Rare Book Collections @ Princeton

Spine Title: Penny Chap Book • Vol. 1.

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:18:00 -0500

Eight titlepages • typical of the whole This new accession is a curious mix of 38 short works. Bound together in one single volume are some of a hyper-Protestant character (that is, anti-Romanist, anti-Mormon), some of the 'Newgate Calendar class'(stories of criminals and their punishment), some on popular leisure ('comic songs,' 'authentic history of the prize ring') and others dealing with fires, massacres, tortures, atrocities, 'the confessions of an undertaker,' as well as the story of one of 'the pretty horsebreakers of Rotten Row.' Price of each? At least one pence, never more than 2. Readers were always told where to obtain copies, such as at the office of "H. Elliot, 475, New Oxford Street" but usually never does the pamphlet give its date of publication. Typographic style, textual content, method of illustration and other factors date and place them in the London penny press trade of the 1850s and 1860s. Taken as a whole, the volume is a marvelous array of cheap reading targeting the interests of the British working classes. A goodly number of the penny and tuppence pamphlets in this new accession are not recorded as being held in research libraries in either the UK or the US. This makes sense because in the day of their publication, library collecting dogma did not consider their content and ephemeral form appropriate for what was deemed a 'permanent' collection. By the mid-twentieth century, this dogma had been replaced by a total reversal of doctrine. Ephemera of this sort was and continues to be considered the quotidian building stones of research collections. Recently acquired • Bound in one volume with spine title: Penny Chap Book • Vol 1. A collection of 38 publications, priced 1d and 2d, printed during the 1850s and 1860s, chiefly in London.
Call number (Ex) Item 5623495
Contents

1. The Trials and Vicissitudes in the Life of Villiers Pearce. 
Printed & published by H. Elliot, 1856. Yellow wraps. 2d.  16pp.

2. An Authentic History of Freemasonry, ... 
Printed & published by . Elliot, 1853.
Illus. Yellow wraps. 2d.  16pp.

3. Priests and their Victims; or, Scenes in a Convent.  
Printed & published by H. Elliot, 1852. 
Illus. Yellow wraps. 2d.  16pp.

4. Confessions of a Detective Policeman: ... 
Printed & published by H. Elliot, [c.1852]. 
Illus. cutting inserted. Yellow wraps. 2d.  16pp.

5.  Mormon Revelations, being the history of fourteen females, ... 
Printed & published by H. Elliot, [c.1858]. 
Illus. cutting inserted. Yellow wraps. 2d. 16pp..  
*Title headed: Appalling Disclosures!

6. Bennett's Official Account of the Great Fire 
near London Bridge, Shocking death of Mr. Braidwood, 
and great loss of life. 
Printed & published for the booksellers, [1861]. 
Two column text 16pp.

7. The life, Death, and Burial of the late Mr. James Braidwood. 
A.P. Shaw, [1861]. Port., illus. cutting inserted.  8pp.

8. The Dreadful Fire at the Wharves, near London Bridge 
with the death of Mr. Braidwood. H.Disley, printer, [1861].  
Quarter sheet broadside, largely in verse.

9. The Yelverton Ballad and Love Songs, ... 
and Extraordinary Marriage of Teresa 
Longworth and Major Yelverton, ... 
E. Harrison, [1862]. Portraits, largely in verse. 8pp.

10. The Yelverton Marriage Case, ... Verdict of the Jury. 
Sold by Winn, [1861]. Tide headed: Price one penny. 8pp.

11. Narrative of the Massacres of Christians in Syria. 
Dreadful sufferings of women, and children cut to shreds, ... 
H. Vickers. Illus.id.  8pp.

12. Dassel, Adolph von. The Melancholy History and 
Miserable End of the Two Monsters of the Continent, the 
Communist Ox and the Socialist Ass.  Published by 
the Propaganda of Good Sense (A. Munro), 1851. 
Without the engraving, first leaf 
slightly torn at inner margin. 16pp.

13. The Life and Death together with the Extraordinary 
Exploits of the redoubtable Gen. Havelock, ... 
Elliot, Panic, 1858. 1d. 8pp.

14. The Dream of Miltiades; or, The Fall of Sebastopol. 
By the Author of "The Battle of Inkermann". 
Brighton: printed at C.Tourle's Office, [1856?]. 
Verse. Yellow wraps.  8pp. 
*'The Battle of Inkermann' may be 
the poem by a retired Liverpool Merchant, 1855.

15. The Original Comic Song Book, 
compiled by Hardwick, Labern, Ramsay, &c. ... No. 11. 
Pattie, [c. 1850]. Illus.  1d. 8pp.

16. (Young, James) The Rev. C.H. Spurgeon in a 
Fix, and Completely Confounded. 
Printed & published by James Young, [1863]. 1d. 7pp. 
James Young who signs the pamphlet on p.7, 
describes himself as a convert to the Jewish religion.

