The Art of Dialling, By a New, Easie, and Most Speedy Way, Shewing How to Describe the Houre-lines upon all Sorts of Plaines, Howsoever, or in What Latitude so-ever Scituated; As Also, to Find the Suns Azimuth, Whereby the Sight of Any Plaine is Examined by Foster, Samuel. Edited by Frederick W. Sawyer III - 2001

London: Printed by J.R. for Francis Eglesfield, 1675. [8], 55pp, [1]. With two engraved leaves of diagrams. Twentieth-century gilt-tooled half-calf, marbled boards. A trifle rubbed to extremities, some browning and marking to plates, title and final leaf, and a little old damp-staining at end. The second edition, edited by William Leybourn (162-1716), of English mathematician, astronomer and sometime professor at Gresham College Samuel Foster's (c.1600-1652) early treatise on dialling. A renowned academic, this work was - as the author notes in his preface - nevertheless designed for practical use for those even 'Want of skill in the Mathematicks'. First published in 1638, Leybourn's additions include a 'Table of the Latitudes of all principal places in England, Scotland, and Ireland' for when finding the latitude 'by the North St....cannot be conveniently put into practice', and arithmetical calculation of the instrumental work described in Foster’s… Read More