Ioyfvll newes out of the new-found vvorlde [order]

03 Tuesday Jul 2018

≈ Comments Off on Ioyfvll newes out of the new-found vvorlde [order]

Tags

American, Americas, apothecaries, armadillos, Atlantic, Bonham Norton, Book Arts Program, bookseller, botanists, Bristol, British, calf, cancer, cassava, cigars, cocoa, common cold, cure, De Jonge Amerikaan, disease, docks, English, entrepreneur, Europe, ginger, gold, handmade, herbs, Indians, Inquisition, iron, John Frampton, Jonathan Sandberg, London, medicine, merchants, minerals, monks, Native American, nephrite jade, Netherlands, New World, Nicolás Bautista Monardes, nicotain, papermaking, papers, paradise, physician, plant, poison, print culture, quinine, rhubarb, sasparilla, sassafras, Seville, silver, smoking, soldiers, Spanish colonies, syphilis, tobacco, tobaco, trade, vernacular, woodblock, woodcuts

“This is the substance which I haue gathered of this hearb, so celebrated and called Tobaco for that surely it is an hearb of great affirmation for the excellent vertues that it hath…”

Ioyfvll newes out of the new-found vvorlde
Nicolás Bautista Monardes (ca. 1500-1588)
London: E. Allde, by the assigne of Bonham Norton, 1596
Third English edition

Translated by John Frampton (fl. 1577-1596) from several treatises first published in 1565 by Nicolás Monardes, the son of a bookseller, and a distinguished physician of Seville. Monardes, who never traveled to the Americas, wrote several treatises on healing, medicine, and trade with the Spanish colonies on the Atlantic. He learned most of what he wrote about from spending time at the Seville docks, where he gathered information from sailors, soldiers, merchants, monks, royal officials, and even women.

Monardes described the cultivation and use of quinine, sassafras, cassava, rhubarb, ginger, and sasparilla. He wrote about cocoa, armadillos, minerals and metals (iron, silver, nephrite jade), and diseases like syphilis.

He wrote a lengthy description of an American plant introduced to Europe, calling it “tobaco” or “nicotain,” which he claimed was an antidote to poison. He wrote of more than twenty conditions, including the common cold and cancer, that could be cured with the use of tobacco.

“The Indians of our Occidental Indias, doo use the Tobaco for to take away the wearinesse, and for to make lightsomnesse in their Labour, which in their Daunces they bee so muche wearied, and they remaine so wearie, that they can scarcely stirre: & because that they may labour the next day, and returne to do that foolish exercise, they receiue at the mouth and nose, the smoke of the Tobaco, and they remaine as dead people: and being so, they be eased in such sorte, that when they be awakened of their sleepe, they remaine without weariness, and may return to their labour as much as before, and so they doe alwaies, when they have need of it: for with that sleepe, they do receiue their strength and be much the lustier.”

John Frampton, a Bristol merchant, had been imprisoned by the Inquisition. He translated several Spanish texts about the New World while in confinement. The British looked upon the New World as long-lost paradise with its vegetative bounty and ancient wisdom regarding human ailments, beneficial not just for its precious metals but for its plants. Being published in the vernacular, first in Spanish, then in English, meant that common readers, along with botanists and apothecaries, bought the publications. Frampton, ever the entrepreneur, re-titled the work “joyful news,” counting on brisk sales of the book and the trade in plants from the Americas. The “trade” print culture disseminated new data targeted toward popular practicality but also imagination, circulating news of an “other” ready reality just waiting ’round the bend. Such was the miracle of discovery, such was the miracle of plants, such was the miracle of print.

Illustrated with twelve woodcuts depicting herbs and plants. Rare Books copy bound in 19th century calf, ruled in gold.

De Jonge Amerikaan
Netherlands, ca. 1800
NE1154 J66 1800z

Woodblock depicting a Native American in a feather headdress and loincloth smoking a long clay pipe in a coastal setting with two ships behind him. Around this scene are a crown, trident, winged-staff, cigars, snuff jar, tobacco leaves and baled tobacco. It is likely that this woodblock was printed on paper used for tobacco wrappers, a practice that began as early as 1660 in Holland, one of the world’s great shipping centers.

Below are three prints made by Jonathan Sandberg using the woodblock, demonstrating different papers, including a paper handmade by students in last spring’s papermaking class offered by the Book Arts Program.

On July 1, 2018 The University of Utah went tobacco free and said farewell to its last cigarette.

A Recipe for Disaster

12 Tuesday Jun 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on A Recipe for Disaster

Tags

Abraham Lincoln, Arctic, Arctic expeditions, Arthur Conan Doyle, bones, botany, British, British Isles, Brontë sisters, Canada, cannibalism, Captain William Parry, Charles Dickens, Coppermine River, Dante, deer, diarrhea, Dr. John Richardson, Edgar Allan Poe, Elisha Kent Kane, England, engravings, Esquimaux, exhaustion, explorers, exposure, Fort Enterprise, Frankenstein, fungus, geology, ichthyology, Inuit, Jane Austen, John Murray, Jules Verne, Junius, lead poisoning, lichen, literature, London, Lyuba Basin, Mary Shelley, Melville Sound, moosehide, Murder, national identity, naval prowess, nineteenth century, nineteenth-century polar fiction, North America, Northwest Passage, notebooks, Nunavut Territory, overland exploration, partridge, pemmican, polar expeditions, poles, racial prejudice, rare book collections, rare books, rations, rock tripe, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, scurvy, Sir John Franklin, Slave Lake, soup, starvation, tin cans, tripe de roche, Wilkie Collins, willows, winter

“At two P.M we set sail, and the men voluntarily launched out to make a traverse of fifteen miles across Melville Sound, before a strong wind and heavy sea. The privation of food, under which our voyagers were then laboring, absorbed every other terror; otherwise the most powerful persuasion could not have induced them to attempt such a traverse. It was with the utmost difficulty that the canoes were kept from turning their broadsides to the waves, though we sometimes steered with all the paddles.”

And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold:
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen:
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken—
The ice was all between.

The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound!

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea …
John Franklin (1786 – 1847)
London: J. Murray, 1823
First edition
G650 1819 F8

Throughout the shelves of the rare book collections, there are glimpses of a body of literature that remains largely overlooked: nineteenth-century polar fiction. Have you heard of it?

If you have ever read the works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, Arthur Conan Doyle or Mary Shelley (among many others), you might have glimpsed the brooding nature of the poles, where men become violent and mad, and the true horrors of humanity are displayed. As in Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, framing the stories in the Arctic allowed the writers to explore the themes of the dangerous pursuit of knowledge and the sublime, in addition to developing haunting allusions of Dante’s frozen inner circle of hell.

“We encamped at seven and enjoyed a substantial meal. The party were in good spirits this evening at the recollection of having crossed the rapid, and being in possession of provision for the next day. Besides we had taken the precaution of bringing away the skin of the deer to eat when the meat should fail. The temperature at six P.M. was 30.”

During the nineteenth century, polar expeditions and the search for a Northwest Passage enticed the people of England to the point that people sang polar-themed songs, had polar-themed dinner parties and even staged polar expedition reenactments, and read every single piece of polar-themed literature they could find. The uncharted territory and theories of the mysterious open, polar seas also provided England yet another opportunity to show off their naval prowess and further exert their national identity upon the world.

“My original intention, whenever the season should compel us to relinquish the survey, had been to return by the way of the Copper-mine River, and in pursuance of my arrangement with the Hook to travel to Slave Lake through the line of woods extending thither by the Great Bear and Marten Lakes, but our scanty stock of provision and the length of the voyage rendered it necessary to make for a nearer place.”

The explorers who were successful returned to the British Isles with stories of their adventures and went on to publish narratives of their journeys. In 1821, Captain William Parry published a best-selling account of that voyage which propelled him on a book tour, while Elisha Kent Kane’s 1856 Arctic Explorations sold 200,000 copies, which would be the equivalent of two million books today. When Kane died, his funeral procession was the second largest of the nineteenth century, following closely behind Abraham Lincoln.

“The reader will, probably, be desirous to know how we passed our time in such a comfortless situation: the first operation after encamping was to thaw our frozen shoes, if a sufficient fire could be made, and dry ones were put on; each person then wrote his notes of the daily occurrences, and evening prayers were read; as soon as supper was prepared it was eaten, generally in the dark, and we went to bed, and kept up a cheerful conversation until our blankets were thawed by the heat of our bodies and we had gathered sufficient warmth to enable us to fall asleep.”

Of all the Arctic expeditions, Sir John Franklin’s 1845 journey was, without a doubt, the most famous, due to the loss of 128 crew members and their two ships, the Erebus and the Terror. It took more than one hundred years to solve the mystery behind this fateful voyage, and once the ships were found, artifacts and skeletal remains proved the rumors of cannibalism that had been circulating since Captain Franklin and his crew originally went missing. Researchers have speculated that the ships were trapped in ice and that the men aboard likely died from a combination of scurvy, starvation, exposure and lead poisoning from the poorly soldered tin cans which held their rations for three years.

“We had already found that the country, between Cape Barrow and the Copper-mine River, would not supply our wants, and this it seemed probable would now be still more the case; besides, at this advanced season, we expected the frequent recurrence of gales, which would cause great detention, if not danger in proceeding along that very rocky part of the coast.”

