Theses of 1663

Handwritten document written in Latin and dated August 1663 purported to be the Harvard College Commencement Theses of 1663, but considered by John Noble of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts to be a contemporary parody. Noble notes of the 1663 Theses, that "there seems to be no reason to doubt that this is a genuine, original manuscript of the date which it bears," but describes it as a "blaze of literary and scholastic pyrotechnics" that suggests it was created satirically (John Noble, "Harvard Theses of 1663" in the Publications of the Colonial Society, Volume V: Transactions, April 1898, pages 322-339).

A printed version, translation, and facsimile are available at HUC 6663.112.2

Theses were used in the Commencement tradition of public student disputation which began at Harvard College in 1642. The Latin theses were academic statements created by the graduating students to reflect the scope of their undergraduate study. The Theses fit within a curriculum that emphasized public discourse and syllogistic debate and ranged between approximately 50 and 250 propositions in most years. Printed at the expense of the graduating class, the Theses were posted in advance, and graduates were expected to be able to defend them upon request on Commencement Day. Certain students were selected by the faculty to publicly discuss and dispute specific Theses as part of the day's exercises.

While there are no known extant Harvard Commencement Theses for 1663, the Harvard University Archives holds an extensive collection of Commencement Theses, Quaestiones, and Orders of Exercises, 1642-1818, (HUC 6642).