17. Mysteries of Mormonism. A history of the rise 
and progress of the notorious Latter Day Saints, ... 
H. Wilson, [c.1855]. 1d.  8pp.

18. Anti-Conspirator, pseud. 
 Regicide. Are refugees our enemies.  
Is Napoleon our ally.  J. Allen, 1858. 1d.  8pp.

19. An Authentic History of the Prize Ring 
and Championships of England, ... 
(Verbatim account from "The Times" and "Bell's Life" newspapers.)  
Diprose & Bateman, [1860]. 16pp.

20. (Wilkes, George).  A True Narrative of the Horrid Tortures 
practised in Naples, ... the Virgin's Kiss ... By an eye witness. 
H. Vickers, [c. 1860].  Illus. 1d.  8pp.

21. Watts, John. The Criminal History of the Clergyman. (No. 1.) 
Compiled byJ. Watts. Holyoake & Co., [1857]. 2d. 16pp.

22. The Dangers of Crinoline, Street Hoops, &c. 
G. Vickers, [1858]. Illus. 1d.  16pp.

23. The What is it? The extraordinary adventures, 
startling revelations, 
and narrow escapes of Du Chaillu, ... 
Printed & published at the City Printing Press, [c.1860?]. Illus. 
Front  wraps with repeat illus. hand col. 2d. 16pp.

24. The Five Great Americans ... Gough, Northrop, Finney, 
Rarey, and Heenan. H.J. Tresidder. 
(Leaders of the day, no. 4.) July, 1860. 1d.  8pp.

25. The Reverend Charles Haddon Spurgeon's Continental Tour. 
H.J. Tresidder. (Leaders of the day, no. 10.) [c.1860]. 12pp.

26. The life of His Late Royal Highness the Prince 
Consort, with an account of his last moments, ... 
5th edn. W. Oliver, [1862]. Port 1d.  16pp.

27. A Full Account of the Windham Lunacy Case,
 with anecdotes ... 
Elliott, [1862]. Port.  1d. Misbound but complete. 20pp.

28. Williams, Dr.  A Thunderbolt 
for Colenso, the 
Heretic Bishop of Natal. 
Elliot, [1862?]. 1d.  16pp.

29. Appalling Narrative of Russian Atrocities: 
... By a Polish Exile. 
H. Vickers, [c.1860]. Illus.1d.  8pp.

30. Midnight Meetings and the Social Evil !!! 
The life of Lucy Anderson, one of the pretty horsebreakers 
of Rotten Row, written by herself. 
Elliot, [c.1860]. Illus.1d.  8pp.

31. Tommey, Henry, Sen.  Let Justice be done!
The startling narrative of an old veteran who served 
under Wellington ... 
Printed & published by H. Tommey, 1863. 
Orig. green wraps. 1d. 12pp.

32. Mr. Somes and his foolish, mischievous, and obnoxious Beer Bill 
and its tyrannical effects upon the Working Classes; 
... Sunday riots in Hyde Park. 
Farrah & Dunbar; J. & H. Purkess, &c. [1863.] 1d.  8pp.

33. The Astounding Confessions of an Undertaker, 
... Shocking Disclosures. 
News Agents' Publishing Co., [c.186-?]. Illus. 16pp.

34. The Manchester Murders. 
Manchester: John Heywood; London: G. Vickers, [1862?[. 
Illus. 16pp. 
*Sent by post with 1d stamp to M. Beggs, 37 Southampton St., London.

35. Mormon Disclosures ... 
Liverpool: James Gage. [c.l860?]. 1d.  16pp. 
*The same text as 'Mormon Revelations' q.v.

36. The Three Skeletons: a ghostly Christmas story. 
Revelations of a French physician. 
The mysterious casket. The burning furnace. 
The lost child. E. Harrison, [1862?]. 
Illus.,  two column text. 1d.  16pp.

37. O'Kane v. Lord Palmerston.  
All about the great scandal ... 
Published at the Office of the "City News", [1863]. 
With cutting tipped in at front & 4 at end. 1d.  8pp.

38. The Disgraceful Death of an English judge, 
in a House of Ill-Fame. Leeds: T. Pinder, [1884]. Illus.(8 pp.)  
*Added later to the collection.

Cartographies of Time, A History of the Timeline • Forthcoming from Princeton Architectural Press

