Student notebook of James Varney, 1721-1725

The bound notebook contains academic texts copied by Harvard student James Varney in the early 1720s. The texts are written tête-bêche (where both ends of the volume are used to begin writing). The front paste-down endpaper reads 'James Varney his book 1724,' and the rear paste-down endpaper reads 'Joseph Lovett' [AB 1728].

From the front of the volume: Physicks (by Charles Morton) -- Enchiridion philosophiae naturalis (a précis created by Tutor John Leverett of Henry More's Enchiridion Ethicum) -- Theses quaedam (a précis created by Jonathan Remington of Jean LeClerc's Ontologia et Pneumatologia) -- Geometria (by Johann Heinrich Alsted). Written tête-bêche from the other end of the volume: Compendium Logicae (by William Brattle) -- A Catechism geographicall, historicall and chronologicall (by Henry Flynt).

Received in the Harvard College Library on November 21, 1918 from Ezra H. Baker of Boston.

Title supplied by cataloger.

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.

James Varney was born in Boston on August 8, 1706. He graduated from Harvard College in 1725 and received an AM in 1728. He was the first minister of Wilmington from 1733 until 1739, and afterwards preached in local parishes and worked as a schoolmaster. Varney died on March 27, 1783.