JF Ptak Science Books    Post 2432

Unusual marginalia in books is always interesting, especially when it is by the author, or from some official source. This example is a little more unusual in that it appears to a copy sent to assure copyright protection for the work–to me it gives the book a Bartleby-ian sense of place.  

Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte wrote  The Philosophy of Mathematics, translated from the Cours de Philosophie Positive, which was translated by W.M. Gillespie and published in New York by the not-yet-venerable firm of  Harper & Brothers in 1851.  

It just strikes me now that the “Bartlbey” reference above (from a Herman Melville short story) is even more appropriate than I thought, because just a few short months later, on November 15, 1851, Harper & Brothers would publish Melville’s Moby-Dick–which is a nice piece of serendipity.  I could say one other thing–I suspect that in the early stages the Comte might have sold more copies than the Melville.  

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