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).

Voyage et campagnes au Canada / par M. le chevalier de D. L. P. : manuscript, 1757-1760

Describes his voyage to Canada from Brest, and his observations of military operations and Indians while in Louisbourg, Québec, and Fort Carillon.

Journal and orderly book : manuscript, 1758 May-Oct

Copied orders and narrative entries of a military expedition to Schenectady and the Oneida station.

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.

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.

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

Instructional book in algebra with exercises.

Kitāb Hadīyat al-aḥbāb wa-minḥat al-khullān wa-al-aṣḥāb

li-Muḥammad al-Qāwūqjī al-Ṭarābulusī al-Shāmī al-shahīr bi-Abī al-Maḥāsin.

Das Kœnigreich Bosnien, und die Herzegovina (Rama) samt den angrœnzenden Provinzen von Croatien, Sclavonien, Temesvar, Servien, Albanien, Ragusa, und den Venetianischen Dalmatien

nach den militœrischen Handkarten des Prinzen Eugen der Grafen Khevenhüller, Marsigli und Pallavicini geographisch aufgetragen, und nach den zuverloessigsten Nachrichten, und Reisebeschreibungen berichtiget im Jahre 1788 von Herrn Maximilian Schimek ; J. Alberti Sculp. ; F. Müller Scrip.

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.

Delineatio regionis Bassora cum pagis fluminibus et insulis, quæ christiani sancti Ioannis incolunt

[Olfert Dapper].