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:49:00 -0500

To be published. Scheduled to be available after Wednesday January 20, 2010. Cartographies of Time: A History of the Timeline.
Authors: Anthony Grafton, Daniel Rosenberg
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010
8-1/2 x 10-1/2 in; 272 pp ; 268 color and 40 b/w images
ISBN-13: 9781568987637
ISBN: 1568987633 Details: http://www.chroniclebooks.com/index/main,book-info/store,books/products_id,8500/path,1/title,Cartographies-of-Time/ Professor Daniel Rosenberg writes "Cartographies of Time is a history of graphic representations of time in Europe and the United States from 1450 to the present. The book argues that this history may be divided into two main phases, the period from 1450 to 1750, during which scholars relied heavily on the tabular system of representation developed by the fourth-century Christian scholar Eusebius, and the period from 1750 to the present during which the simple, measured line displaced the tabular matrix as the standard mechanism for representing historical chronology. The story that we tell in the book has many twists and turns--it takes detours through sixteenth-century astronomy and follows Canadian missionaries to Oregon, turns up little known works by famous figures including a historical chronology by the mapmaker Gerardus Mercator and a chronological board game patented by Mark Twain--and, as I will shown in a few slides, the table and the line are only two of many possible ways of graphing history. In the book, the circle, the tree, and many other figures get due consideration. Nonetheless, the book argues that in Western history and chronology, the table and the line hold a peculiarly central place. The book is a study of these two favored forms in relation in relation to a changing ecology of images and ideas." Preliminary draft of the introduction

In preparing this book, Professors Grafton and Rosenberg spent many, many hours in Princeton's rare book reading room closely researching the Library's extensive holdings of chronological charts, tables, and timelines.

Collecting Ottoman 'Incunabula'

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:50:00 -0500

"The Library of Grand Vizier Ragib Pasha,"
engraving in the
Tableau général de l'empire othoman
by Ignatius Mouradgea d'Ohsson
published in Paris, 1787-1790.

In the new issue of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, a newsletter issued by the department, editorial assistant, William Blair, tells the story of the Library's collecting books printed on the first Muslim-owned and operated printing press. Any copy of books from the press of İbrahim Müteferrika are rare, yet the Library's collecting success has been remarkable. The Library now owns fourteen of the seventeen titles published by his press. Full text of the article

Newly published: A Catalogue of the Junius Spencer Morgan Collection of Virgil in the Princeton University Library

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:42:00 -0500

Oak Knoll Press reports copies of the Virgil catalogue, ever so carefully prepared by Prof. Craig Kallendorf, are now in stock.

It is an exuberant production!
• Color-printed dust jacket [ in full ]
• 49 color-printed illustrations, some full page (page size: 8.5 x 11 inches)
• 488 pages of descriptions covering more than 900 volumes, divided into 8 sections (Latin editions, translations into Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and other languages) [sample pages]
• 4 indices: i) printers, publishers, booksellers; ii) authors, commentators, translators, editors; iii) illustrators; iv) owners ("The index ... includes the names of auction houses and booksellers, as well as of former owners, so that the movement of the books can be tracked as fully as possible.") [The estimate of the total number of names tracked by all four indexes is more than 2,200.]
• 17 page introduction, set double column, with 48 notes, and covering such topics as the illustration of Virgil's works, evidence of reader experience, and the material production of Virgil editions as an index of taste.

Copies may be obtained via the publisher's website http://oakknoll.com/detail.php?d_booknr=100481

Finding annotated books

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:40:00 -0500

Earlier this year, the Library acquired a remarkable book consisting of eight texts selected from Aristotle's Organon and Nicomachean Ethics. The texts were published in Paris by Denis du Pré and Gabriel Buon between 1569 and 1573 and bound in two volumes. Their owner, Pierre Maillet, of Lyon, intensively annotated the texts while attending lectures given by Nicolas de Bonvilliers, from November 1573 to September 1574, at the Collège de la Marche in Paris. His annotations are interlinear, in the margins and on inserted pages. Maillet dates and signs his notes several times and names his teacher in a note in French on fol. 95v of the Ethics. Call number for the Maillet volumes: (Ex) 2009-0499N Princeton owns other comparably annotated Renaissance texts. A number of these are reported in the Princeton University Library Chronicle. Ann M. Blair, "Lectures on Ovid' Metamorphoses: The Class Notes of a 16th-Century Paris Schoolboy" (L,2 [Winter 1989], p. 117-144 [ full text] and Anthony Grafton, "Gabriel Harvey's Marginalia: New Light on the Cultural History of Elizabethan England" (LII,1 [Autumn 1990], p. 21-24 [ full text]. Also see Anthony Grafton and Lisa Jardine, From Humanism to the Humanities (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986) for discussion of the volume of texts annotated in 1572 by Gerardus de Mayres from lectures by Claude Mignault [Call number for these Renaissance editions is (Ex)PA260.xC6.1550]. But, in addition to the Renaissance, in general, how does one find books with contemporary annotations in the Princeton rare book collections? Go to the Main Catalog -> catalog.princeton.edu. The opening screen is headed 'Basic Search.' In the search box, enter 'annotations provenance,' then search by subject heading. You will see a list that looks like this. To use this table of results, click on a link of interest, such as 'Annotations (Provenance)--16th century.' You get a list of 79 books, each individually described. A list such as this allows analysis of holdings. Here is a table in rank order of rare books at Princeton signaled as having handwritten annotations, usually contemporary. Detail about the kind of notation varies for a variety of reasons. Nonetheless, for those seeking primary evidence about a reader's response to a text, searching 'annotations provenance' is the way to start.

