2 parts in one volume, folio (318 x 191 mm). Engraved title vignette, 4 engraved plates (one folding), 2 large folding tables; license leaf before title. (Minor dampstain and wormhole at upper margin of first leaves, small repair to corner of first two leaves, front black remargined, a few other minor stains and edge worming, edge tear on G3 repaired.) Contemporary paneled calf (neatly rebacked, endpapers renewed but original blanks retained, fore-corners repaired). Provenance: Birkenhead Library (rubberstamp on title-page verso); contemporary notes on the work laid in.

FIRST EDITION of a key work in the history of linguistics and language. A founding member of the Royal Society, John Wilkins here proposes a system in which all knowledge is arranged into hierarchical “philosophical tables,” each concept assigned a corresponding “real character” intended to transcend spoken language. The accompanying dictionary indexes English words to this scheme, allowing them to be translated into Wilkins’s symbolic system. Wing W-2196.