Tropical Discoveries of Captain Cook, in his late Course from the Great Cyclades to New Zealand.
	- Journal of the Resolution's Voyage round the World (in three parts over three issues).
	- Seasonable Hints addressed to Capt. Cook on his again setting out on Discovery.
	- And coincidentally, in the March issue, the death notice of "Mr. John Harrison… a most ingenious mechanic [who] received the reward of 20,000£ for the discovery of longitude." A version of Harrison's award-winning chronometer accompanied Cook on his voyage, resulting in charts and maps so accurate that they were still in use in the twentieth century.

Other features of note include:
	- Two FOLDING MAPS showing A New Projection of the Eastern [and] Western Hemispheres of the Earth, shewing the proportions of its several parts nearly as on a Globe, by J. Hardy, Teacher of Mathematics & Writing Master at Eton College (accompanied by an article on a New Method of projecting Planispheres).
	- A serious Adventure at an Highland Inn, accompanied by a "humorous Print" showing an uncharacteristically slim SAMUEL JOHNSON on his tour of Scotland.
	- A folding Plan of the City and University of CAMBRIDGE in the 16th Century.
	- A review of Mr. Gibbon's History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (with considerable subsequent discussion of its merits).
	- Additional plates showing a brass plate and roman copper coins (folding) and two "pastoral scenes" from Gessner.
	- Fortune and the present Mode of Dissipation among the Fair Sex, the cause of so many unhappy Marriages.
	- Qualifications for a Siberian Hair-dresser.
	- And much more…