• Marriott Library
  • About
  • Links We Like

OPEN BOOK

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

OPEN BOOK

Tag Archives: nature

Books of the Week — La Méthode de nomenclature chimique & Essai de Statique chimique

27 Monday Aug 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Books of the Week — La Méthode de nomenclature chimique & Essai de Statique chimique

Tags

alchemical, Alexander von Humboldt, Antoine de Fourcroy, Antoine Lavoisier, Arcueil Society, chemical nomenclature, chemist, chemistry, Claude-Louis Berthollet, Cuchet, Didot, explorer, French, geographer, Greek, language, Latin, Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau, mathematician, nature, Paris, Pierre-Simon Laplace, pressure, quantity, reactants, solubility, temperature


In the study of nature, as in the practice of art, it is not given to man to achieve the goal without leaving a trail of dead ends he had pursued. — Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau

La Méthode de nomenclature chimique
Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau (1737-1816)
Paris: Cuchet, 1787
First edition, first issue
QD7 G85

Antoine Lavoisier’s discoveries made a new and rational chemical nomenclature imperative. Initiated by Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau, the project was taken up by Lavoisier, who soon convinced Guyton of the sense of his new system. The two collaborated with Claude-Louis Berthollet (1748-1822) and Antoine de Fourcroy (1755-1809), all of whom put together Méthode de nomenclature, replacing traditional alchemical language with a new system, still the basis of the language of modern chemistry. The system was quickly accepted after initial mass resistance.


A chemical name should not be a phrase…it should recall the constituents of a compound; it should be non-committal if nothing is known about the substance; the names should preferably be coined from Latin or Greek, so that their meaning can be more widely and easily understood; the form of the words should be such that they fit easily into the language into which they are to be incorporated. — from La Méthode de nomenclature chimique


Essai de statique chimique
Claude-Louis Berthollet (1748-1822)
Paris: F. Didot, 1803
First edition

Trained as a physician, the French chemist Claude-Louis Berthollet attempted to provide a basis for chemistry so that its experimental results could be viewed in the light of theoretical first principles. In this attempt, Berthollet recognized the importance of the theory of affinity.

According to the Essai, there were two main types of force in nature: gravitation, which accounted for astronomical phenomena, and chemical affinity. Berthollet proved that chemical affinity was relative, varying with the physical conditions accompanying a chemical experiment: quantity, temperature, solubility, pressure, and physical state. Berthollet introduced the concept of ‘chemical mass’ — relative affinity combined with the mass of reactants in a chemical combination — to give the total force with which a given quantity of a substance reacted with another.

In his work, Berthollet was critical of some of Lavoisier’s theories. His experiments with acidity, for example, were more substantial than those of Lavoiser. Nonetheless, Berthollet’s theories were never particularly successful in the eyes of his contemporaries.

Still, Berthollet worked closely with some of the best scientific minds of the time: Mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1827) contributed two extensive footnotes to Essai. He and Berthollet eventually lived next door to each other, forming the Arcueil Society, along with geographer and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), about whom Berthollet said, “This man is as knowledgeable as a whole academy.”

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Rare Books Goes to Utah State University!

23 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Rare Books Loans

≈ Comments Off on Rare Books Goes to Utah State University!

Tags

ailments, Alexa Sand, Andromachus, animal, antidotes, Antioch, antiquity, Arab, Arabic, aristocracy, artists, Athalus III, Avicenna, Baghdad, Barcelona, benefits, Bibliotheque National de France, binding, bites, border, Byzantine Renaissance, Cairo, climate, codex, Constantinople, court, covers, Criton, culture, display, doctor, drink, drugs, Egypt, Ellucasim Elimittar, exhibition, facsimile, food, formulas, French, fruits, Giovaninno de Grassi, grammarian, Graz, Greek, handbook, happiness, healing, health, Hebrew, Hellenistic, herbal, herbs, Homeric, household, hygiene, Ibn Butlan, illustration, Italian, Italy, King of Pergamum, Latin, layout, layperson, leather, magical, management, manual, Materia medica, medical, medicine, medieval, Merrill-Cazier Library, Mesopotamia, Middle Ages, mineral, miniatures, Mithridates, Moleiro, monk, movement, nature, Nero, Nestorian, Nicander of Colophon, observation, occidental, opium, pain, paper, patrician, Pedanius Dioskurides, pharmacological, physician, plants, poet, poisons, potions, publicity, rare books, reception, remedies, rest, Roman, sadness, samples, scholar, science, simples, sleep, Special Collections, stings, substances, symposium, Syria, Syrian, Theatrum sanitatis, therapeutic, toxicology, Trajan, Ububchasym of Baldach, University of Utah, Utah State University, vegetables, Venice, woman, wooden