Over the course of the century Franklin’s crew was among many that had perished. However, it is important to note that this area was home to the Inuit, or Esquimaux, as they are described in the journals: generations of people who have lived and thrived in the Arctic, raising children, hunting, and tending to their elderly. Unfortunately, racial prejudice of the colonial powers restrained the British explorers from imitating and learning the indigenous ways of traveling, hunting, eating and staying warm.

“Their spirits immediately revived, each of them shook the officers cordially by the hand, and declared they now considered the worst of their difficulties over, as they did not doubt of reaching Fort Enterprise in a few days, even in their feeble condition. We had indeed every reason to be grateful, and our joy would have been complete were it not mingled with sincere regret at the separation of our poor Esquimaux, the faithful Junius.”

Franklin first explored the Arctic in a series of three expeditions between 1819 – 1822. Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea was published the following year by John Murray in London, a publishing company that took particular interest in the poles. The book discusses the four-year journey, revealing the hardships of the overland exploration in the Northwest territories of Canada, specifically around the Coppermine River of the Nunavut Territory. This publication also includes detailed color engravings depicting the landscapes and the many Intuit interpreters who helped along the way. Sadly, this voyage did not prove to be entirely successful either.

“Everyone was on the alert at an early hour, being anxious to commence the journey. Our luggage consisted of ammunition, nets, hatchets, ice chisels, astronomical instruments, clothing, blankets, three kettles, and the two canoes, which were each carried by one man. The officers carried such a portion of their own things as their strength would permit; the weight carried by each man was about ninety pounds, and with this we advanced at the rate of about a mile an hour, including rests.”

The final chapters describe the last months of the journey as the crew traversed the harsh Canadian landscape back to the Coppermine River. In addition to Captain Franklin, Dr. John Richardson, who kept notes and wrote the sections on geology, botany and ichthyology, included his own experience, during the time in which the party had split into three. Their final notes both emphasize the failing morale of the crew, the dropping temperatures, and the absence of food. Plagued by an early winter, the menu became scant: a small variety of berries before the frost; deer and musk-oxen, when possible; fish, until the nets were destroyed; a small supply of pemmican, a paste of dried and pounded meat mixed with melted fat; and partridge combined with tripe de roche.

“We supped off a single partridge and some tripe de roche; this unpalatable weed was now quite nauseous to the whole party, and in several it produced bowel complaints. Mr. Hood was the greatest sufferer from this cause.”

Tripe de Roche is the Canadian term for rock tripe, a type of lichen that grows on the rocks of North America. Although not at all nutritious, this edible fungus became the main source of food for the explorers and was often boiled with willows dug up beneath the snow. The taste is bitter and often causes severe stomach cramps and diarrhea and, combined with the extreme cold and deep snow, led to higher levels of exhaustion. A day’s worth of walking diminished from twelve miles to five, depending on the conditions.

“In the evening we encamped at the lower end of a narrow chasm through which the river flows for upwards of a mile. The walls of this chasm are upwards of two hundred feet high, quite perpendicular, and in some places only a few yards apart. The river precipitates itself into it over a rock, forming two magnificent and picturesque falls close to each other.”

To their dismay, even the lichen was all but plentiful in this barren country. Because of this, the men were sometimes forced to eat the leather from their moosehide shoes and scavenge the carcasses of rotting deer, boiling the bones in a soup only to retrieve the smallest amount of marrow. Desperation and despondency took hold of the party and in the final weeks, with many of the men becoming too weak to hunt or even walk. Towards the end of the journey, the group had separated into three, with Captain Franklin leading the pack to Fort Enterprise to find provisions and help from the Inuits. Unfortunately, only seventeen out of the twenty-eight party survived and suspicions of murder and cannibalism began to circulate among the survivors.

“At length we reached Fort Enterprise, and to our infinite disappointment and grief found it a perfectly desolate habitation. There was no deposit of provision, no trace of the Indians, no letter from Mr. Wentzel to point where the Indians might be found. It would be impossible for me to describe our sensations after entering this miserable abode, and discovering how we had been neglected.”

Leaving the men who were too weak to travel behind, Franklin went forward to look for provisions and help. The hunger, cold, and seemingly bleak chance of survival created hostility among some of the remaining crew, particularly between Dr. Richardson and Michel. In his final entry, Dr. Richardson recounts confronting Michel, who “reported that he had been in chase of some deer… and although he did not come up with them, yet that he found a wolf which had been killed by the stroke of a deer’s horn, and had brought part of it.” The meat was eaten with satisfaction but as time went on Michel’s strange and erratic behavior led Dr. Richardson to believe that Michel had either murdered two of the missing men, or found the bodies in the snow and took their flesh. After another man was mysteriously murdered, Dr. Richardson began to fear for his own safety and shot Michel point-blank without any further questions.

“A small quantity of tripe de roche was gathered; and Credit, who had been hunting, brought in the antlers and back bone of a deer which had been killed in the summer. The wolves and birds of pretty had picked them clean, but there still remained a quantity of the spinal marrow which they had not be able to extract. This, although putrid, was esteemed as a valuable prize, and the spine being divided into portions, was distributed equally. After eating the marrow, which was so acrid as to excoriate the lips, we rendered the bones friable by burning, and ate them also.”

Even in the coldest hour, Franklin and the explorers who came before and after saved the pages of their notebooks from the fire so that the people of the world could come to know their adventures. Murder, cannibalism, treacherous landscapes and perilous seas. It is no wonder that, upon returning to England, these narratives, the successes and failures of the Arctic Expeditions, excited the people to the point of inspiring a new genre of literature, one that has for so long been neglected.

~Contributed by Lyuba Basin, Rare Books

Stop and Smell the (Arctic) Flowers

30 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Stop and Smell the (Arctic) Flowers

Tags

19th century, Abraham Small, Alaska, American, animals, Arctic, Atlantic Ocean, bookplate, botany, British Royal Navy, Brooklyn, Canadian Arctic Archipelago, climate, Department of Botany, drawings, Elisha Kent Kane, Emily Dickinson, Europe, explorers, Exquimaux, fauna, flora, Fury, George Frances Lyon, Greenland, Gripper, Hecla, Henry Parkyns Hoppner, ice, icebergs, illustrations, Inuit, James Christie, James Clark Ross, James Walsh, John Ross, Keeper of the Herbaria, lichen, London, Lyuba Basin, moss, New York, Nicholas Polunin, North America, Northwest Passage, Norwegian, Oxford, Philadelphia, Roald Amundsen, scurvy, ships, Sir John Franklin, William Edward Parry, William Parry

As if some little Arctic flower
Upon the polar hem –
Went wandering down the Latitudes
Until it puzzled came
To continents of summer –
To firmaments of sun –
To strange, bright crowds of flowers –
And birds, of foreign tongue!
– Emily Dickinson

The Northwest Passage was the name given to the sea route which connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific along the northern coast of North America via the waterways in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Toward the end of the 15th century and into the 20th century, colonial powers from Europe sent their best explorers on countless attempts to discover a commercial route, with many failing and turning back and others ending in disaster. The first successful journey was made in 1906 by a Norwegian explorer named Roald Amundsen, completing the passage from Greenland to Alaska.

Prior to Amundsen, notable captains such as John Ross, Elisha Kent Kane, James Clark Ross and William Parry explored separate parts of the Northwest Passage in the first half of the 19th century. Parry’s first voyage was, without a doubt, the most successful in the search for the passage and his second and third attempts continued to uncover new information about the mysterious archipelago, including research on climate, flora and fauna. In fact, the notes taken by Parry and his shipmates and recorded in three separate journals contributed to crucial research in botany, among other natural sciences.

Journal of a Voyage of the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific
William Edward Parry
Philadelphia: Abraham Small, 1821
First American Edition
G635 P3 A3 1821

Between 1821-1825 three ships from the British Royal Navy, the Fury, Hecla, and the Gripper, took three separate journeys into the Arctic under the leadership of Captain Parry and Captains John Ross and George Frances Lyon. While their expeditions proved to be successful, they were not without tragedy as scurvy became common and ships were often stuck in ice for weeks on end. Narratives of the journeys were published in London and Philadelphia, respectively, with detailed accounts of the days on board as well as their interactions with the Inuit, described as Esquimaux in the journals.

Journal of a Third Voyage of the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific
William Edward Parry
Philadelphia: H.C. Carey I. Lea, 1826
First American Edition
G650 1824 P31

A Brief Narrative of an Unsuccessful Attempt to Reach Repulse Bay
G.F. Lyon
London: J. Murray, 1825
First Edition
G 650 1824 L9 1825

In addition, the journals included spectacular illustrations of the ships amid the looming icebergs and intricate appendices which accounted for the varieties of animals and plants that they encountered along the way. Among one of the shipmates that helped with the drawings and collecting data was Henry Parkyns Hoppner, listed as ‘lieutenant’ on the Griper in the first journal’s roster. Hoppner accompanied Parry on all three expeditions, first as a lieutenant on the Griper and Hecla, and later promoted to second in command on the Fury in the last voyage. Although Hoppner never received the kind of international acclaim as his Captains, his creative and artistic role on board as illustrator and actor proved to leave an impression.