279	Annotations (Provenance)
79	Annotations (Provenance)--16th century.
57	Annotations (Provenance)--18th century.
57	Annotations (Provenance)--19th century.
35	Annotations (Provenance)--20th century.
26	Annotations (Provenance)--'Collated and perfect'
24	Annotations (Provenance)--17th century.
22	Annotations (Provenance)--England--19th century.
14	Annotations (Provenance)--15th century.
3	Annotations (Provenance)--United States--New Jersey--Princeton--19th century.
2	Annotations (Provenance)--France--18th century
2	Annotations (Provenance)--Germany--16th century.
2	Annotations (Provenance)--Italy--15th century.
1	Annotations (Provenance)--18th century.
1	Annotations (Provenance)--20th century.
1	Annotations (Provenance)--France--19th century
1	Annotations (Provenance)--France--Paris--1556.
1	Annotations (Provenance)--France--Paris--1560.
1	Annotations (Provenance)--France--Strasbourg--1515.
1	Annotations (Provenance)--Germany--17th century.
1	Annotations (Provenance)--Germany--Frankfurt am Main--1793.
1	Annotations (Provenance) Germany--Tübingen-- 16th century.
1	Annotations (Provenance)--Italy--Venice--1487.
1	Annotations (Provenance)--Switzerland--Basel--1511.
1	Annotations (Provenance)--United States--New Jersey--Princeton--20th century.

'So striking that it sells on sight' • 'The only non-sectional historical war adventure book'

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:06:00 -0500

Pictures! Stories! Action! Available via a canvasser or direct from the publisher. In red and black on title page: "Deeds of Daring by Both Blue and Gray ... Thrilling narratives of personal adventure, exploits of scouts and spies, forlorn hopes, heroic bravery, patient endurance, imprisonments and hair-breadth escapes, romantic incidents, hand to hand struggles, humorous and tragic events, perilous journeys, bold dashes, brilliant successes, magnanimous actions, etc., on each side the line during the great Civil War ... Profusely illustrated." Publisher: "Scammell & Company, established 1868. Philadelphia, Pa.: 610 Arch Street. Saint Louis, Mo.: 203 Pine Street."

Recently acquired illustrated broadside advertising revised edition (1886). The book was published by subscription: "Agents wanted! Write at once for terms, and name your choice of territory: or, to secure it instantly, send $1.00 for complete agent's outfit, which will be forwarded by return mail postpaid. ... If $3.00 are sent, not only the complete outfit, but also a fine leather copy of the complete book will be forwarded, if you sincerely pledge yourself to canvass."

Call number: (Ex) Item 5360010

Cover and spine of recently acquired first edition (1883)

Call number: (Ex) Item 5370350

"This volume does not assume to be a formal history, nor even to relate more than a modicum of the innumerable incidents of personal adventure and examples of bravery exhibited on both sides during the Civil War. But it is believed to be the first volume in which a representative collection has ever been made of such examples by both Federal and Confederate participants, impartially related. Many have been the books which have been written and published from each interested standpoint, in which the coloring of the narrative by the prejudices of the writer was only too evident. Such books were necessarily (and not improperly) one-sided in view. But is there not abundant room for a volume that shall exhibit those traits of personal courage which all Americans claim to be a common heritage? In the belief that there is such room, and that, after the lapse of a generation of time, the most captious can hardly demur, there is here given the only collection of authenticated exploits by both the Blue and the Gray yet made, and one of nearly seventy chapters." -- D. M. Kelsey (preface, opening paragraph)

For more on subscription publishing in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century, see: Amy M. Thomas, "There Is Nothing So Effective as a Personal Canvass": Revaluing Nineteenth-Century American Subscription Books," Book History (1998), vol 1, p. 140-155.

Reading Decorative Papers II: Infared reflectography

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:09:00 -0500

Front cover: The Scholar's Arithmetic, Keene, N.H., 1814

Back cover: The Scholar's Arithmetic, Keene, N.H., 1814

We're still not there yet, that is, at a full answer to the question about how this fragment of Fanny Hill was used as covering material. However, we now have a better sense of what the fragment looks like overall. Thanks to the work of Ted Stanley, Special Collections Paper Conservator, Princeton University Library, we now have two images of the printed fragments of "Fanny Hill." These pictures were obtained by a method called "infared reflectography." [http://www.clemusart.com/exhibcef/battle/gloss/g4411438.html ] In brief, he used a high quality SLR digital camera with a filter than excludes visible light but passes infared. The CMOS array of the camera is sensitive to the IR end of the spectrum, 830-1100 nanometers. The technique is useful in this case because the printer's ink has different optical properties from the pigments of the marbling. In other words, the ink absorbs / reflects light differently than marbling paints. This differential is then carried over into an image which is visible, with the ink rendered darker than the pigments.

