With the bookplate and annotation of a former President of the Royal Society (1827-1830), Davies Gilbert
Early nineteenth century full calf binding with gilt to the spine and gilt double panelling to the boards. Cracked along the outer hinges, some wear to leather at head and tail of spine; marbled endpapers, engraved title-page and portrait and woodcut initials. Elaborate armorial bookplate of ‘Davies Gilbert of Trodrea; Cornwall’ to the front pastedown. Annotation by Davies about a discovery which he made in the book, written on the verso of the first flyleaf: ‘Bought at Chester April the 19th 1814 and I found in it at Page 227, the Lines... which are engraved on the Table.... lost Barron Church. D.G.’ A few marginal pencilled crosses are the only other annotation we have observed.
This Leiden edition includes the commentaries of Bernartius, Sitzmanus and Vallini. Davies Gilbetr was a Cornish engineer, author, and politician. He was elected to the Royal Society on 17 November 1791 and served as President of the Royal Society from 1827 to 1830. The DNB says of him ‘Gilbert's importance to the development of science in the early nineteenth century lay in his faith that science provided the best means to tackle practical problems and in his facility as a parliamentary promoter of scientific ventures.’
