[Plate Volume for Joseph Priestley’s A Description of a Set of Charts of Biography…].

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Rare volume of 20 engraved plates with graphic representations of the life spans of historical figures from 1200 B.C. to 1800 A.D. These “charts” were first prepared by polymath Joseph Priestley in the 1760s as an aid to teaching history. “...Priestley prepared and had published two aids to study…with accompanying Descriptions. These graphic time line representations of the span of life of major historical figures or of empires were popular for the rest of the century in England and the United States…” (OBNB)

The charts are are arranged in oblong tables focused on historical figures by broad categories: “Statesmen and Warriors,” “Divines &c.,” “Artists [and] Poets,” “Mathematicians &c.,” “Physicians,” “Orators,” “Metaphysicians,” “Historians,” “Lawyers,” etc. The final plate depicts two additional charts “according to the Hebrew Chronology” and “according to the Septuagint” [Greek Old Testament]. These final charts are signed in the plate by Philadelphia engraver Francis Shallus, himself the author of chronological tables.

Schofield: “...the Description of a Chart of Biography went through at least nineteen editions, including four American, one Dutch, and one Italian, before its final appearance in 1840. The Charts of biography and of history were among the first acquisitions ordered for the new Library of Congress in 1800…” (The Enlightenment of Joseph Priestley… p131)

We speculate the present atlas accompanied either the 1803 or 1804 Carey edition of Priestley’s Description of a Chart of Biography, Clarkin 456 and 475, respectively; our opinion leaning toward the 1804 edition.

Both Carey titles are described as “new” editions, but we locate no prior extant edition published in America. This atlas may be the first published appearance in book form of Priestley’s Chart in America.

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