Grammatica graeca, 1763

Bound volume containing a handwritten Greek grammar compiled by Joseph Drury beginning in 1763. The last sixteen pages contain a historical poem beginning, “Mason might once assert a Poets Claim. / But he must needs write.” The poem contains references to the “Great Patriot P—,“ the Roman conquest of Gall, Caeser, Versailles, and includes the verses, “How the King doth all his Cooks excel / Besides he longs to kiss his P / Saving your presence Louis keeps a whore.”

Title supplied by cataloger. The volume was received on February 13, 1941 from Goodspeed's Bookshop, Inc., in Boston.

Flyleaf inscriptions: "Joseph Drury his Book Dec. 12th 1763" and "Mr. Th's [Kanan] from Frank Stone, Junior Sopphister in Harv'd Coll. Apr. 21 1854

Joseph Drury's association with Harvard College is unknown. Ephraim Drury (d. 1778) of Needham, Mass. who graduated from Harvard in 1776 did have a brother named Joseph Drury but there is no information available about him.

One of the former owners was Charles Francis Stone (1834-1910), a professor of law at the University of the City of New York, who was born on August 2, 1834 in New York City. He received an AB from Harvard in 1855 and an AM in 1862. He was a lawyer and professor of law at the University of the City of New York (later New York University). Stone died on April 27, 1910 in Redlands, California.