Institutionum Chronologicarum: libri II. Unà cum totidem arithmetices chronologicæ libellis. Per Guilielm. Beveregium ...

WITH A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER THEORY PROOF - AND USE OF MULTIPLE MIDDLE-EASTERN CHARACTERS

first edition small 4to. [8], 259, [4], [1 (blank)]pp., contemporary calf with nesting contrastingly-dyed panels on sides defined by double blind fillets and rolls and with blind tools at the corners, spine panelled by raised bands with the panels richly gilt tooled, rich maroon morocco title label, a few trivial worm traces, tiny chip at top corner of title label, else a very fine fresh copy. An exceptional copy.

Contemporary inscription on the title page "E lib. Arth. St. George" and with an elaborate contemporary engraved St. George bookplate.

ESTC r231039 WING B2095 Tomash & Williams B147 There is a also variant issue with a different form of the imprint (Wing B2095A)
Beveridge (1637–1708), English writer and clergyman, on entering Cambridge in 1653 devoted himself to the learned languages, including the oriental and published a Latin treatise on the Excellency and Use of the Oriental Tongues, especially Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Samaritan, together with a Grammar of the Syriac Language, (1658) while still very young. He was ordained in 1661 and served as Bishop of St. Asaph from 1704-8. He published several highly regarded and popular works on religious topics and but this book, on chronology, is something of an outlier in his oeuvre. It displays the range of his knowledge of ancient and oriental languages, uses a large range of types in these languages and "also includes a full explanation of the Chinese remainder theorem for the case in which the moduli are relatively prime. This was the first general proof of the ta-yen rule" [wikipedia]. Further editions followed in 1705 and 1721.
The work "is of interest both from a typographical and historical standpoint for the many fonts of exotic character sets used to print out the tables, rangeig from Hebrew and Greek to various Middle Eastern languages, including Arabic, Samaritan and Syriac" [Tomash & Williams]
Arthur St George (1629 – August 1701), Irish politician, represented Athlone in the Irish House of Commons 1661-6, 1692-1693 and 1695-1699 and was Sheriff of Co. Roscommon in 1670. He was an officer in several Irish foot regiments including the Earl of Granard's in 1684. "He supported Lord Chancellor Porter when he was attacked by certain MPs for favouritism to Roman Catholics" [History Irish Parliament, vol. 6, p.212]. He was the joint owner of an estate at Woodsgift, Co. Kilkenny and probably of some lands at Athlone, with his brother Henry (b. 1638) whose 2nd. son was also Arthur St. George. The younger Arthur (1681-1772) was a clergyman who became a Chancellor of the Diocese of Clogher. The inscription appears to be in a seventeenth rather than an eighteenth century hand.
Vide: Tomash & Williams Erwin Tomash Library on the History of Computing. An Annotated and Illustrated Catalog (2009).