[More is available on this technique in C. M. Falco, "Invited Article: High resolution digital camera for infrared reflectography," Review of Scientific Instruments 80, 071301 2009 [link]

Reading Decorative Papers: From the Legal to the Forbidden

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:40:00 -0500

A book historian has said: "Printers print sheets, but binders make books." That dictum is well shown by close examination of the bindings on these two books. The first example is from the library of John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration, and President of College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). It is volume 29 of his collection of sixty bound volumes of pamphlets. Most are bound with boards covered with decorative papers, usually marble paper. Some have remarkable tan paste paper covers which, because of age and wear, reveal printing beneath the decorative pigment. In this case, we can see page 331 of the 1784 edition of the Acts of the Council and General Assembly of the State of New-Jersey printed in Trenton by state printer Isaac Collins. In an age of scarcity, paper had value even after its original use. The trade in printer's waste paper, for example, included a number of after-market uses, such as linings for hat boxes. Here we see printer's waste as substratum for a decorative paste paper, tan in color, patterned in a wavy manner (done by comb while paste and pigment are still wet.)

The second example keeps us still in the world of reused printer's waste but takes us far from the rectitude of the Reverend Doctor. This is the binding on a recently acquired copy the Scholar's Arithmetic, or, Federal Accountant, a textbook published in 1814 at Keene, N.H. by John Prentiss "proprietor of the copy right." [(Ex) Item 547834] The book is still in its original binding as issued. In this case the decorative paper is marbled paper, whose color and pattern results from laying the paper over oil pigments floating on water. Again, wear and age allow us to see what was once hidden by blue pigment. There are blocks of print separated by wide margins, signaling this sheet to be several pages of text imposed for book printing. There are 31 lines per page with a page number centered in brackets over the middle of line one. Layout is the same on both front and back covers. What is this text? Closely reading one portion reveals a surprise. Transcription:

                              [18]

[service] under these good people; and after 
[supper] being showed to bed, Miss Phoebe, 
[who ob]served a kind of reluctance in me to 
[strip and go] to bed, in my shift before her, now 
[the maid] was withdrawn, came up to me, and 
[beginnin]g with unpinning my handkerchief 
[and gow]n, soon encouraged me to go on with 
[undressi]ng myself; and, still blushing at now see
[ing mys]elf naked to my shift, I hurried to get 
[under th]e bed-cloaths out of sight.  Phoebe 
[laugh'd] and was not long before she placed

Racy stuff, indeed. One library describes books with comparable decorative papers as "Bound in boards covered with a marbled sheet from a suppressed edition of John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. [Boston?, ca. 1810]" How did this happen? [More later.]

Piranesi's Catalogo delle Opere: a practical requisite rendered in tromphe l'oeil

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:07:00 -0500

"Any attempt to determine the dating and sequence of the majority of Piranesi's etched works must begin from the artist's own Calalogo, confined to a single plate. This appears to have been first issued around 1761 when Piranesi set up his print-selling business near the top of the Spanish Steps at Palazzo Tomati, Via Sistina -- an address which appears on many of his subsequent plates. In particular the Catalogo is crucial for arriving at the dating and order of the Vedute di Roma and already on the earliest known example presented to the Accademia di San Luca on his election in the spring of 1761, some fifty-nine specific titles are listed. Thence forward until his death in 1778, Piranesi issued revised states of the Catalogo which can be dated approximately by the addition of new publications. At the same time, fresh titles of the Vedute were added, individually or in groups (these were sometimes inserted in ink before being etched). So far, well over twenty-five separate states of this key work have come to light." -- John Wilton-Ely, Piranesi (London, 1978), p. 45. Recent study of the Catalogo by Andrew Robison, Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), has identified as many as 31 known states. Princeton owns three states, as follows: State IV - copy bound as last leaf in Piranesi's De Romanorvm magnificentia et architectvra / Della Magnificenza ed architettura de'Romani. (Rome, 1761), call number (Ex) NA310 .P64e. Link to digital image. State V - held at the Princeton University Art Museum, Prints and Drawings State XXIV - copy at call number (Ex) 2007-0052E, dating ca. 1776. Link to digital image.