Collection of Plants Found in the Arctic Regions…
Henry Parkyns Hoppner (1795 – 1833)
Publisher not identified, 1821
QK 474 H66

Impressions are also what we find in this small and unassuming book. From each of the pressed flowers, a ghostly accompaniment is imprinted on the opposite page, hinting at traces of life as much from the colorful flowers as from the hands of the shipmate who collected them. Impressions are also present as the handwritten notes inked on the beginning and end pages of the book. With no bibliographic information, we can only look to a small note which describes the book as “a collection of plants found in the Arctic Sections … made by Captain Hopner … 2nd in command of H.M.S. “Fury” … The “Fury” and “Hecla” (Captain Lyon) sailed to discover the N.W. passage May 1821.” Following the description, the book is addressed to Hoppner’s friend James Christie.

Attached to a page, there is also a miniature envelope that holds “moss which Franklin and his party had as their only food.” It is possible that this note alludes to the failed overland expeditions in the Arctic lead by Sir John Franklin between 1819-1822. During this time, Franklin lost more than half of the men in his party to starvation and, in order to survive, the remainder of his crew ate lichen, with some attempting to eat their own leather boots. Furthermore, there were rumors of cannibalism and at least one murder reported.

In addition to the handwritten notes, a bookplate on the first page suggests that sometime during the mid-20th century the book was held in the Department of Botany in Oxford while Nicholas Polunin was the Keeper of the Herbaria, which is now almost four hundred years old. While lecturing at Oxford, Polunin traveled to the Canadian Arctic as a botanist on an expedition that discovered the last major islands to be added to the world’s map.

Polunin was well recognized for his research and publications, specifically Circumpolar Artic Flora which was published in 1959. This book helped inspire James Walsh’ modern herbaria, The Arctic Plants of New York City, which “combines personal letters, poetry, prose essay, scholarly research, botanical exploration and artistic investigation,” of plants gather in Brooklyn, New York. The bibliography includes a reproduction of the index from Polunin’s work, in which the author has marked in red pen the eighty-eight Arctic plants that occur in New York City.

The Arctic Plants of New York City
James Walsh
New York: Granary Books, 2015
QK177 W35 2015

From the publisher’s website: “The Arctic Plants of New York City […] ranges from the Doctrine of Signatures to the sleep of plants, and from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Muir on mental travel to Giacomo Leopardi and Charles Baudelaire on the necessity of illusion for art and life. Interspersed throughout the book are a number of two-page spreads that focus on a single plant, such as Common Mugwort, with a mounted botanical specimen of that plant surrounded by texts drawn from earlier writers on botany and set in verse, creating a field of word-objects interacting with plant-objects. The letters that open the book lead into a prose essay that touches on the souls of plants, their use in medicine and as spurs to mental travel, their transience, their migrations, their meaning.” Written, designed, and letterpress printed by James Walsh, with eighteen botanical specimens pressed and mounted by the author. Bound by Daniel Kelm at Wide Awake Garage. Edition of forty copies, 34 of which are for sale.

~Contributed by Lyuba Basin, Rare Books

The Great American Read

22 Tuesday May 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Events, Recommended Reading

≈ Comments Off on The Great American Read

Tags

Adolfo Bioy Casares, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, American, Ayn Rand, banned, Barrington J. Bailey, Bob Johnson, book collecting, Boston, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Cold War, D. H. Lawrence, dust jackets, Ecclesiastes, English, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Frankenstein: or, Greek, Heinemann, Henry Miller, Holden Caulfield, Houghton Mifflin Company, J. D. Salinger, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. Willard Marriott Library, Jack London, James Agee, Kurt Vonnegut, literature, London, Luise Putcamp, Luise Putcamp Johnson, Margaret Atwood, New York, novel, Pan, Philip K. Dick, protest, rare books, Ray Bradbury, reading, rebellion, Robert A. Heinlein, Robert Hersel Johnson, Scribner, Second World War, Special Collections, the 100 list, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Great American Read, The University of Utah, Thomas Wolfe, Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, Ursula K. LeGuin, Wilkie Collins, William Kennedy, William Saroyan

Luise Putcamp and Bob Johnson, reading

“It’s up to you how you waste your time and money. I’m staying here to read: life’s too short.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

Rare Books salutes The Great American Read by inviting you to visit the Special Collections Reading Room on level 4 of the J. Willard Marriott Library to hold first editions of some of the classics included on the 100 list.

Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World

“My hours of leisure I spent in reading the best authors, ancient and modern, being always provided with a good number of books…”

Frankenstein: Or, the Modern Prometheus

“My education was neglected, yet I was passionately fond of reading.”

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

“‘…and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice ‘without pictures or conversation?'”

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

“It consisted in a peculiar bird-like turn, a sort of liquid warble, produced by touching the tongue to the roof of the mouth at short intervals in the midst of the music—the reader probably remembers how to do it, if he has ever been a boy.”

The Call of the Wild
Jack London (1876-1916)
London: Heinemann, 1903
First English edition
PS3523 O46 C3 1903b

“But especially he loved to run in the dim twilight of the summer midnights, listening to the subdued and sleepy murmurs of the forest, reading signs and sounds as a man may read a book, and seeking for the mysterious something that called — called, waking or sleeping, at all times, for him to come.”

The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
New York: Scribner, 1926
First edition, first issue
PS3515 E37 S9 1926a

“’No; that doesn’t interest me.’
‘That’s because you never read a book about it.’”

The Sun Also Rises was published on October 22, 1926 in a first printing of 5090 copies. A second printing of 2000 copies was issued in November of that same year. By mid-December both printings had sold out. By 1961 the novel had sold more than one million copies.

The first issue of the first printing is noted by these factors: “stopped”, p. 181, line 26 is misspelled “stoppped;” and a quote from Ecclesiastes regarding vanity is on page [viii].

The University of Utah copy has the first issue dust jacket with the error “In Our Times” instead of “In Our Time” on the front panel. This is one of the two most rare and desirable dust jackets in twentieth-century American literature book collecting, the other being the dust jacket from the first issue of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The dust jacket was printed in gold, black, and tan, with a gold apple on either side of the title and beneath it the figure of a drowsing woman clothed in the style of Greek antiquity. A Pan’s pipe lay near her sandaled foot and another gold apple rested in the palm of her left hand. At the bottom, Hemingway was identified as the author of In Our Times [sic][ and The Torrents of Spring.

Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger
Boston: Little, Brown, 1951
First edition
PS3537 A426 C3 1951

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.”

A twentieth century American classic, Catcher in the Rye was extremely popular at the time of its publication, especially with young readers who strongly identified with the yearning for lost innocence by the novel’s narrator, Holden Caulfield. The novel added to a budding literary, musical, and artistic theme of youthful rebellion.

Catcher, however, raised a gentle voice of protest over growing militant rhetoric. Published after the triumphant yet devastating Second World War and during a pseudo-peace labeled “the Cold War,” youth in the fifties began protesting what they viewed as the failures of the adult world. Anger, contempt, and self-pity were prevalent in many works of the era, but Catcher captured a much more telling view of the era’s stresses with it’s decent but completely and genuinely perplexed teenager.

The book has been banned repeatedly from various school curricula from the time it was published to the present day.

Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Atwood
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1986
First American edition
PR9199.3 A8 H3 1986

“On the floor of the room there were books, open face down, this way and that, extravagantly”

The Rare Books staff offers these suggestions for summer reading, based on the criteria The Great American Read used to gather its 100. The five of us each chose five books. From those the editor savagely (as editors do) and without apparent rhyme or reason (and she will never tell) whittled the list down to this, in alphabetical order by author. Copies may be found in the General Collection on level 2 of the J. Willard Marriott Library.

James Agee, A Death in the Family (1957)
Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine (1957)
Adolfo Bioy Casares, The Invention of Morel (1940)
Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White (1859)
Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly (1997)
Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers (1959)
M. M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions (1978)
William Kennedy, Ironweed (1983)
D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928)
Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer (1934)
Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead (1943)
William Saroyan, The Human Comedy (1943)
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (1937)
Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle (1963)
Thomas Wolfe, You Can’t Go Home Again (1940)

What do you suggest?