Last semester, Rare Books loaned six of its medieval manuscript facsimiles to the Merrill-Cazier Library at Utah State University in collaboration with an art history course taught by Professor Alexa Sand. The upper-level course, “Special Topics Seminar in Medieval and Early Modern Art: Rare Books and Facsimiles,” provided a wide-ranging introduction to the interdisciplinary field of manuscript studies. The focus was the history of the codex from its advent in late Roman times to the early print era.

Each student selected a facsimile and researched its origins, history, and significance toward the final assignment of including it in a group-curated exhibition displayed in the library. The seminar concluded with a one-day symposium in which student researchers played an active role in discussion.

The materials selected for study related to botany and its medical and magical associations from late antiquity through the early modern period. Students prepared all aspects of the exhibition, from layout and display to publicity and the opening reception, working with Special Collections faculty and staff and Professor Sand.

Facsimiles on loan from Rare Books were:


Des Pedanius Dioskurides aus anazarbos arzneimittellehre in funf buchern
Ca. seventh century, Italy
Graz: Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt, 1988
R126 D56 1988

Facsimile. This manuscript is one of the oldest in the tradition of Materia medica, a pharmacological treatise written by Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides in the first century CE. Dioscorides’ work was used by the medieval world for centuries. In the sixth century it was translated into Latin and by the ninth century it had been translated into Arabic, Syrian and Hebrew. More than four hundred plants are described in this illustrated herbal manual, each illustration bordered in red ink. The binding of wooden covers and leather accords with the character of the original.


Theriaka y Alexipharmaka de Nicandro
Nicander of Colophon
Barcelona: Moleiro, 1997
QP41 N53 1997

Facsimile. The Greek text for this codex, produced in the tenth century, was written in Constantinople in the second century BCE. Nicander, a trusted doctor, poet, and grammarian served in the court of Athalus III, King of Pergamum. In Homeric-style verses, Nicander describes poisons caused by animal bites and stings and by the ingestion of plant, animal, and mineral substances. Antidotes are given for each type of poisoning. These nearly sixty formulas were later improved upon by Mithridates, who added opium and aromatic herbs to the potions. Nicander’s work was used by Criton, the doctor of Trajan, and Andromachus, Nero’s doctor, and is the oldest extant Greek text relating to toxicology. Using this text as his basis, Andromachus compiled a list of seventy-one curative remedies – a list used until the nineteenth-century as the panacea textbook for all and any poisonings. The tenth-century codex, a product of the Byzantine Renaissance, is the only remaining illuminated copy of Nicander’s poetry. The forty-one illustrations form a part of the Hellenistic artistic tradition. The original is now housed at the Bibliotheque National de France. Facsimile edition of nine hundred and eighty-seven copies. University of Utah copy is no. 469.


Theatrum sanitatis
Ububchasym of Baldach (d. ca. 1068 AD)
Eleventh Century
Barcelona: M. Moleiro, 1999
RS79 T46 1999

Facsimile. This handbook of health was written between 1052 and 1063 CE by the Arab scholar Ububshasym of Baldach, better known throughout medieval literature as Ellucasim Elimittar. Many of the concepts used in his writing were derived from earlier Greek, Roman, and Arabic medical treatises. Good health depended upon six essential factors: climate, food and drink, movement and rest, sleep and wakefulness, happiness, pain and sadness. Plants, fruits, vegetables, and basic hygiene also affect a person’s health. Ninety-nine of these and other elements are described with the therapeutic properties of each and the ailments that may be helped by them. The illustrations were influenced by the school of Giovannino de Grassi. Two hundred and eight red-framed, nearly full-page illuminations illustrate scenes from daily life as well as the elements described.


