"Livre d’arithmetique", by Augustine Garcin

FULLY ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION: Augustine livre arithmetique description

Augustine Garcin. Livre d’arithmetique.
[Aix-en-Provence?, c. 1825].
Folio: (34 x 22 cm). [5] blank leaves, 88 leaves (text), [4] leaves (table), 16 blank leaves—with text and exercises written on rectos only. Contemporary red morocco with gilt frames on the boards, flat gilt spine, and former owner / student’s name “Augustine” on the front cover and “Garcin” on the back cover, all edges gilt. A few scuffs and ink spots to an otherwise lovely binding, internally the volume is excellent. Written on fine Dutch paper with the D&C Blauw watermark, common to late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century France; all text rectos with black ink borders, and one leaf (7) with ornamental borders. Signed at the end “Augustine G. D’Aix.”

A female student’s large folio arithmetic textbook, written in a neat at times ornamental hand, occasionally in more than one color of ink, formally laid-out and free from doodles, idle pen-trails, or unrelated content. The focus here is on the exceptionally orderly presentation of mathematical exercises for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, set in the context of calculating weights & measures for business operations.

The material aspect of this unusually luxurious textbook—gilt stamped morocco binding and liberal use of paper (the exercises appear on the rectos only), tells us that Augustine must have been from a well-educated and well-to-do family. The carefully handwritten creation of this exercise book also demonstrates her competency in mathematics as well as penmanship. It is further noteworthy that a young woman's education in the early 19th century would include exercises in commercial business as seen here. The work opens with a pedagogical exercise on the principles of arithmetic in a Question and Answer fashion: the student has responded to a series of 32 questions, beginning with the question: “Qu’est ce que l’arithmétique [what is arithmetic]?” The table of contents lists over 60 essential exercises in all.