Cuentos — Students Respond

12 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Courses

≈ Comments Off on Cuentos — Students Respond

Tags

agriculture, analytic tool, Anna Paseman, Annie Bonebrake, anti-Modernism, Antwerp, art, atlas, Austrian, Bartolomé de las Casas, Bear Flag Revolt, Belgian, Benito Juarez, binding, biography, book, broadsides, California, Cameron Dower, Camille Morgenstern, Carlos Ixta, cartas de poder, cartographer, cartoons, Catholic Church, Chihuahua, Chile, colonization, Communist Party, Dawson's Book Shop, dictionary, documents, Dylan Slavens, Edwin H. Carptenter, encyclopedia, English, European, Fernando Núñez de Guzmán, folletto, forests, France, Francisco de Aefferden, Francisco Laso, French, Gabriel Gonzalez Videla, Galician, Giovanni Paoli, Greek, handmade, heretic, history, Indian, indigenous, iPhone, Isabel Dulfano, Italian, Italy, Jacome Croberger, Jake Tilson, Josep Renau, Juan Pablos, Latin, leather, Leon de Castrón, literary analysis, literature, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, magazines, Manuel Castañares, maps, Marc Jackson, Marisol Padilla Fragosso, marriage, Marriott Library, Mexican Republic, Mexican-American War, Mexico, Mexico City, Miguel Martinez, miner's strike, missions, muralist, news, newspaper, notarization, Olivia Blithell, Pablo Neruda, pamphlet, Pedro Ocharte, persecution, philosophy, photographs, Pierre Laval, poetry, Portuguese, posters, power of attorney, primary sources, printing press, propaganda, protocols, proverbs, Pueblo, Radical Party, Rare Books Department, religion, rivers, saints, Salt Lake City, Shakespeare, signatures, sixteenth century, slave trade, Spanish, Spanish Inquisition, symbols, The University of Utah, theater, torture, Tosh Noskowski, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, twenty-first century, Urbano Gonzalez Serrano, Utah, Washington, Woolley Dale, WWII

Students from Introduction to Textual Analysis (SPAN3070-1), taught by Prof. Isabel Dulfano, met in the Rare Books Classroom three times Spring Semester 2018 to work with three different sets of books from the rare book collections. Themes were “Narración de cuentos: literatura, historia, viajes, biografía,” “Hojas de Lenguas Sueltas,” and “Decir la verdad.” In all, students worked with 74 first and early editions of histories, biographies, poetry, documents and periodicals from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first century. Each session included an assignment, culminating with a short, informal response to one of the books and the impact working with physical primary sources had on the student’s understanding of literary analysis.

Many thanks to the students who participated with such enthusiasm. We will always remember one early exclamation, “Best day of college ever!”

Muchos misterios están escondidos en la historia, from Cameron Dower

Entre los remedios q do fray Bartolome delas Casas…
Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566)
Fue impressa…en…Seuilla: en las casas de Jacome Croberger, Año de mill y quinientos cinquenta y dos años [1552]
F1411 C32

El 29 de marzo, tuvimos la oportunidad, como clase, a visitar a la colección de libros raros en la biblioteca Marriott. El poder tener en mano un libro publicado hace casi quinientos años es una experiencia extraordinaria. En esta ocasión analizamos libros del género de ensayo. La examinación del libro físico nos permite ir más allá en el análisis de la obra que simplemente leer el texto mismo. Yo me enfoqué en el libro del fray Bartolomé de las Casas. Bartolomé es una figura importantísima en la historia de la conquista de las Américas por España. Fue uno de las primeras voces para luchar contra el mal tratamiento de los indígenas por los conquistadores. En este libro, él expone sus razones por los cuales los indígenas merecen tener derechos sociales.

Esta copia del libro parece tener una historia muy particular. Al examinarlo, encuentro una inscripción en la segunda página detrás del título. La descifro como . ¿Quién fue este Alonso? ¿Cuándo vivió? La inscripción no nos dice, pero podemos encontrar algunas pistas acerca de la vida de Alonso. Como el libro fue escrito en una época en el cual pocos fueron letrados, Alonso probablemente tenía mucho dinero. También podemos ver que Alonso tenía un interés en la reforma social y la igualdad. Siguiendo el trabajo de investigación, encontramos la firma de Alonso debajo de la inscripción. Con la firma se encuentra un símbolo. Al seguir leyendo, vemos este símbolo en cada página derecha del libro hasta que termina después de la octava razón. ¿Por qué terminó de escribir el sello? Puede ser que se le acabó la tinta, o que perdió interés y dejó de leer, murió o cualquier otra razón. También vemos que debajo de la razón séptima, escribió de nuevo <razón séptima>. ¿Puede ser que la razón séptima fue el que le inspiró más o es que simplemente estaba practicando sus letras en el libro?

Muchos misterios están escondidos en la historia. La mayoría quizás no tienen respuesta. Sin embargo, sabemos que Alonso es un ejemplar de los que fueron afectados por los escritos de Bartolomé de las Casas.

A Connection to the Past, from Gardner Lange

Sixteen Century Mexican Broadside
Edwin H. Carpenter
Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1965
Z240.4 C37 1965

Giovanni Paoli was born near the turn of the sixteenth century in Northern Italy, but became known in Mexico as Juan Pablos, the founder of the first printing press in the Americas. Pablos ran the press until his death in 1563, at which time his son-in-law, Pedro Ocharte of France, took over its operation. Ocharte has garnered historical attention on account of his detention and torture at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition. Ocharte was labeled a heretic after allegedly printing a book that questioned the necessity of praying to saints. After lengthy court proceedings, he was acquitted of the charges and eventually allowed to resume printing, which he did until his death in 1592.

I encountered a 1560 print by Pablos and a 1587 print by Ocharte at The University of Utah’s Marriott Library in the Rare Books Department. Both are cartas de poder, or in English, power of attorney, documents. These broadsides may not initially be as thrilling as religious protestations that resulted in persecution and torture, but they captivated me for several reasons. First, I work part-time as a filing clerk for a law firm in downtown Salt Lake City. Nearly every day I read, copy, deliver and file documents that resemble these two broadsides. Handling these documents allowed me to form a connection to the past through experiences that I am familiar with as a legal clerk and aspiring attorney. Second, a close inspection of the documents and their details reveals historical insights that are sure to interest history enthusiasts.

The documents begin with the same phrase, which in English amounts to: Let it be known that the following individuals are witnesses to the authenticity of this document. This is followed in both documents by beautiful signatures of several individuals. Then the printed portion resumes, detailing what powers the client is agreeing to give to his or her attorney.

Interestingly, at the end of these sections, there is more handwritten cursive before the final signatures and notarization. This suggests that the broadsides were generic copies, which could be amended to the liking of the particular client by adding more legal wordage afterwards by hand. Being individual, double-sided sheets may also indicate that these were used for record keeping and not likely bound in books nor widely circulated. Fortunately for the scholars of our day, the publisher of this volume compiled information about many similar broadsides and in 1965 distributed several of them in copies of a book that details some of their history.

One of the most interesting differences I discovered between the two is the mention of slaves as assets in the 1560 carta de poder, which is not found in the 1587 version. Literary analysis textbooks are replete with encouragement to consider the historical context of the works being studied, and if we apply that principle here, it should cause any who examine these documents to consider what changed in the intervening decades regarding slave trade and issues of equality that would cause such a change to standard legal procedure.

A Universal Cultural Appreciation, from Annie Bonebrake

Refranes o proverbios en romance…
Fernando Núñez de Guzmán (ca. 16th cent.)
En Madrid: Por Iuan de la Cuesta, a costa de Miguel Martinez, 1619
PN6490 N8

Refranes o Proverbios en Romance is an encyclopedia of sayings and proverbs in Spanish, Italian, Austrian, Galician, French, Portuguese, Latin, and Greek. The book begins with a Spanish prologue written by Leon de Castrón, the “Maestro Leo.” The sayings are categorized alphabetically with their language of origin noted on the left side of each phrase in old Spanish. Some examples of proverbs documented in the book include “A cafas viejas, puertas nuevas,” in Spanish; “Boire iu fques a la lye-Frances,” in French; and “Comendo holgando, comendo trabalhando,” in Portuguese.

The physical qualities of this book contribute to an understanding of the text’s historical past. The outward appearance of Refranes o Proverbios en Romance is dilapidated, fragile, and used. The parchment cover of the book is creased and wrinkled, and has completely dissociated from the spine of the book. Gently lifting the detached cover from the spine reveals the book’s handmade string bindings. Finally, the text in the book was clearly produced with a printing press, as each individual letter was stamped into the book with visible force. All of these elements contribute to an awareness of a universal cultural appreciation for didactic proverbs and sayings since the book has survived over 300 years and has ultimately landed in the rare book department of a major university.

When considering objects spanning centuries of history, the object’s past must be analyzed in addition to the concrete characteristics of that object. Additionally, in order to conduct a literary analysis of a book able to withstand hundreds of years, one must consider what kind of abstract influence that book has had on a society to determine the author’s purpose for that work. For example, as I conducted a literary analysis of Refranes o Proverbios en Romance I first had to brainstorm for the reasons an encyclopedia of phrases and proverbs might be valuable to western European societies before I could begin to analyze any detailed text within the book; understanding an author’s purpose for writing the book is essential for fully comprehending a book’s literary worth. I determined that Refranes o Proverbios en Romance is an important work because it provides a reference for thousands of famous sayings across various cultures, which are valuable because they are tools used to convey morals or lessons.

My experience with Refranes o Proverbios en Romance allowed me to practice comprehension of an author’s purpose for a work in the greater context of a society or history. Because Guzman’s encyclopedia of phrases is more like a dictionary than a narrative with a plot, the process of literary analysis of this work was more abstract than concrete. In other words, an inferred understanding as to why a book of proverbs might be valuable to a society was more necessary for my literary analysis than the ability to interpret literary devices.

El arte didáctica, el arte para enseñar, from Olivia Blithell

El atlas abreviado, o compendiosa geografia, del…
Francisco de Aefferden (1653-1709)
En Amberes: A costa de Francisco Laso, mercader de libros, enfrente de S. Phelipe el Real de Madrid, año 1711
Fourth edition

[This work] was published in 1711, two years after author Francisco de Aefferden (a Belgian cartographer) died, in Antwerp by a book merchant named Francisco Laso. It is a leather-bound pocket atlas containing descriptions of the world and very detailed, ornate maps that fold out. They depict bodies of water, rivers, forests, mountain ranges, common trails, and the names of places.

