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.

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.

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.

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.

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].

Aksa'l-ereb fî tercemeti Mukaddimeti'l-edeb

[Maḥmūd ibn ʻUmar Zamakhsharī].

al- Fatāwá al-Sirājīyah

[ʻAlī ibn ʻUthmān al-Ūshī].

Tarih-i Timur Gürgan

li-Nazmizade Efendi.

Kitāb-i Khulāṣat al-ḥikmat

az taʼlīfāt-i Muḥammad Ḥusayn Khān.

al- Juzʼ al-rābiʻ wa-al-khāmis min kitāb al-Intiṣār li-wāsiṭat ʻiqd al-amṣār

taʼlīf Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Aydamur al-ʻAlāʼī al-shahīr bi-Ibn Duqmāq.

Farhang-i Shuʻūrī va al-musammāh bi-Navāl al-fuz̤alā va lisān al-ʻAjam

[Hasan Şuuri].

Sharḥ al-ṣadr bi-Ghazwat Badr

li-ʻAbd Allāh al-Shabrāwī.

Kitāb Bahjat al-asrār wa-maʻdan al-anwār fī baʻḍ manāqib al-quṭb al-Rabbānī wa-al-ghawth al-Ṣamadānī wa-al-baḥr al-zākhir al-nūrānī ṣāḥib al-maqām al-ʻalī Muḥyī al-Dīn Abī Muḥammad ʻAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlī

taʼlīf Nūr al-Dīn Abī al-Ḥasan ʻAlī ibn Yūsuf Abī Faḍl al-Shaṭnūbī. Wa-bi-hāmishihi Kitāb Riyāḍ al-basātīn fī akhbār al-Shaykh ʻAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlī Muḥyī al-Dīn taʼlīf Muḥammad al-Amīn al-Kīlānī al-Tūnisī.