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.

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.

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

Instructional book in algebra with exercises.

Awrād al-Ustādh ʻAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī

"Ṭabʻ ibn Shaṭṭī ʻAbd al-Salām".

Ishārāt al-uṣūl ilá mafātīḥ al-aḥkām ḥasaba mā yaqtaḍīh al-awqāt wa-al-ayyām

bi-saʻy Mīrzā Zayn al-ʻĀbidīn.

A generall mapp of the Coast of Barbarie, where in are the Kingdoms, and Estates of Morocco, Fez, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli: also the Kingdoms, Estates and Deserts of Barca, Egipt, Libya, Biledulgerid, Segelmesse and Darha: with the circumjacent counteries

by Mounsieur Sanson ; rendred into English and illustrated by Richard Blome ; Francis Lamb Sculpit.

Hādhā kitāb Kurūm ʻarāyis al-tahānī sharḥ Ṣalawāt Ibn Mashīsh al-Dānī / taʼlīf al-Imām al-Fāḍil al-Ṣūfī al-Humām al-Shaykh Muṣṭafá al-Bakrī al-Ṣiddīqī al-Khalwatī : manuscript, 1840

Author's own abridgement of his longer commentary on Moroccan sufi Ibn Mashīsh's prayer book known as Ṣalawāt. Longer version is titled: Rawḍāt al-ʻarshīyah fī al-kalām ʻala al-Ṣalawāt al-Mashīshīyah.

Hādhā Rūznāmah-ʼī maʻahu mīqāt layl wa-nahār wa-sāʼir al-awqāt al-maʻlūmah / naqalahu Shaykh Wafā : manuscript, undated

Calendar with times for the five daily prayers of Islam for each month of the year.

Ijāzat Aḥmad ibn ʻUbayd Allāh al-ʻAṭṭār li-Muḥammad ibn Shafīʻ Sulṭān : manuscript, [ca. 1780-1800]

An ijāzah issued by Aḥmad ibn ʻUbayd Allāh al-ʻAṭṭār to his student Muḥammad ibn Shafīʻ Sulṭān. The student's name is mentioned on fol. 1v; the master's name on fol. 6r. In the ijāzah al-ʻAṭṭār traces his authority back to al-Qasṭallānī's al-Mawāhib al-ladunnīyah, then to al-Shāfiʻī, and then gives his isnād of a musalsal ḥadīth.

Majmūʻah : manuscript, [ca. 1643]

1. Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanafīyah / Kınalızade (ff. 1v.-21 v.) -- 2. Fihrist ṭabaqāt aṣḥāb al-Imām al-Aʻẓam Abū Ḥanīfah (ff. 21v-23v.) -- 3. Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanafīyah / Ibn Quṭlubughā, Rajab 1053 [1643] (ff. 23v.-55v) -- 4. Kitāb al-alfāẓ (ff. 56r-71r) -- 5. Beginning of a risālah by Bahāʼ al-Dīn Zādah Muṣṭafá ibn ʻAlī al-Āqshahrī (f. 71v) -- 6. A biographical dictionary, titled at the end "Tārīkh Ibn Khāllikān" (ff. 74v-97r) -- 7. Another biographical dictionary (ff. 97v-109r) -- 8. Ḥikāyāt (stories) (ff. 110v.-112v) -- 9. Biographical notes and excerpts (ff. 113r-116r).

Sharḥ Tahdhīb al-kalām / az Mawlānā Muḥammad Yaʻqūb : manuscript, 1731

Written in one column, 21 lines per page, in black ink with words and sentences underlined in red.

Ishārāt al-marām min ʻibārāt al-Imām : manuscript, 1722

Light brownish laid paper with watermarks. 21.8 x 15.9 cm. (15.5 x 8 cm.).

Ḥawāshin ʻalá fann al-umūr al-ʻāmmah min Sharḥ al-Mawāqif : manuscript, [ca. 1700]

Written in one column, 17 lines per page, in black and red.

ʻIqd al-jumān fī faḍāyil laylat niṣf Shaʻbān / li-nāẓim al-madīḥ al-nabawī ʻAbd al-Raḥmān [ibn] Aḥmad ibn ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʻAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Misk al-Sakhāwī al-Anṣārī al-Shāfiʻī al-Burhānī : manuscript, 1848

Title from f. 1r.