The maps for their time are extremely accurate, with distance scales and longitude and latitude indications on every map.

The pages crinkle when you turn them and you can smell the leather of the binding as you read the book. The reader can see the years in the leather — the binding is wearing thin. You can take a trip around the world, your mind can visit anywhere.

The reader can learn about “El Mundo Nuevo,”

then see all of the forests and mountains in “Alemania” — a glimpse into the past world.

We can see the signatures and notes of previous owners. The waves of their cursive from ink and quill contrast with the Old English-styled font of text. This little pocket atlas was their only tool to get from point “a” to point “b,” when traveling in strange and foreign lands. In today’s world, our pocket atlas is our iPhone, a pocket-sized computer. We have the world in our hands, a technology unimaginable in 1711.

We can see how the world has evolved since the 17th century, both physically and intellectually. There are large cities where forests used to be, some of the towns have changed their names, but many remain. Even though our world has changed, the past is still with us.

We can read the words in the text and see how the people of the day thought. The Spanish text is very beautiful, like Shakespeare. It is different from how today’s Spanish is spoken. It is more poetic and meant to teach, el arte didáctica, el arte para enseñar.

Es Algo Incredible, from James Smith

Reales ordenanzas para la dirección, régimen y gobierno del importante cuerpo de la minería de Nueva-España, y de su real tribunal general. De orden de su majestad
Madrid, 1783
First edition
KC729.5 M48 1783

Como sugiere su titulo, este el libro era hecho con el propósito de ayudar el país de España ministrar sus minerías. Para entender este libro es necesario que primero entendemos porque la industria minería era tan importante por España durante el 18º siglo. La minería de plata pagaba mucho y por eso los indignos de España estaban muy interesado de minarlo. Por la potencia que la minería tenia durante esta época Nueva-España dependía mucho en la minería y por eso creía este libro para introducir reglas de cómo la minería debería funcionar.

Es algo incredíble a pensar que este libro que era publicado en 1783 ha durado por mas que 200 años con las mismas paginas, tinta, y encuadernación. No hay muchas cosas que pueden perdurar por siglos, especialmente los libros. Pero el hecho de que este libro todavía esta en buena condición lleva un mensaje y entendimiento de la importancia de este libro sin abrirlo.

El libro tiene mas que 200 paginas que son separadas por “títulos” que parecen como capítulos. No era escrito por mano pero imprimió con maquina que es algo interesante porque era muy caro a imprimir. Este también refleja que el libro llevaba mucha importancia. Sin leer la primera pagina el lector puede saber que este libro no era hecho con el propósito de entretener, pero algo muy serio.

Si vemos la pagina 23, titulo II, dice “jueces de minas lo serán las respectivas justicias reales, conforme a las leyes de la recopilación de indas, en todo lo que por estas Ordenanzas no se cometiere a las diputaciones del cuerpo de minería.” Aunque Nueva-España era una monarquía usaban jueces y otros formes de gobierno. Si leemos esta articulo parece como una oración aburrida respecto a un tipo de trabajo. Pero realmente este articulo, junto con el resto del libro, contiene muchísima historia.

Para entender la verdadero sentido de esta oración es necesario que primero entendemos los políticos de España, la economía, y la importancia que la minería tenia en la país.

Another Level of Depth, from Owen Orchard

Diario de Mexico
Mexico City: Oficina de Don Mariano Jose de Zuniga y Ontiveros, 1805-1817
AP63 D5

We as a class were given the opportunity to visit the Marriott Library’s rare book collections where we could analyze and observe amazing works of Spanish literature dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries.

The piece that I gravitated towards most was Diario de Mexico. This journal began publication in 1805 and was the first daily news periodical in Mexico. It discussed philosophical, moral, and artistic issues, such as the function of theater. The articles were written by a diverse collection of authors, adding depth to the conversations.

The physical condition and layout of the periodical is impressive. The Rare Books set is bound in a leather cover of a date later than the publication, very much intact. The issues themselves have almost no tears or stains.

Each issue begins with a poem. Many of the articles go into great depth in ways perhaps unexpected by the 21st century reader and perhaps even in the 21st century. Examples include, “Cosas que incomodan en Mexico” and “Falibilidad del la Medicina.”

The opportunity to view and actually touch these works is incredible. When you feel and turn the pages of these books its a totally different experience than just hearing about them. You are able to see whether or not a book was printed or handwritten and also what material the book was made from. This adds so much to one’s literary analysis because you can make guesses as to why it was written on that material or why it was written in that way based off of the time period it came from.

All in all, being able to interact with these pieces in person added another level of depth to my analysis. By looking and touching, I discovered that these texts contain centuries of knowledge and insight as well as an infinite number of underlying details. I have very much enjoyed my time with the rare book collections and now have a vastly greater understanding and interest in this type of study.

The Need to Spread Word, from Anna Paseman

Colección de documentos relativos al departamento de Californias publicados por el ciudadano Manuel Castañares
Mexico: Imprenta de la Voz de Pueblo, 1845

As its title suggests, the text Colección de documentos relativos al departamento de Californias publicados por el ciudadano Manuel Castañares consists of a compilation of letters, speeches, and essays written by Manuel Castañares. Castañares served as one of California’s represetatives to Mexico’s National Congress during the mid-1840s, and his compositions touch on a number of important historical and literary subjects. The physical text itself, a thin, fragile, paper pamphlet, one of only 11 known to exist, exhibits its own literary significance.

Among the text’s central themes are descriptions of various aspects of the California territory, including its indigenous population, Spanish missions, ports, agricultural sectors, and the 1843 discovery of gold. The mention of the discovery of gold is particularly important because this text is believed to be the first pamphlet to document the discovery and mining of gold in California.

While the documentation of the discovery is interesting, Castañares’s relevant commentary is of greater interest. In various letters, he repeatedly voices concern that the Mexican federal government must proactively safeguard California, such that a foreign power does not take interest in, and devastate, its precious resources.

Castañares’s concerns regarding California’s abundant resources extends to his broader discussion of foreign intrusion into the territory, and the failure of the Mexican government to sufficiently attend to its security needs. Describing the daunting threat posed by the United States, in particular, Castañares writes, “El estado que hoy guarda la república, las tendencias y conatos de una nación vecina para continuar usurpando nuestro territorio, el carácter de invasión que manifiesta toda la prensa americana y nuestra inercia, me hacen temblar por la suerte de la república, si no se atienden nuestras fronteras, principalmente mi Departamento.”

The concern that Castañares expresses for unrest in California in 1845, and the assertive nature of the American government on its frontiers, is foreboding; the next year, 1846, California experienced the uprising known as the Bear Flag Revolt. The Mexican-American War followed, lasting from 1846-1848, and by early 1847 California officially came into the possession of the United States. In this sense, Castañares’s writings serve as a valuable tool for understanding the events leading up to the transfer of California from Mexican to American hands.

The relatively small and cheaply produced nature of the pamphlet likely indicates that it was meant to be portable and read by many. While it is difficult to know with certainty Castañares’s intention in publishing his writings, it is apparent that he felt the need to spread word of what he perceived as a threat, and perhaps, to raise concern among others such that the issue of foreign intrusion would gain attention, and the Mexican government would respond sufficiently. By handling the text, and accepting Castañares’s intentions as previously described, it is easy to imagine the serious political conversations that must have been happening in California during the 1840s, and the types of information that would have informed Mexicans on the state of the territory. Moreover, the text serves as an interesting reminder that California was not always a part of the United States, and that the history of American expansion is not necessarily one of peaceful acquisition.

Somewhere, At Some Time, Someone, from Carlos Ixta

[
Tratado de Paz, Amistad, limites y, arreglo
Mexico: Impr. De I. Cumplido, 1848
Second printing
E408 M62 1848

Treaty of peace, friendship, limits, and settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic: concluded at Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, and ratified, with the amendments, by the American Senate, March 10, also ratified by the Mexican Congress, May 25, 1848
Washington, 1848
E408 U583

The Spanish version of this text was printed months after the English edition of the text. I had the opportunity to be able to look at both of them and to compare and contrast the two. The history of these texts is very powerful to me. As a Mexican-American, I have always had a special interest in the events surrounding the American colonization of the U. S., as well as the Mexican-American war, and other historical events. Seeing, reading, and holding the texts in the rare books collection was a profound experience for me. I imagine being back in such a time, perhaps living in California — or even Utah for that matter — both of which were Mexican territories at one time. Then, after years of war, and thousands of deaths, to receive a really small book, perhaps not even suitable to be called a book, somewhat of a 2-page decree from either the Mexican Republic or the United States government stating that the land I’ve lived on my whole life suddenly belongs to a whole different government. How peculiar that must be! Many people had a hard time believing what had just happened and for this reason the Mexican government printed an edition of the peace treaty with an added forward which basically stated that it was true, that this is really happening, and the people must accept it.

As I sat there imagining what it must have been like or how strange an experience that is, it only added to the feeling to be able to hold physical copies of a books such as these. I realized, that these are originals, that somewhere, at some time, someone had helf up the exact copy that I was able to hold and that this really happened to them. Overall, it was an honorable experience to see these and many other books like these at university. There is definitely a difference in reading about the history of things like this in high school history class and being able to hold the actual books published at the time being studied.

