A discourse on natural religion: delivered in the chapel of the University in Cambridge, September 3r, 1795, at the lecture founded by the Honourable Paul Dudley, Esqr

The hand-sewn notebook contains a manuscript draft of the Dudleian lecture delivered by Thomas Barnard on September 3, 1795 at Harvard College. The sermon begins with the Biblical text Acts 14-57. The copy includes a small number of edits and struck-out words. The covers are no longer with the item.

Diary : manuscript, 1666-1679, 1723, and 1726

Diary concerning chiefly religious matters, mostly Puritanical confessions of Tompson's piety not living up to the expectation of the Lord. There is also mention of the many afflictions God is "pleased" to bestow upon Tompson's wife.

Mathematical notebook, and commonplace book, circa 1689-1769

Manuscript notebook, possibly kept by Harvard students, containing 17th century English transcriptions of arithmetic and geometry texts, one of which is dated 1689-1690; 18th century transcriptions from John Ward’s “The Young Mathematician’s Guide”; and notes on physics lectures delivered by John Winthrop, the Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard from 1738 to 1779. The notebook also contains 18th century reading notes on Henry VIII, Tudor succession, and English history from Daniel Neal’s “The History of the Puritans” and David Hume’s “History of England,” and notes on Ancient history, taken mainly from Charles Rollin’s “The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians and Grecians.” Additionally included are an excerpt from Plutarch’s “Lives” and transcriptions of three articles from “The Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle,” published in 1769: “A Critique on the Works of Ovid”; a book review of “A New Voyage to the West-Indies”; and “Genuine Anecdotes of Celebrated Writers, &.” The flyleaf contains the inscription “Semper boni aliquid operis facito ut diabolus te semper inveniat occupatum,” a variation on a quote of Saint Jerome that translates approximately as “Always good to do some work so that the devil may always find you occupied.” In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Harvard College undergraduates often copied academic texts and lecture notes into personal notebooks in place of printed textbooks. Winthrop used Ward’s textbook in his class, while the books of Hume, Neal, and Rollin were used in history courses taught at Harvard in the 18th century.

Rabbinical manuscripts of Judah Monis, ca. 1700s

This leather-bound volume contains ten handwritten Hebrew texts presumably compiled by Judah Monis in the early 18th century. The pieces range from three to 150 pages on different sized leaves and appear to be in multiple hands. The last page of the volume has the struck-through inscription, "Judah Monis' Book" and accompanies a 44-page text. The texts are unattributed and undated, but have been identified as transcriptions of cabalistic writings and include a short biography of Isaac Luria (1533-1572) and extracts from the work of Luria, Hayyim ben Joseph Vital, Jacob ben Hayyim Zemah, Abraham ben Isaac of Granada, and Naphtali Bachrach. The transcriptions appear to be unattributed and undated.

Summons and recognizance for Hugh Woodcock, 1730

An early colonial summons and recognizance for Hugh Woodcock, who was charged with adultery. John Shoreland was surety for Woodcock's appearance in court. Woodcock failed to appear, and Shoreland failed to produce him, so the Court declared a default and ordered Shoreland's arrest and detention.

The petitioners for settling His Majesties lands and islands lying between Nova Scotia and the province of Main in New England in America : manuscript, [ca. 1720]

Written in an unidentified hand, signed by Barkstead.

Réclamations à l'Assemblée-Nationale en faveur des anciens habitans de l'Acadie transportés en France lors de la prise de Louisbourg et particulierement en faveur de ceux débarqués à Cherbourg le 14 janvier 1760: Distribué au profit des acadiens 1790 : manuscript, 1790

Documents concern the landing of Acadian refugees at Cherbourg on 14 Jan. 1760.

Sermon : manuscript, 1768

Sermon on John 15:1-2.

Relation de la conversion de Mr. Jean Thayer: autrefois ministre protestant à Boston, en l'Amérique Septentrionale, converti à la religion catholique à Rome, le 25 de mai 1783 et prêtre depuis la Trinité 1787 / manuscript, [after 1788]

écrite par lui-même en 1788 :

Algebra, or universal mathematics: revived 1738 with notes and additions : manuscript, [after 1738]

Instructional book in algebra with exercises.

Charles Town, South Carolina: with a chart of the bars & harbour

by R. Cowley.

Tabula Russiae: ex mandato Foedor Borissowits delineata

magno studio plurimis in locis aucta, edita ... a Nicolao Ioannis Piscatore.

El-Okyanus fî tercemeti'l-Kamus

[mütercimi Ahmet Asım].

Hādhā kitāb Uqlīdis

taḥrīr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-mushtahir bi-Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī.

Tuhfet ül-kibar fi esfar il-bihar

Kâtip Çelebi.