Private libraries: listed, described, detailed: 1855-1919

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 11:36:01 -0500

Lists of private libraries in the United States -- contemporary to date of publication 1855 -- A Glance at Private Libraries (Boston) by Luther Farnham (1816-1897) Boston, Press of Crocker and Brewster, 1855. 1860 -- Private Libraries of New York by James Wynne (New York : E. French, 1860) 1863-1864 -- Hubbard Winslow Bryant publishes notices of private libraries in the Portland (Maine) Daily Press. Collected by Roger Stoddard and reprinted in 2004. 1875 -- Washington Chronicles, Sep 15, 1875. William H. Dorsey Scrapbook Collection 247.1. "Our Libraries. The Public and Private Libraries of Washington" 1878 -- Private Libraries of Providence by Horatio Rogers. Evidently first appeared in 1875 as a series of newspaper articles in the Providence Press 1878 -- "Our Private Libraries" - Philadelphia Ledger and Transcript, Nov. 30, 1878. Clipping in William H. Dorsey Scrapbook Collection, vol. 249, p. 28. Continued: [From a Philadelphia newspaper] 1878 William H. Dorsey Scrapbook Collection, 249.2 "Private Libraries. Rich book collections in this city--the library of B.B. Comegys, Esq.--a glimpse at his literary treasures. That excellent literary journal, Robinson's Epitome of Literature, has been, for the past few months, publishing a series of interesting articles upon the private libraries belonging to citizens of Philadelphia. From the issue for June we take the following ..." 1878 -- The Libraries of California: Containing Descriptions of the Principal Private and Public Libraries throughout the State by Flora Haines Loughead (San Francisco, A. L. Bancroft, 1878) 1879 -- Philadelphia Ledger and Transcript, Jun. 28, 1879. William H. Dorsey Scrapbook Collection, 249.54 "The Private Libraries of Philadelphia. The library of George W. Childs, Esq." 1886 -- Brooklyn Eagle, Jul. 18, 1886; page 11. "Books and Pamphlets. Observations among curious Brooklyn shops." Includes section enumerating the private libraries of Brooklyn. beginning "The great private libraries of Brooklyn are many. ..." 1887 -- R.R. Bowker in the Preface to the 1887 edition of The Library List proposes to publish a list of private libraries "in the next record number of the Library Journal, at the beginning of 1887" 1892-93 -- Charles Sotheran, "Private Libraries" pp. 112-132 in James Grant Wilson (ed.) The Memorial History of the City of New York. Contents: Book-collecting in the Seventeenth Century -- The First Private Library Known in the City -- Libraries of Frederick Philipse, General Philip Schuyler, and others -- The Livingston Family's Libraries -- General Use of Book- plates-- A New Literary Spirit Developed at End of the Colonial Period -- List of Fifty Important Private Libraries in 1860 -- Fate of these Valuable Collections -- Changes in the Character of Collections of To-day -- Robert Hoe's Library and its Features -- Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet's Historical Library -- The Drexel Library -- Libraries of the Rev. Dr. Dix and Samuel P. Avery -- William Loring Andrews's and Rush C. Hawkins's Collection -- Marshall C. Lefferts's Early Americana--Jay Gould's Books -- The Astor and Vanderbilt Libraries -- Thomas J. McKee's Works on the Drama -- Charles W. Fsederiekson's Shelleyana -- Other Private Libraries. 1892 -- Four Private Libraries of New York by Octave Uzanne 1897 -- List of Private Libraries. I. United States, Canada [title repeated in French and German]. Leipzig, G. Hedler, 1897. Copy: Harvard University Library, available in Google Book Search [July 2006]. Lists more than 600 entries; index by topic; ads for antiquarian booksellers at end. 1900 -- Descriptive Sketches of Six Private Libraries of Bangor, Maine by Samuel Lane Boardman (Bangor: printed for the author, 1900) 1910 -- "Private Book Collectors" published in the Annual Library Index, 1910 (New York: Office of Publishers' Weekly, 1910). Note: possible that the predecessors to this annual carried lists of collectors, see: Annual Library Index, 1905-1910, and the previous Annual Literary Index, 1892-1904. 1912 -- "Private Book Collectors" listed on pages 195-220 of the American Library Annual, 1911-1912 (New York: Office of Publishers' Weekly, 1912). Updates the list first published in 1910. Headnote explains scope and changes (approx. 200 words). Arranged geographically. 1913 -- "Private Book Collectors" listed on pages 317-348 of the American Library Annual, 1913 (New York: Office of Publishers' Weekly, 1913). Updates the list published in 1912. Headnote explains scope, notes 300 changes (approx. 200 words). Arranged geographically. 1914 -- "Private Book Collectors" listed on pages 303-339 of the American Library Annual, 1913-1914 (New York: R. R. Bowker, 1914). Updates the list published in 1912. Headnote explains scope, notes 500 changes (approx. 200 words). Arranged geographically. Not in Annuals for 1914-1915, 1915-1916, 1916-17, 1917-18. Replaced by listings for business, special, religious, theological, law, medical, normal and high school libraries. 1919 -- J. A. Holden, A List of Private Book Collectors in the United States and Canada (New York: R. R. Bowker, 1919), which went through several editions up to 1948 under the title Private Book Collectors in the United States and Canada.