Same Event, Two Different Books, Two Different Ways, from Dylan Slavens

Tratado de Paz, Amistad, limites y, arreglo
Mexico: Impr. De I. Cumplido, 1848
E408 M62 1848

Treaty of peace, Friendship, limits, and settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic: Concluded at Guadalupe Hildalgo, February 2, and ratified with the amendments, by the American Senate, March 10, also ratified by the Mexican Congress, May 25, 1848
Washington, 1848
E408 U55 1848

I had the opportunity to hold in my hands these two books during my visit to the Rare Books Department in The University of Utah’s Marriott Library. Although these two books were printed examples of The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo between the U.S. and Mexican governments, I observed many differences between the two. One of these books was written and published in Mexico while the other was written and published in the U.S.

One of the first differences I noticed about the two books was that the physical quality and appearance of the one printed in the U.S. was a lot better than the one from Mexico. The cover and the paper of the U.S. copy were all in a lot better condition. The Mexican copy seemed to be falling apart and the physical materials used to make the book seemed to be cheaper. The U.S. copy had many more pages than the one from Mexico, which surprised me because the Mexican version had both the Spanish and English translations on both sides of the pages.

Having physical contact with these two books helped me process and analyze the differences between the two much more easily. The U.S. copy was written more like a dialog and a journal while the Mexican copy seemed to be more straightforward and official.

The book from Mexico officially explained the protocols necessary for the conclusion of the treaty, including the amendments made to the treaty by the United States. In my short 45 minutes of analyzing and observing these two books I can see many differences not only physically but also literally between the two. Same event, two different books, two different ways of writing and presenting the information of what happened. It was such a unique experience of actually having and holding the two books in my hands.

Revealing Something A Glowing Wall of Text Never Could, from Marc Jackson

Gobierno general: Ministerio de justicia
Benito Juarez (1806-1872)
Chihuahua: 1859
KG3035 A5 1859

The newspaper article is gently held in place by a protective sleeve. Frayed edges and discoloration characterize its tattered face. When turning the pages it almost seems like they could split in two if one was careless. The irony is that this article’s pages were never meant to be turned carefully. The thin paper and poor condition reveal something a glowing wall of text never could. They reveal that this article was not written for royalty, politicians, or clergy but for the masses. The Mexican government printed this newspaper cheaply so it could be sent to as many people as possible. Knowing that the author, Benito Juarez, wrote Gobierno general for the public opens up a deeper analysis. Instead of simply setting up new laws concerning marriage, the purpose of the text becomes gaining public support for dramatic social changes. Instead of the verse-like statements representing legal language, they can represent scripture and therefore the fight Juarez pushed to lower the influence of the Catholic Church on the government. In other words, the purpose of the article is to incite social change and the theme is the replacement of Catholic doctrine with democratic law.

Without feeling the thin pages and physically interacting with the original work it would be much harder to conclude that the audience is the general public. If the reader only had the words themselves it’s likely they would conclude that Juarez only wrote it for lawyers. However, touching the original page transports the reader to 1859. A lawyer doesn’t hand over the newspaper, an excited Indian does. He talks about how much it means to him that an indigenous Mexican is representing him and that the government is openly talking about issues that until recently were taboo. This newspaper article proves that information essential to understanding literature is hidden everywhere the words aren’t, preserving words isn’t enough, the physical objects and their connection to the past must be preserved or our understanding of older texts might never dive beneath the surface.

Bound Together in Honor of Its Memory, from Marisol Padilla Fragosso

Madrid Comico
Madrid, 1885-1897?
AP111 M347

The book that caught my eye on my third visit to the Rare Books section of the Marriott Library, or as I and several of my classmates have called it, the “Restricted Area,” was Madrid Comico, “Comical Madrid” in English, a Spanish magazine published between 1880 and 1923. This magazine contained anti-Modernism propaganda and was full of humorous stories and comics, as the title implies. The issues in Rare Books have been bound together in what appears to be a binding contemporary to the time period of the magazine’s run. At some point, the owner of these issues had them bound together, giving the sense of a commemorative book. Who did this and why they did so is not known, however, it would be appropriate to guess that this book came to be because the magazine shut down in 1923, as if the issues were bound together in honor of its memory.

From all of my experiences and interactions in the Rare Books area, I have learned to appreciate books even more than I did before. Some of these books are centuries old and are in incredible condition, which is great for the reader because this means the text is legible instead of smudged, pages contain no significant rips or tears (if any), and no pages appear to be missing. This is important to the reader’s experience. There is no gap in the flow of the text, due to illegibility, a condition that might ruin the world of the reader and what the author had in mind.

When you touch a book that is over a hundred years old, you can’t help but feel awestruck and humbled; of course, precautionary measures are taken so that the oils in human skin don’t harm the books (that’s what the baby wipes are for) and you have to be gentle with the binding — opening, closing, and flipping through the pages gingerly. Another thing that I realized from my experience with these rare books, is that books truly are precious treasures: If they were not to be treasured, someone would not have taken the time to carefully preserve them in the best condition possible.

While holding these amazing books, I couldn’t help but apply textual analytic tools that I learned in my textbook for my Spanish class, Aproximaciones al estudio de la literatura hispánica, 6ª ed. The main tool that I used was looking at the Who, Where, When, Why, and How. Once you are able to answer these questions about a book, you are better able to understand the depth of the text and the author’s, as well as the publisher’s, vision for it. When I apply this tool to my analysis of texts, I feel as though I am tapping into the mind of the author and publisher, almost as if I was a profiler looking at a crime scene, figuring out who did it, when they did it, how it was done, and the motive behind the crime.

A Personality Distinct From All Others, from Tosh Noskowski

Siluetas: con retratos y…
Urbano Gonzalez Serrano (1848-1904)
Madrid: R. Serra, 1899
PQ6072 G6

Urbano Gonzalez Serrano was a literary critic as well as philosopher and professor. Siluetas is a compilation of brief biographies about various authors of his time.

Each biography begins with a picture of each author and a copy of something handwritten by him that includes a signature.

The book, in and of itself, is really small — it can fit in the palm of your hand. This makes is very approachable, as many large books can be intimidating and bring a sense of prestige with them. A small book makes the literary analysis easier because it does not give the impression of being above reproach.

Literary analysis can be augmented by being in physical contact with the book because it brings to light how the book was meant to be read, and can even help identify target audiences for the text. The size and weight of it may limit those who were meant to read it, which can be a key factor when analyzing aspects of a text.

The literary analysis tools focus on trying to understand the meaning and purpose of any given text. It can be approached via different questions and angles depending on the genre of the text, but seeing the books in person truly gives weight to these questions. It’s not just a bunch of words in a textbook any more, it gives purpose to what the literary analysis is trying to do. Simply analyzing a text on a screen or in a textbook doesn’t represent the work as it was meant to be. The physical form, age, and wear and tear of a work gives it a personality distinct from all others. From here, the analytic tools learned through a textbook can be applied in a much more meaningful way.

The Search for Truth, from Camille Morgenstern

González Videla, el laval de la America Latina: Breve biografía de un traidor
Mexico City, 1949
First edition
F3099 G6 N4

When perusing the rare texts around the themes of “ensayo” and “decir la verdad,” i.e. the search for truth, this folleto by Pablo Neruda caught my eye because of the interesting and rich historical context surrounding the piece, but also because of Neruda’s specific use of the book as a medium for disseminating his truth.

The folleto is presented as a collection of brief pieces in a wide range of genres, from poems to essays to letters to testimonies, all denouncing Gabriel González Videla. Neruda was, at the time, a Communist Party senator and member of the Communist Party of Chile. Videla was a presidential candidate representing the Radical Party and asked Neruda to be his campaign manager. Once in office, Videla turned against the Communist Party, violently repressing a Communist-led miner’s strike. Neruda disassociated from Videla, and began to publicly critique him in speeches, which carried over into the form of the folleto. In this text, Neruda compares González to Pierre Laval, prime minister of collaborationist France during German occupation in WWII.

What fascinated me most was Neruda’s use of the physical book to convey his truth. The book itself is very small and lightweight, facilitating the circulation and distribution of the text. The cover art, by renowned Spanish (and Communist) muralist Josep Renau, is strikingly bold, and is the only color found throughout the book. His use of strong imagery here mirrors the forceful tone of the texts inside, and his use of other images such as posters and photographs to supplement the vignettes strengthens his story and allows the book to reach a wider audience as well. The folleto contains a number of different essays in forms such as denouncements, poems, records, and more, with titles such as “El Complice de los Nazis,” “Violader de Convenios Internacionales,” and “El Traidor Contra su Pueblo,” presented together in a format resembling a newspaper. This method enhances the underlying argument that Neruda’s experiences are truth, and breaks the truth down into simple yet poignant terms.

Interacting with the physical form of the book was a much richer form of literary analysis because it provided another layer of understanding. By holding the form in which the text was intended to be absorbed, I was able to connect the text itself to the physical format and understand more clearly Neruda’s intentions behind creating the folleto in the way he did. Additionally, it connected me more closely to the historical context in general, because I was in contact with a tangible object from that time.

