BABBAGE, Charles. The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise. A Fragment, London: John Murray, 1837, 8°, FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, title inscribed by Babbage to Mrs. Frene, one stereotype plate and one duplicate full-page illustration used to illustrate his proposals for the printing of scientific diagrams (library stamp to title, page v, final page and page edges, light spotting, upper inner margin with small, unobtrusive stain throughout, adhesive marks to inner gutter of pp. 240/241), later library cloth.

Details

BABBAGE, Charles. The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise. A Fragment, London: John Murray, 1837, 8°, FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, title inscribed by Babbage to Mrs. Frene, one stereotype plate and one duplicate full-page illustration used to illustrate his proposals for the printing of scientific diagrams (library stamp to title, page v, final page and page edges, light spotting, upper inner margin with small, unobtrusive stain throughout, adhesive marks to inner gutter of pp. 240/241), later library cloth.

Provenance

FOUR LINE MANUSCRIPT FRAGMENT IN BABBAGE'S HAND tipped-in at end, duplicating the printed heading of the final 4-page section of corrections, and probably taken from his original draft for the same: "Corrections & chapter the 10^th & Note E., of the first edition of the ninth Bridgewater Treatise." Title inscribed in the author's hand: "Mrs Frene from Mr. H. Babbage"; half title further inscribed "William E. Frene from his mother, July 5^th, 1837"; recent bookplate and stamps of the South-West Essex Technical College and School of Art.

Lot Essay

Norman 94: "Babbage's only philosophical work, derived from his work on calculating engines, was his continuation of the Bridgewater treatise series on natural theology ... Both the theology and the science of the treatise foreshadowed the controversy over evolution that followed the publication of Darwin's theory two decades later."

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