SOMERVILLE, Mary (1780–1872) (her copy), SMITH, Rev. Sydney,

Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy

(London: [for the author], 1849)

8vo; pp. vii, 424

Mary Somerville’s personal copy of her friend Sydney Smith’s Moral Philosophy. Inscribed to her and numbered 94 of an issue of only 100 copies printed for distribution to his acquaintances.

Somerville was one of the most important women scientists of the nineteenth century – in fact the very term ‘scientist’ was coined by William Whewell in a review of her groundbreaking On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences. Somerville was born at the manse of Jedburgh, and was related to several prominent Scottish families. She was largely self-taught, though benefited from the encouragement of Charles Lyell, John Playfair and Sydney Smith, the noted wit and founder, in 1802, of the Edinburgh Review. Somerville has recently been celebrated as the face of the Scottish £10 note.

Smith’s Moral Philosophy was published posthumously, under the direction of his widow Catharine Amelia Smith; the correction to p. 264 (‘past’ for ‘passed’) is likely in her hand, possibly also the inscription to Somerville.

Good condition: cloth binding a little frayed at the top and bottom of the spine, with a faint stain to the top right corner; overall the volume a tiny bit warped, though internally near fine.