The Compleat Surveyor: containing the Whole Art of Surveying of Land, by the Plain Table, Theodolite, Circumferentor, and Peractor: After a more easie, exact and compendious manner, then hath been hitherto published by any..

Engraved frontis. port. of Leybourn and numerous woodcut diagrams & tables in the text. Title printed in red & black. 6 p.l., 84, 177-279 pp. Small folio, cont. sheep (some wear & rubbing, a few unimportant stains). London: R. & W. Leybourn for E. Brewster & G. Sawbridge, 1653. First edition under this title. "Of all the seventeenth-century writers on surveying, William Leybourn probably exerted a greater influence on the practicing surveyor than any other, with the possible exception of John Love. Leybourn's first contribution to surveying was a short pamphlet, Pantometria or the Whole Art of Surveying, published in London in 1650 and written under the pseudonym of Oliver Wallinsby. This little tract proved so popular that Leybourn was prompted to enlarge it, and in London in 1653 he published [the present work] which passed through four editions in the seventeenth century and a revised edition in the first half of the eighteenth century... "Leybourn's texts are written in a clear, attractive style which probably developed out of his extensive teaching experience. They are a decided improvement over most of the texts published previously: the material is better organized, and there is a definite trend toward a generalization of the different methods of surveying."-L.W. Richeson, English Land Measuring to 1800. Instruments and Practice, pp. 113-14. The binding is rubbed, but a very nice and crisp copy. Cortachy Castle Library bookplate. Preserved in a cloth box. ❧ Tomash & Williams L94-"an important addition to the literature of surveying.".