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[student of] PROFESSOR SANDERSON : LATE 1700s/EARLY 1800s 500+ TOME OF VAST SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE RELATED TO AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF INFORMATION ON THE NATURAL, PHYSICAL AND ASTRONOMICAL SCIENCES

Folio - over 12" - 15" tall. On offer is an exceptional relic of turn of the 19th Century scientific knowledge. The book in question is a large 260 page handwritten tome, touching on a tremendous array of subjects and topics, such as astronomy, cosmology, natural history, advanced mathematics, physics, and more. The book dates from somewhere between 1790 and 1810. It’s author is unknown. What is known is the author is a student of a “Professor Sanderson” who is mentioned quite often (“Sanderson’s Lectures upon Opticks”; “Sanderson’s Hydrostaticks”; “Sanderson’s Lectures on Sound”). Despite extensive research, who this Professor Sanderson is and where he taught could not be discovered. It is evident that he was an exceptionally learned professor, as the range of topics covered by him in this book are truly incredible. As stated there is a truly exceptional amount of information in this book, a compendium of scientific, physical, natural, and astronomical science. Roughly, the first half of the book deals with different aspects of physical science and mathematics. The second half deals with astronomy, cosmology, and the application of physics to these matters. This book comes at the very end of the Scientific Revolution. This age would eventually cede to the “Age of Reflection” and Romanticism, but this book deals solidly with science in the age of Copernicus, Newton, Galileo, Bacon and Descartes. Subject headings include: “That the surfaces of all Fluids are not plain but spherical,” “Of Projectiles,” “The Medium of Sounds,” “Sanderson’s Lessons upon Opticks,” “Of the Reflection of Light,” “Of the Plane Speculum,” “The Texture of the Eye,” “Of the Rainbow,” “Lectures on Mechanicks,” “Of the perpendicular motion of heavy Bodies,” “Of Gravitation,” ”The Vibration of Pendulums,” ”Of the descent of heavy bodies on incline planes,” ”Of the Motion of projectiles,” ”Of the Laws of Nature,” ”The Laws of Nature applied to system of the world,” ”How the planets are retained in Orbits”, “Of the Geographical Longitude and Latitude of places,” ”Of the Moon Explained,” “the real motions of the sun explained,” “the dimensions of the earth,”Professor Sanderson's Lectures upon the tides,” “lectures upon Astrology,” “General advanced mathematics and physics,” and a tremendous amount more. There is also included one handdrawn chart of various important dates in the history of the world, both in “Ante Christum” (and later “Post Christum)” and also in the “Julian Period” (a calendar used by historians since its introduction in the 16h century to convert between different calendars). Year 1 of the Julian Period is 4713 BCE. “The Creation of the World” is listed as 3950 “Ante Christum” as well as 765 “Julian Period.” Other important dates include “The Destruction of Troy,” “The Building of Rome,” “The Death of Alexander the Great,” and “The Christian Era” (beginning at year 0 “Post Christum”). The writing in the book is often quite poetic and much more interesting than a regular science textbook. Whether copied from Professor Sanderson or by the author himself, the content is both interesting for it historical scientific value, as well as for the quality of writing that shows a very different style of writing. For example, when discussing gravitation: “As Philosophy has had different improvements in different ages, so these have been various sentiments about this great and general affection of matter, first Aristotle taught us all Earth bodies have a natural inclination to send towards the centre of the earth as to a proper place, but it has been sufficiently proved that there is no such thing as positive absolute levity. Copernicus thought it to be an innate principle in the parts of matter, when they are separated from their wholes to reduce themselves thither again the nearest way or in right lines. But this is only to tell us in other words of heavy bodies do descend, but gives not the least idea of the cause of gravitation...” The book contains 261 numbered pages, all with writing in them. The reverse of each page is left blank, however, there are occasional notes put in the blank page. This means the book is a total of 522 pages long. It is bound in a quarter leather binding and the book measures 12.5” x 8.25” inches. The leather corner pieces have mostly worn away, and the spines hinges are cracked at the head and tail. There are small pieces of binding exposed where the leather has worn away. The binding however is still very tight. Only one page is loose. The handwriting is easily legible throughout each and every page. The pages often do show some small signs of foxing and age-toning, but nothing that affects the legibility of the content. OVERALL: VG. Manuscript. Book Condition: Very Good

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