Tacuinum sanitatus in medicina.
Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt, 1986
RS79 T335 1986

Facsimile. Northern Italy. This illuminated medical handbook was produced for a layperson – a woman of the upper aristocracy or of a rich patrician family able to read, and afford, a lavish book. A reference of sorts for the household management of health and healing, this type of book goes back to an Arab source written by the physician Ibn Butlan in the 11th century. The Arab art and science of healing decisively influenced occidental medicine and enjoyed a long-lived and distinguished reputation. The Latin translation, which made the codex accessible to the educated of the medieval western world, was widely known. Many copies survive. This particular copy is one of the finest of its kind, displaying over two hundred full-page miniatures of all that was considered important with regard to human health and well being. Beginning in the 14th century, the text was placed below an individual image. The evocative miniatures portray everyday life of late Medieval Italian culture. With a natural style and strong colors, two artists portrayed plants, animals, food, and drugs. All of the objects are within scenes centered upon a human. The text below each miniature describes both the benefits and shortfalls of the object depicted. Derived from the classical herbal tradition, but closely related to Arab manuscripts, the format follows a later western tradition. Bound in leather on wooden boards with hand stamping according to contemporary pattern.


Livre des simples medecines
Antwerp : De Schutter, 1984
QK99 A1 L58 1984 v.1

Facsimile. This late fifteenth-century manuscript is of what has become known as “Livre des Simple Medecines,” a major text of medieval science. Many manuscript copies of this work exist – at least twenty-three from the fifteenth century and one from the sixteenth century. It was first printed in 1488 and printed nine more times before 1548. In classic herbal format, Livre des simple medecines is an alphabetical list of “simples,” that is, unadulterated vegetable, mineral or animal products. Each entry provides a description and, among other things, its usefulness in treating ailments. Herbals as pharmacopeia began in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. The earliest surviving medical herbal is a work in Greek compiled by Pedianos Dioscorides. This work would dominate European herbals for the next fifteen centuries. It was translated into Arabic as early as the ninth century and influenced Avicenna and other physicians from the Arab world. Herbals were living works. That is, copyists, often practitioners of medicine themselves or copying for practitioners, would contribute to adapt or modify an herbal depending on new or different experience. In this tradition, the French translation here includes new sources such as ibn Butlan, an Arab physician, and others. The four hundred and fifty-seven illuminations in this copy, the Codex Bruxellensis IV, reveal an attempt by the artists to be faithful to nature. In this sense, the desire was to return to copying nature, instead of merely copying degraded illustrations from older herbals. Deliberate observation and representation of nature emerged in all forms of art in the fifteenth century. Codex Bruxellensis IV was copied onto paper. Written in maroon ink by a single hand sometime in the second half of the fifteenth century in a cursive script, the copy also contains marginal annotations by at least two sixteenth-century hands. An attempted pagination was added by a seventeenth-century hand. At some point in its history, one owner added dried samples of plants within its leaves. Facsimile edition of two thousand copies. The University of Utah copy is no. 316.


Tacuinum sanitatis/enchiridion virtutum vegetablilium, animalium, mineralium rerumque omnium: explicans naturam, iuvamentum, nocumentum remotionemque nocumentoru[m] eorum/ authore anonymo
Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1984 RS79 T33 1984

Facsimile. Venice, 1490. Tacuinum Sanitatis (Handbook of Health) is the modern title given to one of the most popular treatises on medicine during the later Middle Ages. It combines Arabic and western knowledge on many types of foods, plants, and circumstances, with particular reference to their useful and harmful properties, and how the latter could be cured if necessary. The illustrated versions of this text yield much information on medieval daily life. The manuscript is comprised of 82 leaves, with four miniatures per page, a total of 294 miniatures. The captions or text are based on the Taqwin al-sihhah of Ibn Butlan (d. 1066), which was unillustrated. Ibn Butlan, originally from Baghdad, visited Cairo about 1049, after which he went to Constantinople before settling at Antioch in Syria and becoming a Nestorian monk. Facsimile edition of nine hundred and eighty copies, numbered.

Photographs of people by Andrew McAllister/Caine College of the Arts, Utah State University

Digital scans of books by Scott Beadles/Department of Art, University of Utah

Special thanks to our colleague Jennifer Duncan, Head of Special Collections, Book Curator, Merrill Cazier Library, Utah State University.