I Will Be Coming Back, from Cameron Dower

Excavator, Barcelona, Excavador
Jake Tilson (b. 1958)
London: Woolley Dale, 1986

During the time I had the opportunity to visit the Rare Books Department at the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah, I found some amazing books. One that really reached out to me was Excavator, Barcelona, Ecavador. This book has photographs and text. It was made from a clandestine pro-terrorist publication on police detecting methods. The chapters are as follows: 1-1 Burial attempt. 1-2 Immortal Man. 2-1 Horizontal Clock, Barrio Gatico. 2-2 Department of Correction. 3-1 How to Film a Panic. 3-2 Making Impressions Visible Again. 4-1 The Killing Jar. Thought provoking, no? Just the titles themselves make you want to take a second glance.

The cover has aspects of the world, people, secrets and color you would not normally find in modern day art, or in classical art.

Each picture contains answers to questions you want to ask. Slices of humans, places, world politics and personal views are riddled into the art. Tilson uses maps and locations in sections. The style seems almost crude. It has a very rough yet very thought-out look. It feels as if you could look at only one part of the painting and feel enraptured.

The text is in the art itself. It is rarely in a paragraph. Tilson adds poetry in and around the vivid yet vague images. This invokes an uneasiness in the reader. In only short verses Tilson alludes to politics, science, government and controversial social topics. As the reader turns the page, he fears that he will miss something important in each corner of the painting. Tilson uses symbols. The reader may see them in each of the photographic works. This reader found symbols of government, Egypt, cartography, cities, numbers, dials, clocks, measurements, footprints, fingerprints, hidden societies, and landmarks, all seeming to mean completely different things within the art. Within each piece and as a collection, there is tension and the suspicion that all have aspects in common, yet part of a puzzle — we don’t see the big picture…yet.

This was a fantastic experience and I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the rare, the historical and the bizarre, an experience not the same as we have every day from mainstream media. Thank you. I will be coming back.

*Editor’s note: minimal changes of one form or another have been made to each of these short essays, reflecting a few minor corrections in spelling and punctuation, or in slight clarification of the text, or in reducing the text to fit the blog format.

Book of the Week — Anatomy of Plants with an Idea of a Philosophical History of Plants and Several Other Lectures…

02 Monday Apr 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Book of the Week — Anatomy of Plants with an Idea of a Philosophical History of Plants and Several Other Lectures…

Tags

Carl Linnaeus, Charles II, Christopher Wren, flowers, fruits, leaves, London, Marcello Malpighi, microscope, microscopy, Nehemiah Grew, physiology, plant anatomy, plant morphology, Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke, Royal Society, seeds, vegetables

“At a Meeting of the Council of the Royal Society, Fe. 22. 1681/2 Dr. Grew having read several Lectures of the Anatomy of Plants, some whereof have been already printed at divers times, and some are not printed; with several other Lectures of their Colours, Odours Tasts, and Salts, as also of the Solution of Salts in Water; and of Mixture; all of them to the satisfaction of the said Society; It is therefore Ordered, that He be desired, to casue the to printed [sic] together in one Volume.” — Chr. Wren P.R.S.

Anatomy of Plants: With an Idea of a Philosophical History of Plants and Several Other…
Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712)
London: Printed by W. Rawlins, for the author, 1682
First edition
QK41 G82

Rare Books was recently graced with a visit from a member of the Royal Society and two other guests, all three royalty in the world of science. This visit and the accompanying bright blue spring skies brought to mind flowers, vegetable gardens, herb gardens and this book. The great Sir Christopher Wren, founder and then-president of the Royal Society, “Ordered” Nehemiah Grew to publish the work presented here.

Nehemiah Grew was a physician, but made his reputation in the fields of plant morphology and anatomy. At the Royal Society, he met Robert Hooke, who was progressing in his studies in the field of microscopy. At the same time that Marcello Malpighi presented papers to the Society, Grew presented his The Anatomy of Vegetables Begun (1672). Both men reported on the cellular construction of the woody parts of plants, the beginning of a hypothesis of a cellular theory of plant life. Grew’s work led him to the announcement that there were two sexes in plants.

This book is based on three earlier publications, “The Anatomy of Vegetables Begun (1672),” “An Idea of Phytological History Propounded (1673),” and “The Comparative Anatomy of Trunks (1675)”, together with a fourth unpublished book, “The Anatomy of Leaves, Flowers, Fruits, and Seeds,” dedicated to Robert Boyle, and six discourses that had been delivered before the Royal Society.

In Grew’s dedicatory epistle to King Charles II, he wrote, “Your Majesty will here see, That there are those things within a Plant, little less admirable, than within an Animal. That a Plant, as well as an Animal, is composed of several Organical Parts; some whereof may be called its Bowels. That every Plant hath Bowels of divers kinds, conteining divers kinds of Liguors. That even a Plant lives partly upon Aer; for the reception whereof, it hath those Parts which are answerable to Lungs. So that A Plant is, as it were, an Animal in Quires; as an Animal is a Plant, or rather several Plants bound up into Volume.”

Nehemiah Grew’s work turned the anatomy and physiology of plants into a new science. This is the first book in which Robert Hooke’s newly invented microscope is demonstrated for the examination plants.

Grew began his studies with naked-eye observations and then continued with observations seen at the higher magnifications made possible with Hooke’s microscope.

“…all the Observations conteined in the First Book, except one or two, were made with the Naked Eye. The the end, I might first give a proof, How far it was possible for us to go, without the help of Glasses: which many Ingenious Men want; and more, the patience to manage them. For the Truth of these Observations, Seignior Malpighi, having procured my Book to be translated into Latin for his private us, speaks his own sense, in some of his Letters to Mr. Oldenburge, printed at the end of his Anatomy of Plants…Having thus begun with the bare Eye; I next proceeded to the use of the Microscope. And the Observations thereby made, first on Roots, and afterwards on Trunks and Branches, together with the figures…”

Through these observations he was able to describe the structure of stems and roots by the combined use of transverse, radial, and tangential longitudinal sections.

“In the Plates, for the clearer conception of the Part described, I have represented it, generally, as entire, as its being magnified to some good degree, would bear…Yet have I not every where magnify’d the Part to the same degree; but more or less, as was necessary to represent what is spoken of it. And very highly, only in some few Examples, as in Tab. 40. which may suffice to illustrate the rest. Some of the Plates, especially those which I did not draw to the Engravers hand, are a little hard and stiff: but they are all well enough done, to represent what they intend.”

Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus dedicated a genus of trees to Grew in appreciation of his work. Few important advances on the ideas of Grew would be made for nearly another one hundred years.

Illustrated with eighty-three engraved plates, some double-page, showing microscopic sections of plant structures.

An Impression of Spring

20 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on An Impression of Spring

Tags

Bertram Rota, British, cardboard, commercial, gesso, Gogmagog Press, Hosho, Japanese, landscape, leaves, London, Morris Cox, panorama, plywood, poetry, printer, private press, Prose, seasons, seeds, spring, twigs, varnish

“Now sprigs are pricked by bursting buds,
and threading the trees the wind’s weft
skittles, drops and spurts again,
rubbing along the ground to tease old leafings
of skittering litter, scratching swirl…

Between bettling sky and buxom earth —
a mazed and frilling lightning flash!
The eye bleaches and goes black.
A far-off tracking thunder rolls
and tight, hard raindrops teem and patter,
hiss an sheen in rimplin rods…
till overhead the ragging cloud thins off
in clean-washed grin, and sun-bowl tips
over the giggling earth its molten gold.”

An Impression of Spring: A Landscape Panorama
Morris Cox (1903-1998)
London: Gogmagog Press: Dist. by Bertram Rota, 1966
ND497 C748 A43 1966

Gogmagog Press was a one man operation: for more than forty years Morris Cox — artist, writer, and printer — worked alone, using simple tools and creating one of the most important of British post-war private presses. Cox experimented with various aspects of his craft, always paying meticulous attention to detail.

Morris Cox’s poetry and prose rarely found commercial publication. For this reason, in middle-age, Cox began Gogmagog Press, in order to distribute his work. It was only then that his poetry began to be championed, for the poetry was as good as the press production. Word and image are so intertwined that one divorced from the other leaves only half an experience.

The texture of the prints derives from the unusual printing blocks used to create them. Cox mounted sheets of cardboard onto plywood and layered them with gesso, next adding materials from nature like seeds, leaves, and twigs. These elements were varnished to strengthen them.

Impressions is one of four works on the seasons, all considered to be the peak of Cox’s achievement as a printer. Printed on Japanese ‘Hosho’ paper. Edition of one hundred numbered and signed copies. Rare Books copy is no. 23.

Gilgamesh, King of Erech

09 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Gilgamesh, King of Erech

Tags

ad Diwaniyah, clay tablets, Dorothea Braby, EPIC, Erech, Frank Lawrence Lucas, Gilgamesh, Golden Cockerel Press, Hebrew Bible, London, Luise Putcamp jr, Nippur, Pu-Abis, Sumerian, Ur, Urak, Ziusudra

“The white-haired Ziusudra gazes dreaming out to sea.
Above his white head, the tall palms dream also,
Undulating slowly the green indolence of their leaves.
The old man remembers
Long days, long since, when he watched other waves
Heaving like these, heaving onward eternally,
Yet never breaking
On any earthly shore;
For earth itself lay drowned.
Now he watches them breaking for ever,
Like the years;
The blue of his old eyes changes no more
Than the blue of ocean,
And his hoar locks blow like its foam.
Almost as ancient he seems as the rock of granite,
Of red granite, where he sits above the sea.
Yet still his immortal soul regrets
The brief years of his mortality.”

