MASERES (Francis). A Dissertation on the use of the negative sign in Algebra: containing a demonstration of the Rules usually given concerning it; and showing how Quadratic and Cubic Equations may be explained, without the consideration of negative roots. To which is added, as an appendix, Mr. Machin's Quadrature of the Circle.1758

London: Printed by Samuel Richardson, First edition, 4to, [4], viii, 293, [1] pp., title a little browned on the outer margins, several old neat stamps of the Inner Temple Library, later calf calf in a cont. style, marbled boards, raised bands, morocco title label. Francis Maseres (1731–1824), colonial administrator and author. "In 1758 he published a textbook to 'remove from some of the less abstruse parts of algebra, the difficulties that have arisen therein from too extensive use of the Negative Sign', which he argued should be used only as the symbol of subtraction... he dedicated this work to the duke of Newcastle, then chancellor of Cambridge University. He had been admitted to the Inner Temple in 1750 and was called to the bar from the Middle Temple in 1758."—(ODNB). Provenance: Inscribed on front endpaper "From the author for the Library of the Inner Temple." Wallis, 758MAF58.