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Book of the Week — Godescalc Evangelistary

22 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Book of the Week — Godescalc Evangelistary

Tags

Aachen, baptism, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Byzantine, Carolingian illumination, Charlemagne, Christ, Christ in Majesty, Christian, Darmstadt, divine, evangelists, Fountain of Life, Godescalc, Godescalc Evangelistary, gold, Gospel, Hildegard, Insular, Italy, lectionary, medieval, miniscule, nature, Pepin, Pope Adrian, Primus, script, scriptorium, silver, stars

ND3359-G55-C75-2011-titleND3359-G55-C75-2011-pg54spread

“Golden words are painted [here] on purple pages,
The Thunderer’s shining kingdoms of the starry heavens,
Revealed in rose-red blood, disclose the joys of heaven,
And the eloquence of God glittering with fitting brilliance
Promises the splendid rewards of martyrdom to be gained.”

GODESCALC EVANGELISTARY
Darmstadt: Primus, 2011

Facsimile. The Godescalc Evangelistary was commissioned by Charlemagne and his wife Hildegard. Written by the scribe Godescalc, it was produced in the court scriptorium at Aachen between 781 and 783. The lectionary was made to commemorate Charlemagne’s march to Italy, his meeting with Pope Adrian, and the baptism of his son Pepin. The dedication poem includes details of Charlemagne’s march and is signed by the scribe. Charlemagne and Hildegard are both mentioned at the end of the manuscript as its patrons.

The Godescalc Evangelistary is the earliest known example of Carolingian illumination, a fusion of Insular, early Christian, and Byzantine styles. The artist used elaborate shadings in light and dark to give the figures depth. The codex is decorated with four full-page miniatures of the Evangelists, all placed at the opening of the book. Two additional full-page miniatures depict Christ in Majesty and the Fountain of Life. The Gospel readings are written in gold and silver ink.

The poem compare’s the book’s gold and silver with the stars, indicating the early medieval belief that the written words directly reflect Christ’s divine nature – the word made flesh.

This was the earliest style to use miniscule script as a regular element of the script. The script is on a purple background within framed embellishments.

The Godescalc Evangelistary is now preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. Facsimile binding with debossed Charlemagne monogram. Binding is hand-sewn according to the original foliation of the manuscript and attached to the book block through a traditional bookbinding process. Facsimile edition of 98 copies in Arabic numbers and XX copies in roman numbers.

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Book of the week – De rerum natura

04 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Book of the week – De rerum natura

Tags

afterlife, Alexander Pope, biblical, blind-tooled, blindstamped, body, British, Cambridge, Church of England, classics, Constance, De rerum natura, decoration, engraved, Epicurus, fire, folio, French Revolution, frontispiece, Fulda, Germany, Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini, Gilbert Wakefield, gilt, gods, government, Greek, Hamilton, Homer, Horace, Jesus College, Londini, Lucretius, mathematics, ministry, morocco, mortal, nature, New Testament, pamphlets, poem, poet, portrait, punishment, rules, scholar, soul, Titus Lucretius Carus, tragedies, Tuscan, Unitarian, vicar, Virgil, Wa, Wakefield, world

PA6482-A2-1796-v.1-portraitPA6482-A2-1796-v.1-titlePA6482-A2-1796-v.1-pg1

DE RERUM NATURA LIBROS SEX, AD EXEMPLARIUM…
Titus Lucretius Carus (ca. 99 BCE – ca. 55 BCE)
Londini: Impensis editoris, typis A. Hamilton, 1796-7
PA6482 A2 1796 oversize

De Rerum Natura is the only surviving work of Lucretius. Only one manuscript copy of it is known to exist. This manuscript was found in 1417 in a monastery at Fulda in Germany by Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini, a Tuscan secretary to a church general council at Constance.

It is a didactic poem of 7,400 lines in six books, in which the poet expounds on the world view of the ancient Greek philosopher, Epicurus. The object was to abolish belief that the gods intervened in the world and that the soul could experience punishment in an afterlife. Lucretius demonstrated that the world is, instead, governed by mechanical laws of nature. He described the soul as mortal and posited that it perishes with the body.

