The December seminar in the new book-collecting series organised jointly by the Institute of English Studies (London University) and the ABA Educational Trust will be given by Roger Gaskell (www.rogergaskell.com), a leading dealer in early scientific, medical and technical books.

This seminar will spell out the importance of images in scientific books of all periods, analysing different kinds of graphics to show how they function in scientific communication. The Scientific Revolution in Restoration England is a particularly important for this story and examples will be drawn from the works of Robert Boyle, Sir Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke and other members of the Royal Society – including Sir Christopher Wren, not always remembered as a scientific draughtsman. The knotty problems for collectors of the bibliographical description of plates in book will be dealt with.