PRATT, THE ARITHMETICALL JEWELL, LONDON, 1617, EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY HALF CALF, MACCLESFIELD COPY

FIRST EDITION, 12mo (134 x 76mm.), title with woodcut head-piece (issue with 2 line imprint), folding engraved plate (captioned “The figure of the arithmeticall jewell first invented by William Pratt”), eighteenth-century half calf, red label on spine, lacking A1 (blank), occasionally cropped at foot affecting some signatures and catchwords, p.23 misbound between p.2 and 3

Earls of Macclesfield, bookplate, blindstamp in title (but not included in Sotheby's sales 2004-2008); bought from Martayan Lan, New York, 2007

STC 20187a; ESTC S110540; Hoock & Jeannin II/P32.1; Taylor, Tudor & Stuart 135; David Bryden, “A ‘hidden’ Cambridge jewel” in The Whipple Museum of the History of Science, edited by Liba Taub and Frances Willmoth (Cambridge 2006), pp.95-112; not in Tomash & Williams

the condition of this lot is as described in the catalogue description
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The "arithmeticall jewell" is an instrument with a flat grid of semi-circular, rotating brass wedges, devised to facilitate addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and the extraction of roots. A patent for making a device “by which all questions arithmetical may be resolved without the use of pen or compters [counters]” had been granted on 27 March 1616 to “John Harpur, Wm. Pratt and Jeremy Drury”; on 4 April 1616, the three men obtained a privilege for printing a book explaining an “instrument or table for cyfering and casting of accomptes” (Arnold Hunt, “Book trade patents, 1603-1640” in The Book Trade and its customers 1450-1900, London 1997, p.46). Soon thereafter, the partners fell out, and published competing manuals of instruction: Harpur entered his in the Stationers’ Register on 8 March 1617 (ESTC S103870), and Pratt on 21 June 1617. Pratt intended that the book and instrument be “bound together in one (as most co[n]veniently they may)” and “therby made fit and portable companions of the pocket” (A5r), and in almanacs for 1618, the instrument maker Robert Limborough in Gutter Lane was advertising the instrument and Pratt’s book for sale together. Three versions of the instrument survive in leather bindings: one, now without the book, in the British Museum; another, accompanied instead by 33 sheets of manuscript instructions, in the Science Museum; and the third, an ivory plate 65 x 117 mm, accompanied not only by the book, but also by manuscript notes headed “Remembrances for the better understanding of Bills book”, in Cambridge University Library.

Another instrument survives outside a binding (National Museums of Scotland), while five copies of Pratt’s book survive without the instrument. Three press-altered states of the title are known. Only the copy in Cambridge (Syn.8.61.78) contains the engraved plate of the instrument found in the present copy.

Provisional census of copies:


ESTC S114277 "Printed by Iohn Beale, and are to be sold by Nicholas Bourne, at his shop, at the Royall exchange, 1617" (imprint in 4 lines)
• Cambridge University Library (lacking blank A1, with the engraved plate bound opposite the title-page; see EEBO reproductions)

ESTC S126420: "Printed by Iohn Beale, 1617" (imprint in 3 lines)
• Folger Library (ex-J.O. Halliwell-Phillipps and Harmsworth libraries; lacking blank A1, lacking engraved plate)

ESTC S110540: "Printed by Iohn Beale, 1617" (imprint in 2 lines)
• Huntington Library (ex-Bridgewater, Heber, and Britwell libraries; with blank A1, lacking engraved plate)
• Bodleian Library (lacking both blank and engraved plate; see EEBO reproductions)
• Christ Church Oxford (likewise located by STC 20187a, however there is no record for it in the University OPAC)
• the Erwin Tomash copy (lacking blank A1, with the engraved plate)