A Synopsis of Practical Mathematics. containing Plain Trigonometry, Mensuration of Heights, Distances, Surfaces, and Solids; Surveying of Land, Gauging, Navigation, and Gunnery. with Tables of the Logarithms of Numbers, and the Sines and Tangents. For the use of Schools and Men of Business. Edinburgh: Printed for J. & J. Fairbairn, and A. Guthrie, 1791.
Third Edition. Octavo. Full leather over boards, gilt bands on spine and gilt lettering and decorated border of title: "Ewing's Synopsis" Very Scarce. No library holding of this 3rd Edition. Contains several folded plates. Very Good. Ownership marks at front, as well as an inscription dated 1794 which reads: "1794 The Second Year of French Independence" and, under that inscription, written in a slightly different hand: "Year 1814 the first of French Slavery - - - " the top of this flyleaf has been cut out, but the aging to the pages reveal that the cut was likely made quite early. Ownership signature on second flyleaf. The binding is tight and some foxing to pages, but many pages clean. All pull-out plates are intact. Alexander Ewing's Synopsis was a popular text in Scotland, and throughout Great Britain, and had numerous reprintings in the 1790s alone. In this THIRD EDITION, Ewing notes in his Preface that due to the “favourable reception” of the previous two editions, that he has made “this third edition still more compleat than either of them, by several useful additions” making this edition the more sought-after by practitioners of the day. Ewing’s Synopsis has been cited by scholars in later centuries as being instrumental in several areas – particularly as it has been referenced as one of the standards of mathematics that influenced the practice of navigation in Britain in the period some historians celebrate as the birth of scientific navigation. His chapter on “Gunnery,” which discusses the art of aiming and the mathematics of projectiles, has been cited for its contribution to the study of artillery and warfare. Ewing was not affiliated with Edinburgh University, but was rather one of the "private teachers," of whom there seem to have been a considerable number in the University towns during the 1700’s. Alexander Ewing died in 1804 and was interred in the family vault in Saint Cuthbert’s Churchyard, Edinburgh. His obituary was carried in the The Scots Magazine, and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany Vol 66 (LXVI), Sept. 1804.
Price: $550.00