[Ward (Seth)] Vindiciæ Academiarum Containing Some briefe Animadversions upon Mr. Websters Book, Stiled, The Examination of Academies, first edition, title with woodcut arms of Oxford University, woodcut initials and head-pieces, title with ink author attribution and date "Feb 1717" in manuscript, title and verso of final f. soiled, E1 small loss to lower blank corner, final 2 ff. with fore-edge slightly trimmed, light damp-stain to upper blank corner throughout, modern marbled wrappers, [Wing W832; Madan III, 2251], small 4to, Oxford, Leonard Lichfield printer to the University, for Thomas Robinson, 1654.

⁂ An attack on Hobbes' view in Leviathan that Oxbridge colleges monopolise university teaching and a discussion of scholarship around a 'universal language', including references to Sir Francis Bacon. Ward was Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford from 1649.
"A reply to John Webster's 'Academiarum examen' (Wing W1209), to Thomas Hobbes' 'Leviathan', and to William Dell's 'The tryal of spirits'" (ESTC).