Compendium logicæ secundum principia D. Renati Descarte catechisticè propositum : [1693]

Small leather hardcover volume containing a manuscript copy of William Brattle’s abstract of René Descartes’ "Compendium Logicae" copied in Latin, likely by Thomas Phipps in 1693. A crossed out inscription on the inside back cover appears to read “Thomas Phips 1693” likely referring to Thomas Phipps, a member of the Harvard Class of 1695.

Received on September 24, 1870 as the gift of John Holmes (Harvard AB 1832) of Cambridge, Mass.

Flyleaf inscriptions: "Joseph McKean, Harvard College, Cambridge, August 23rd 1791. The gift of Alex C. Wylly." and "This Compend of Logic, by the Rev'd Wm Brattle of Cambridge was long recited in Harvard College & held in high estimation. An edition of it was published. 1750."

Thomas Phipps (1676-1737), High Sheriff of New Hampshire, was born on November 22, 1676 in Charlestown, Mass. He received an AB from Harvard in 1696 and an AM in 1699. Phipps worked as a schoolmaster in Portsmouth, New Hampshire from 1696 until 1701, and served as a justice of the peace and a Clerk of the Council in Portsmouth before being appointed the High Sheriff of New Hampshire in 1709. Phipps served as High Sheriff until 1717, when he began practicing law. In 1727 he served briefly as a King’s Attorney, appointed by the courts, and exercising within his jurisdiction the powers belonging to an attorney-general. Phipps died in 1737.

The undergraduate students of Harvard College followed a structured program of study in the early 1700s. Certain key texts were adopted as textbooks at Harvard, and students often copied them into personal notebooks in place of purchased books. Textbooks created by Harvard Tutors Henry Flynt and William Brattle, Instructor Judah Monis, and Fellow Charles Morton were among the earliest used in the colonies. William Brattle’s Compendium logicae was first published in 1735 and used as a textbook at Harvard College until 1765.