Contemporary accounts: Chart of Temperance and Physiology - Number One

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:05:00 -0500

The Publisher's Weekly, April 24, 1886 [No. 743], page 549 under "Literary and Trade Notes" "The Writers' Publishing Co., 25 University Place, N. Y., have issued a chart of temperance and physiology entitled "The Road to Ruin and How to Avoid it." It is 22x34 in size, and paints the vice of intemperance in such horrible colors that must at once convince the reader that "abstinence is the best policy." Due attention is also given to the economic side of the question, tables being given that show at a glance that intemperance does not pay in any sense of the word. The price, half mounted, is $1; full mounted, $1.50." • • • "List of educational publications of 1885-'86; compiled from publisher's announcements by the United States Bureau of Education." This list gives a total of 609 publications distributed across 40 categories. Under the heading of 'Physiology and hygiene': "Temperance and Physiology - Chart No. 1, strikingly illustrated, showing the road to ruin and how to avoid it. By the "The Writers' Publishing Co., 21 (sic) University Place, New York City. (New England Journal of Education)." [Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year 1885 - '86 (Washington, D.C., 1887) p. 704 ] • • • Chart of Temperance and Physiology - Number One : The Road to Ruin and How to Avoid It. ... Published by Miss Julia Colman, Superintendent, Literature Department, National Women's Christian Temperance Union. 72 Bible House, New York City. Copyright 1885 by the Writers' Publishing Company. Call number: (Ex) Broadside - Oversize - 411

Louis Sébastien Mercier (1740-1814) • Dreams and Utopia

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:00:00 -0500

Two works by Songes Philosophiques, Première [-Seconde] Partie. Par M. Mercier. A Londres, et se trouve à Paris, chez Lejay, Libraire, Quai de Gêvres, au grand Corneille. 1768. Call number: (Ex) HX811 .M42 L'anno due mila quattrocento quaranta. Sogno di cui non vi fu l'eguale. Seguito dall'Uomo di ferro. Opera del cittad. L.S. Mercier ... Traduzione dal Francese sull'ultima Edizione fatta in Parigi l'Anno VII della Repubb. Francese. Corretta, Riveduta, ed Augmentata dall' Autore. Prima Edizione Italiana. In Genova. Stamperia de' Cittad. Domenico Porcile, e C. nella strada della Posta vecchia no. 487. Anno II. della Repubb. Ligure [1798]. Call number: (Ex) 2007-3277N ................ Songes Philosophiques contains ten philosophical dream sequences, eight of which were reused in Mercier's Mon bonnet de Nuit, 1784-1785 and seven of which were used in his landmark utopia L'An deux mille quatre cent quarante, 1785. This practice of borrowing and rebranding his own work was very much part of what became Mercier's distinctive style. -- Amanda Hall 'He published prodigiously by recycling passages from one book to another and stretching essays into multivolume tracts. His major works - L'An 2440, Tableau de Paris, and Mon Bonnet de Nuit - therefore have a formless character. They are composed of short chapters on a wide variety of subjects, which Mercier cobbled together without worrying about narrative coherence. When a book caught on, he expanded it, cutting and pasting and fighting off pirates as he advanced from one edition to the next. The result was never elegant, but it often had a gripping quality, because Mercier knew how to observe the world around him and to make it come alive in anecdotes and esays. There is no better writer to consult if one wants to get some idea of how Paris looked, sounded, smelled, and felt on the eve of the Revolution' (Darnton, The Forbidden Best-Sellers, 1996, p. 118). ......................... First edition in Italian of Mercier's famous utopian novel L'an 2440. Placed on the Index on 26th August 1822. Only copy recorded to be in an American library. 'The translator was thought to be Filippo Castelli', writes Everett C. Wilkie, 'however, in his Saggi di Eulogia, Genoa, 1838, he himself takes credit for having translated only 'L'Homme de Fer'. One possibility for the translator of L'An 2440 is Elisabetta Caminer, who translated several of Mercier's dramas into Italian ... Nevertheless, Caminer had died in 1796, two years before this translation appeared. However, this translation has one of the hallmarks of her work, liberties with the original text; and her other translations of Mercier's works show her sustained interest in his writings. One can speculate that she was the one who began the translation, finishing only a part of it before her death. Castelli might well have finished the translation and gone ahead to do 'L'Homme de Fer', which was the last part of the book. Castelli was in Genoa at this time and was active translating other French works into Italian' Everett C. Wilkie, "Mercier's L'An 2440: Its Publishing History During the Author's Lifetime," in the Harvard Library Bulletin, Vol. XXXII, 1984, p. 393.

Liberty & The American Revolution: Selections from the Collection of Sid Lapidus '59 • An exhibition opening May 28

