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143 SQUIRE, Jane. A Proposal to determine our Longitude. London: printed for the Author, and sold by S. Cope, and by the Booksellers of London and Westminster, 1743 Octavo (194 × 122 mm). Contemporary calf, black morocco spine label, raised bands edged with gilt fillet, black morocco roundels to centre of boards, quartered in gilt with symbols relating to Squire’s method tooled in each quadrant, boards framed with gilt fillet. With the half-title. Large folding engraved table of “Lodgitude” [ sic ]. A little rubbed at the extremi- ties, joints professionally repaired, endpapers browned from turn-ins, front free endpaper thinned from paper flaw, pale toning to the book block, a few small, neat pencil marks to the margins, overall a very good copy in its dis- tinctive original binding. first edition “in english only”, second overall. A well-pre- served copy in the binding designed by the author of arguably the most famous work to result from the 18th-century longitude de- bate; notable not only for its contents but also for its author being a woman openly writing and publishing in an otherwise male-dom- inated scientific field. Dr Alexi Baker, who works on Cambridge University’s Board of Longitude project, has suggested that the unique leather bindings featuring star symbols invented by Squire may have been “the first in England to be decorated with symbols specific to the text” ( ODNB ). The scientific writer Jane Squire ( d .1743) was one of just two women—the other being Elizabeth Johnson—to submit schemes in response to the 1714 Longitude Act, which offered a £20,000 reward to anyone who could provide a solution which allowed the British government to more accurately measure longitude at sea, thus re-igniting the Longitude Wars of the 16th century. As Johnson wrote about the project anonymously, Squire was “the only wom- an known to have pursued the longitude without concealing her gender . . . In addition, she is vital to the historical record because her books provide a rare account of the early activities of the Com- missioners of Longitude, who mainly acted individually rather than communally until the 1760s” (Baker). Though her 11-page Proposal , first printed as a quarto pamphlet in 1731, was impractical, it proved the author to be learned and eloquent, and drew positive respons-
es from a wide range of figures, from bluestockings like Elizabeth Carter to Pope Benedict XIV. The present, longer work comprises three parts: the Proposal occupies the first 16 pages, followed by related correspondence between Squire and the commissioners and the extended “Expla- nation” of the proposal itself. This edition follows a year after the first, which was published with text in English and French in par- allel columns. Both editions were self-published and printed and bound to an unusually high standard given the subject matter and purpose of the text. Baker, Alexi, “The lady of the longitude”, University of Cambridge research arti- cles online, 30 November 2014. £2,250 [123639] 144 (STANHOPE, Lady Hester.) POWLETT, Wilhelmina, Duchess of Cleveland. The Life and Letters. By her niece. London: William Clowes and Sons, 1897 Octavo. Original white cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt and black within gilt and black frames, device of the Duchess of Cleveland to front cov- er in gilt, frames blocked in blind to rear cover, edges red, brown endpapers. Engraved frontispiece and plate with tissue guards. Ownership inscription to front free endpaper verso. Spine very gently rolled, faint soiling to still remarkably bright cloth, top edge a little dust toned, light marks to contents page; a very good, uncommonly crisp, copy. first edition, presentation copy, inscribed on the half-title, “The Earl of Leven & Melville, from his very old friend, The Au- thor”. The recipient was Ronald Leslie-Melville (1835–1906), the 11th Earl of Leven and a family friend of the Stanhopes. Wilhelmina Powlett, née Stanhope, Duchess of Cleveland (1819–1901), was a his- torian and genealogist. She was active in the royal court, serving as a maid of honour at Queen Victoria’s coronation, and a bridesmaid at her wedding to Prince Albert. This uncommon work provides an insightful account of the life of her aunt, the most extraordinary woman traveller of the 19th century. Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope (1776–1839) left society life in England in 1810 when she travelled to Constantinople via Malta and onwards
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