1784 · London
by Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley
London: Printed for T. Cadell [...] J. Murray [...] and R. Baldwin, 1784. Near fine.. Beautifully bound early edition of Lady Montagu's literary epistles from her time in the Ottoman Empire as wife to the English ambassador — including her transformative description of inoculation against smallpox. Lady Montagu secretly taught herself Latin as a child and would go on to become one of the most famous women of letters of the Augustan age. In 1716, she traveled to Constantinople with her diplomat husband, where they lived for about two years. Lady Montagu's letters from this period show her working at the highest levels of the form. Circulated in manuscript form among the literati during her lifetime, they were published in 1763 after her death and became an instant classic.
Most famous among these letters is Montagu's description of a typical Turkish medical procedure that had no equivalent back in Great Britain: inoculation against smallpox. Montagu had herself contracted smallpox in 1715 and nearly died; she embraced the opportunity of the procedure and had her children inoculated. (Her daughter's inoculation in 1721 was the first administration of the procedure in England.) Montagu campaigned vigorously for the practice, even convincing the queen to have her children inoculated. The subsequent debates in the medical community were a critical part of the context in which Edward Jenner popularized his smallpox vaccine in 1796 — a development still to come 12 years after the publication of this edition of Montague's LETTERS.
A multifaceted landmark in the history of science and literature in a lovely contemporary binding. Two 16mo volumes, 6.25'' x 3.75'' each. Full contemporary tree calf, red and brown goatskin spine labels, spines elaborately stamped in gilt, gilt rules. Yellow edges. xii, 220; [iv], 272 pages. Bookplates to front pastedowns. Light rubbing to joints, offsetting to endpapers, else clean and crisp. (Inventory #: 52181)
Most famous among these letters is Montagu's description of a typical Turkish medical procedure that had no equivalent back in Great Britain: inoculation against smallpox. Montagu had herself contracted smallpox in 1715 and nearly died; she embraced the opportunity of the procedure and had her children inoculated. (Her daughter's inoculation in 1721 was the first administration of the procedure in England.) Montagu campaigned vigorously for the practice, even convincing the queen to have her children inoculated. The subsequent debates in the medical community were a critical part of the context in which Edward Jenner popularized his smallpox vaccine in 1796 — a development still to come 12 years after the publication of this edition of Montague's LETTERS.
A multifaceted landmark in the history of science and literature in a lovely contemporary binding. Two 16mo volumes, 6.25'' x 3.75'' each. Full contemporary tree calf, red and brown goatskin spine labels, spines elaborately stamped in gilt, gilt rules. Yellow edges. xii, 220; [iv], 272 pages. Bookplates to front pastedowns. Light rubbing to joints, offsetting to endpapers, else clean and crisp. (Inventory #: 52181)
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