Love, John
Geodaesia: or, the Art of Surveying and measuring of Land Made Easie. Printed for John Taylor, at the Ship in S. Paul's Church-Yard, 1688. 8vo, full early calf, paper label to spine; pp. [4 (Title, verso blank, Dedication, Licence)], [8 (Preface)], [10 (Contents)], [2 (Catalogue)], 196, [10 (Table of the Northing, Southing, Easting or Westing of every Degree from the Meridian)], [24 (Table of Sines and Tangents)], [8 (Log Tables)]; title printed in red and black, numerous figures and illus to text, letterpress tables. First edition.
John Love was an English land surveyor who travelled to the New World around 1680. He worked surveying grants for settlers in the Carolinas and, with Maurice Matthews, produced an early map of the area. He noted the lack of knowledge of local surveyors and wrote one of the first practical guides on the subject to address the deficiency. The first edition, licensed in 1687 though with a publication date of 1688, was hugely successful. There were 11 English editions before the 12th edition was published in America in 1793. This may well have been the first survey book published in the new United States and Washington certainly studied surveying from the work. The book changed little over publications, its significance lying (according to A.W. Richeson) in Love's care in consider the different conditions for American field work, versus English. [For geometrical studies, with references to surveying, mapping and similar, including plates of examples and instruments, see Lot 277.]