Mon, 18 May 2009 15:58:00 -0500

Restoring Order

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 11:52:00 -0500

Many at Princeton remember with great esteem the late Lara Moore, who, when she died at age 32 in 2003, was the History Librarian of the Library. Her example and achievements endure in many ways, such as in the able work of her successor, and, now, with the publication Lara's book, Restoring Order: The Ecole des Chartes and the Organization of Archives and Libraries in France, 1820-1870, based on her Stanford dissertation. Her book is an important contribution to the history of libraries and archives. Lara argues that the changing French governments shaped and re-shaped libraries and archives in order to mold public perception of their regime. Form and function traced back to policy. From this perspective, the trajectory of library development was not a smooth, upward, continuously progressive path from the disorder of the 1789 Revolution to post-Revolutionary order. Rather, the path was really "a series of very different attempts to recreate both 'disorder' and 'order' " (p. 17). She also points out that while we may think we study the past, we should not overlook that we concurrently study previous generations's conceptions of what they thought about the past (p. 22). Is there an analog in American library history for this phenomenon? Or, put another way: "Was there an ancien regime to affirm or repudiate?" Certainly for the ruling Protestants of nineteenth century America there was such an ancien regime to repudiate. I have encountered this attitude in an incident in the history of the Princeton University Library. In 1878, Evan James Henry, a local Princeton lawyer, presented to the Library rubricated leaves of the Book of Psalms, once part of a Latin Bible printed in Strasbourg, ca. 1468. [Call number: (ExI) 5168.1468q]. At the time of donation, Princeton librarian Frederic Vinton interpreted the value of the gift as follows:

We may, therefore, fearlessly assert that we have a book printed more than twenty years before the discovery of America; about the time Warwick drove Edward IV out of England; while Louis XI reigned in France; before Lorenzo reigned in Florence, or Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain; just after Erasmus saw the light, and before Michael Angelo was born. Scarce one of the existing Universities in Christendom had been founded. All Europe was Catholic then, and free institutions had not begun to be. The spirit of modern discovery had not awakened, and men were still living in the dull ways of the middle ages. Until the Egyptian obelisk arrives, this book will be one of the most venerable things in America.

[Frederic Vinton] "A Rare Book in the College Library," Princetonian 2, no. 15 (February 7, 1878): 173-174.

Restoring Order (Duluth, Minn.: Litwin Books, 2008) also reviewed in Reading Archives.

Obituary for Lara Moore (1971-2003)

Jesuit Thesis Print • Douay, 1753

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:22:54 -0500

Actual size: 3 ft tall x 2 ft wide

Jesuit Thesis Print • Douay, 1753. Recently purchased for the Library's holdings on the material culture of academic life was a Jesuit thesis print. In general, this genre of publication joined the visual and textual, markng in word and picture an important milestone in the education of a youth at a Jesuit college. Upon completion of a course of study, the student became the centerpiece of a staged show of his learning and rhetorical skills. This was done before an audience, sometimes with musical interludes. During the event, before a panel of his superiors in learning, the student elaborated on theses - topics of learned discourse. According to Louise Rice in her "Jesuit Thesis Prints and the Festive Academic Defence at the Collegio Romano," in The Jesuits: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts, 1540-1773, ed. John O'Malley et al., Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999, pp. 148-69, "... the sheet was distributed to members of the audience during the defence itself; it served as a kind of program, which enabled the audience to follow the progress of the disputation, and was taken home as a record or souvenir of the event." As a rule, a Jesuit thesis print featured a large picture surmounting the text of the theses. (For this particular one text and image together measure 43 inches tall and 28 inches wide, being two full sheets pasted together at one edge.) In this case the scene is the famous story of the judgement of Solomon. This story of two mothers, a disputed baby, and a cunning strategy to determine the truth was widely known and illustrated. Raphael's rendering is in the Loggia of the Papal Palace in the Vatican. In this print, engraved by Laurent Cars in Paris after a design by Serviatus Paira, the moment depicted can be read as the instance either before or just after his decision. One mother stands before King Solomon either in supplication or abjection, while in the foreground the baby is with the other mother. Onlookers point to the center of the drama. Discoursing on the theses was Joannes Antonius Dominicus Verhulst from Bruges at the culmination of his course in the Jesuit College Aquicinctinus in Douai. This occurred in 1753. Twenty years later the Jesuits were suppressed and this practice declined. Verhulst is discoursing on topics in rational philosophy - before judges, in this case, presided by Pierre de Cassal, Professor of Philosophy at the College. There was a tradition of dividing rational philosophy into three parts and so it is done here in three distinct columns: Idea (science of ideas), Juridicum (laws of thought), Discursus (science of the criteria of certitude). Customary for the Jesuit thesis print was a thematic connection between the pictorial scene and the theses. Solomon was a symbol of many meanings, of which one was that he was a sage whose determinations of truth led him to wisdom.

Title: Philosophia rationalis. Imprint: Douai : Jacobus Franciscus Willerval, 1753. Format: Over-all dimensions 110 x 73 cm.; made up of two equal size sheets (upper: engraving (judgement of Solomon); lower: engraved architectural tablet surrounding letterpress text. Summary: Announcing defense of theses in rational philosophy by Joannes Antonius Domincus Verhults of Bruges, held at the Jesuit College Aquicinctinus in Douai on March 4, 1753 and presided over by Petrus de Cassal. Call number: (Ex) Item 5324301 broadside

NB - The practice of public display of a student's rhetorical skills continued at colleges in the New World. The archives of the University have a number of such broadsides - just text, pictures were either not allowed or not affordable or both. These are found at Mudd Library in collection number AC115, Series 5, Oversize Items, 1748-1948, Commencement Broadsides, 1754-1764.