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.

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.

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.

Tuhfet ül-kibar fi esfar il-bihar

Kâtip Çelebi.

Takvim üt-tevarih

li-Kâtib Çelebi.

Tarih-i Timur Gürgan

li-Nazmizade Efendi.

Mecmua-yı münşeat-i Feridun Bey

Caption title.

al- Rawḍ al-hatūn fī akhbār Maknāsat al-Zaytūn

li-Abī ʻAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʻAlī ibn Ghāzī.

Mare Rubrum seu Sinus Arabicus: ad observationes maximam partem ab Auctore annis MDCCLXII et MDCCLXIII institutas

delineatus a C. Niebuhr.

Turcia Asiatica: exhibens Natoliam modernam, in suos beglirbegatus divisam, itemque reliquos beglirbegatus, sive gubernationes et Prœfecturas generales, in regionibus Georgiæ, Armeniæ, Mespotamiæ, Syriæ et Arabiæ sitos, una cum Mari Nigro, Mari Azowiensi, Mari di Marmora, et Mari Ægeo, atque adiacentibus Insulis : C. P. S. C. M. = Carte de la Turquie asiatique contenant la Natolie moderne divisée en les beglerbeys &

ex novissimis subsidiis ac relationibus ad normam legitimae proiectionis in usum belli praesentis delineata impensis homannianorum heredum.

Empire de la Porte ottomane en Europe, en Asie et en Afrique avec les pays qui lui sont tributaires

dressé par les Frères Lotter.

Regnum Persicum Imperium Turcicum in Asia Russorum Provinciae ad Mare Caspium: aliaequae regiones finitimae, item Ponti Euxini, Maris Caspii, ac Sinus Persici novissimae ac fidelissimae delineationes

Reinero et Josua Ottens.

The Turkish Empire in Europe, Asia, and Africa: dividid into all its governments, together with the other territories that are tributary to it, as also the dominions of ye Emperor of Marocco [sic] according to the newest and most exact observations

by H. Moll.