Gilgamesh, King of Erech
Frank Lawrence Lucas (1894-1967)
London: Golden Cockerel Press, 1948
PR6023 U3 G5 1948

The story of part man, part god hero Gilgamesh was first recorded on clay tablets well before 2000 BC. Gilgamesh was a historical king who reigned circa 2700 BC, the fifth in line of the founding first dynasty of Ur, centered around the ancient city of Urak, known in the Hebrew Biblle as Erech. The historical Gilgamesh built one of the first temples in the holy city of Nippur, now ad Diwaniyah, which is where two of our clay tablets are from. This edition is a free translation of the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh, with twelve engravings by Dorothea Braby. Edition of five hundred copies, numbered. University of Utah copy is no. 263.

Excavations at Ur

Pu-Abis Burial Pit

No time, no tomb can hide what we have been.
See what the searchers have uncovered where
Hills are laid low in long-abandoned air,
Centuries swiftly sifted through a screen.
Bay leaves in circlet, gold instead of green,
Carnelian that this river land called rare,
Lapis bought dearly with some distant ware
Crown a crushed skull. Surely here lay a queen.

That future digger who can read the dead,
Build dynasties from what the past discards,
Dust and a different sunlight on his head,
Shaking my grave for artifacts and shards
Will bare no gold bedecking this brown bone
And rightly call a commoner’s skull my own.

———–

Clay Tablets

Molded like primal man from lumps of mud
And pressed with dents peculiar to old needs
The tablets tell of gods’ outlandish deeds,
Record the names kings bore before the Flood.
Now tufted hills lie where the city stood.
The kings eat endless earth and the wind feeds
On eyeless gods. The river stirs far reeds.
The clay alone survives long solitude

And even now some men can read its signs.
The double strokes say water, and the star
Signifies heaven. All the fragile lines
Hold meaning that millenniums fail to mar
While in a familiar alphabet my words
Today go meaningless as marks of birds.

–Luise Putcamp jr., 1964

Excavations at Ur published here by permission of the poet to whom we wish a happy 94th birthday.

Book of the Week — De Magnete magneticisqve corporibvs et de magna magnete tellure; Physiologia noua, plurimus & orgumentis, & …

20 Tuesday Feb 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Book of the Week — De Magnete magneticisqve corporibvs et de magna magnete tellure; Physiologia noua, plurimus & orgumentis, & …

Tags

Cambridge, De magnete, Earl of Leicester, earth, electricity, England, Francis Bacon, Galileo, geographic poles, Greeks, iron, Isaac Newton, James I, Johannes Kepler, lodestone, London, Lord Burghley, magnet, magnetic lodestone, magnetic poles, magnetism, mariners, navigational tools, P. Short, physician, Queen Elizabeth I, Robert Boyle, Robert Dudley, Royal College of Physicians, Royal Physician, science, William Cecil, William Gilbert, woodcuts

“Non ex libris solum, sed ex rebus ipsis scientiam quaeritis.”

Gvilielmi gilberti colcestrensis, medici londinensis, de magnete magneticisqve corporibvs, et de magno magnete tellure; phsiologia noua, plurimis & argumentis, & experimentis demonstrata
William Gilbert (1540-1603)
Londini: excvdebat P. Short, 1600
First edition
QC751 G44 1600

This the only published work of William Gilbert, an attorney’s son who studied at Cambridge before practising as a physician in London, where he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1573 and its president in 1600. Through his contacts at court, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester; and William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Gilbert was made Royal Physician to Queen Elizabeth I in 1601, an appointment renewed by James I on his accession in 1603. Swank surroundings, but Gilbert earned his reputation from the publication of this book after eighteen years of dedicated labor.

In the six books of De magnete, William Gilbert discussed the history of magnetism. Although the magnetic lodestone had been used by the ancient Greeks, Gilbert argued that the Earth was a natural magnet, and the Earth’s magnetic poles are relatively near the geographic poles. As a result of this argument, mariners were better able to use the lodestone as an effective navigational tool. Considered the first great scientific book published in England, its importance is due to Gilbert’s reliance on experimental methods of research, a crucial development in the field of science.

While Gilbert was chiefly concerned with the properties of magnetism, he also wrote about the attractive effect of electricity. Because of this discussion he is considered the founder of electrical science. The English term “electricity” was not coined until 1646, but, in this book, Gibert wrote “Electrica, qua attrahunt eadem ratione ut electrum.” Gilbert’s experiments proved that the earth’s core is iron, and that the earth rotates daily — some twenty years before Galileo described the same.

De magnete describes Gilbert’s invention of the “Versorium,” the first instrument designed for the study of electric phenomena.

Johannes Kepler, Frances Bacon, Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton, and Galileo were all greatly influenced by this book.

The text is filled with eighty-eighty woodcuts, four of which are full-page, a folding plate, and decorative initials and head- and tail-pieces. Rare Books copy lacks folding plate.

Book of the Week — Lectures of Experimental Philosophy

12 Monday Feb 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Book of the Week — Lectures of Experimental Philosophy

Tags

air, B. Creake, barometers, Bible in Jermyn-Street, Cambridge, England, English, France, heat, Herman Boerhaave, hydrometers, Isaac Newton, J. Sackfield, John Keill, John Theophilus Desaguliers, Lamb without Temple-Bar, Latin, Lincolns-Inn-Square, London, mechanics, optics, Paul Dawson, Robert Boyle, Royal Society, s'Gravesande, Sir Richard Steel, St. James's, thermometers, W. Mears

“And that we may not be decieved by false Notions which we have embraced without Examining, or that we have received upon the Authority of others; we ought to call in Question all such things as have an Appearance of Falshood, that by a new Examen we may be led to the Truth.”

Lectures of Experimental Philosophy…
John Theophilus Desaguliers (1683-1744)
London: Printed for W. Mears at the Lamb without Temple-Bar; B. Creake, at the Bible in Jermyn-Street, St. James’s; and J. Sackfield in Lincolns-Inn-Square, MDCCXIX (1719)

J. T. Desaguliers’ writings on mechanics were published as a set of lectures in 1717 in an 80-page tract of brief abstracts. This work, Lectures of Experimental Philosophy, edited by Desaguliers’ student, Paul Dawson, is believed to be spurious, published without consent of the author. Dawson, in his dedication, states that he had the author’s acknowledgement.

“I therefore humbly Present to You the following treatise, containing the several Philosophical Experiments in his publick Lectures, which I have carefully collected, and that Gentleman approved of.”

Desaguliers disavowed this, although he wrote in his Preface, or Advertisement to the Reader, that “he looked over the whole book and corrected every error.”

“Mr. Dawson (a young Man whom Sir Richard Steel had put under my Care) took a Copy of the Lectures above-mentioned, that they might be of Service to him when he went thro’ my Courses, and they were afterwards sold and published without my Knowledge. But as the Booksellers have made me Satisfaction, and purchased the Copy of me, I have looked over the whole Book, and corrected every Error therein…”

In any event, in this work Desaguliers tells the reader “How to make a heavy Body seem to rise it self,” “How to Condense the AIR, so that you may put what Quantity you please into a Vessel,” gives a “description of the Air-Pump Mr. Boyle made use of,” describes different types of barometers, thermometers, and hydrometers; and offers an essay on Isaac Newton’s “Colours.”

Desaguliers was born in France and raised in England. He studied at Oxford under John Keill, spending a good deal of his time reading Newton’s Principia. He attended a course of lectures given by s’Gravesande on mechanical consequences of the laws of motion as Newton defined them. In 1720, Desaguliers translated s’Gravesande’s work on Newton from Latin into English. As one of the foremost researchers in the Royal Society, he repeated several of Newton’s experiments on heat, optics and mechanics. Some of his results were made use of by Newton in the third edition of Principia. Desaguliers was an ardent supporter of Newton.

This is a reissue of A System of Experimental Philosophy, London, 1719.

The title-page is new, a preface by the author is added, an errata leaf and an advertisement leaf advertising the English translation of a work of Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738) have been prefixed to the original title page.

Rare Books copy bound in contemporary Cambridge binding, rebacked. Text contains a few contemporary annotations and an ownership signature of James (?) Hardy on the paste-down.

OPEN BOOK

~ News from the Rare Books Department of Special Collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

Tag Archives: London

Ioyfvll newes out of the new-found vvorlde [order]

Like this:

A Recipe for Disaster

Like this:

Stop and Smell the (Arctic) Flowers

Like this:

The Great American Read

Like this:

Cuentos — Students Respond

Like this:

Book of the Week — Anatomy of Plants with an Idea of a Philosophical History of Plants and Several Other Lectures…

Like this:

An Impression of Spring

Like this:

Gilgamesh, King of Erech

Like this:

Book of the Week — De Magnete magneticisqve corporibvs et de magna magnete tellure; Physiologia noua, plurimus & orgumentis, & …

Like this:

Book of the Week — Lectures of Experimental Philosophy

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: