Chancery decree, June 1786

Portion of decree in the case of George John Fardo v. Commissioners of Confiscation. Signed by Richard Hutson, John Mathews and John Rutledge. Filed 20 June 1786. The text of the decree itself, evidently once enclosed in this sheet, is missing.

Student compositions of Washington Allston, 1799

Handwritten essay about procrastination and a poem celebrating spring composed by Washington Allston while he was an undergraduate at Harvard. The essay uses a story about a young Italian named Bernardo to discuss the consequences of procrastination. The essay is labeled “Allston Novem. ’99" and is titled with a quote from Edward Young's poem "The Complaint," “Procrastination is Theif [sic] of time.” Allston’s poem celebrates spring and incorporates Phillida and Corydon, two characters from Nicholas Breton’s poem “Phillida and Cordion.” The poem is titled with the verses, “Chief, lovely spring, in thee, and thy soft scenes, / The smiling God is seen” from James Thompson's poem “Spring.” The poem is labeled "Allston July 10, 1799."

Mathematical notebook attributed to Thaddeus Mason Harris, ca. 1787

Hardcover notebook containing handwritten transcriptions of rules, cases, and examples from 18th century mathematical texts. The author and purpose of the volume is unclear, though it has been connected with Thaddeus Mason Harris (Harvard AB 1787). Most of the entries include questions and related answers, suggesting the notebook was used as a manuscript textbook and workbook. The extracts appear to be copied from John Dean's " Practical arithmetic" (published in 1756 and 1761), Daniel Fenning's "The young algebraist's companion" (published in multiple editions beginning in 1750), and Martin Clare's "Youth's introduction to trade and business" (extracts first included in 1748 edition).

Documents: concerning North American Atlantic coastal areas : manuscript, [17--]

Acts, reports, petitions, court opinions, and other documents, spanning 1680-1725, concerning Antigua, Barbados, the Carolinas, St. Christopher [Saint Kitts], Jamaica, New York, Virginia, and other areas on the Atlantic coast.

An Hebrew grammar, collected chiefly from those of Mr. Israel Lyons, teacher of Hebrew in the University of Cambridge; and the Rev. Richard Grey, D.D. rector of Hinton, in Northamptonshire: To which is subjoined a praxis, taken from the sacred classics, and containing a specimen of the whole Hebrew language: with a sketch of the Hebrew poetry

as retrieved by Bishop Hare ...

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.

A synopsis of naturall philosophy according to the method of the ancients, but improved & augmented with the notions of later philosophers : manuscript, 1677-1679

Possibly autograph, dated at end of volume: Finitu[m] mart: 14, 1678/9. Imperfect copy with title page missing; supplied from a MS copy, dated 29 March 1680, now in the Bodleian Library.

General Charte der Laender Zwischen dem Schwarzen und Caspischen Meere: Circassien, Georgien, Armenien, Wüste von Astrachan und Caucasus hauptsoechlich die Grosse und Kleine Kabarda

Nach Russischen und and Handschriften entworsen Strasburg bey Joh. Georg Treuttel ; I. P. Kremer delin ; B. F. Leizelt sc.

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.

Aḥvāl-ʼi chahār darvīsh : manuscript, undated

Title from caption (fol. 1v).

Kitab al-amthal =: seu proverbiorum Arabicorum centuriæ duæ : ab anonymo quodam Arabe collectæ & explicatæ

cum interpretatione Latina & scholiis Iosephi Scaligeri et Thomæ Erpenii.

The Mahomedan law of succession to the property of intestates: in Arabick, engraved on copper plates from an ancient manuscript

with a verbal translation and explanatory notes by William Jones.

Kitāb al-Ḥujjah fī sariqāt ibn Ḥijjah / taṣnīf al-Shaykh al-Imām al-ʻAllāmah ... Abī ʻAbd Allāh Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan ibn ʻAlī al-Nawājī al-Shāfiʻī : manuscript, undated

Missing leaves at the end.

Rafʻ al-iltibās ʻan munkar al-iqtibās / taʼlīf Shaykh mashāyikh al-Islām Imām al-aʼimmah al-aʻlām ... Shaykh al-Islām al-Shams Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Luṭf : manuscript, 1585

Copy completed at the end of Rabīʻ al-Ākhir 993 [April 1585], apparently from author's copy.

Risālah wa-tusammá al-Sabīʻīyah bi-ibṭāl al-diyānah al-Yahūdīyah / lil-ḥibr al-ʻaẓīm Isrāʼīl ibn Shamūyil al-Ūrshalīmī manuscript, undated

20.8 x 12.5 cm. (16.5 x 7 cm.).