This is the first edition of the “Wakefield” edition, the edition by Gilbert Wakefield (1756-1801). Wakefield was a biblical scholar. The son of a vicar, he entered Jesus College, Cambridge, through a scholarship. He studied mathematics and the classics. Although he took orders, he left the ministry and the Church of England and became a Unitarian. He earned his living as a tutor while writing controversial pamphlets attacking the government. He was imprisoned for two years for the publication of a pamphlet titled, “A Reply to some Parts of the Bishop of Landoff’s Address,” in which he defended the French Revolution. To support himself, he published a translation of the New Testament (1792), companion editions to Horace (1794) and Virgil (1796), an edition with commentary of Greek tragedies (1794), an annotated edition of Alexander Pope’s Homer (1796), and this, his Lucretius. He published his De Rerum Natura at his own expense.

The book established Wakefield as a leading British scholar. The large paper, folio edition was mostly destroyed by a fire in the printing-office in which they were stored.

Engraved portrait of Gilbert Wakefield on frontispiece. Bound in contemporary straight-grained black morocco, panelled covers with broad blind-tooled borders and gilt edges, spine with broad gilt rules and blindstamped decoration. Edition of fifty copies.

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Book of the Week – Walden; or, Life in the Woods

19 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Book of the Week – Walden; or, Life in the Woods

Tags

American, Baker-Andrew, Boston, engraved, environmentalism, first edition, Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), individualism, John G. Chandler, lithography, nature, S. W. Chandler & Bro., Samuel W. Chandler, self-reliance, Sophia E. Thoreau (1819-1876), Ticknor and Fields, title page, vignette, Walden, Walden Pond, wood engraving

PS3048-A1-1854-TitlePageWALDEN; OR, LIFE IN THE WOODS
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854
First edition
PS3048 A1 1854

Embraced today as a precursor of the modern environmentalist movement, Walden is one of the most celebrated examples of American individualism and self-reliance. Thoreau’s writing emphasizes an appreciation of nature for itself rather than as a resource to be exploited – a sharp departure from the prevailing economic and religious views of the period. The engraved plan of Walden Pond inserted at page 307 was drawn by Thoreau, a professional surveyor, and lithographed by S. W. Chandler & Bro. (Samuel W. & John G. Chandler) of Boston. The vignette of Thoreau’s hut on the title-page was engraved in wood by the firm of Baker-Andrew after a sketch by Sophia E. Thoreau (1819-1876), the author’s youngest sister. Sophia adored her brother, encouraging and aiding him during his lifetime and later serving as his literary executor. Unfortunately, as an artist she was not particularly talented. Her sketch has been condemned as a feeble version of the actual structure. Eight pages of publisher’s ads (dated May, 1854) inserted between back endpapers. Original brown vertically-ribbed cloth, stamped in blind, spine ruled in blind and lettered in gilt. Original yellow coated endpapers. Edition of two thousand copies.

alluNeedSingleLine

Share this:

  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Rare Books goes to Berlin

27 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Publication

≈ Comments Off on Rare Books goes to Berlin

Tags

American, art history, Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe, Avery Coonley, Chicago, Clarence A. Fuermanns, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, European modernism, Frank Lloyd Wright, graphic arts, Great Plains, Günter and Elisabet Hildebrand, Johannes Krause, Kunstetexte, Lichtbildnerei– wir sind Babel, modern art, nature, Oak Park, photography, Prairie Style, preservation, rare books, Richard Neutra, Stuttgart, twentieth century architecture, Wasmuth

Wright

Congratulations to Johannes Krause on the publication of his article “The Nature of Photography: Zu Frank Lloyd Wright’s Konstruktion des Prairie Style mithilfe der publizierten Architekturfotografien Clarence A. Fuermanns,” in Kunstetext.de. For the article, Mr. Krause used digital scans from Rare Books copy of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe.

About the author:
Johannes Krause graduated from Eberhard Karls University Tübingen with a degree in Art History and General Rhetorics in 2015 (Magister Artium). As a co-founder of the Stuttgart offspace gallery Lichtbildnerei– wir sind Babel, he assumed technical and curatorial supervision for exhibitions of contemporary photography and graphic arts between 2008 and 2012 (Eckensteher: street photography in Stuttgart, 2012). In his Magister thesis he worked on the artistic estate of the painters Günter and Elisabet Hildebrand and compiled a preliminary catalogue raisonné. Additionally, he also works as a certified Foto-Designer (FFS). His further research interests encompass cultural transfer in modern art and the preservation of twentieth century architecture.

Article abstract:
“The Nature of Photography: Zu Frank Lloyd Wright’s Konstruktion des Prairie Style mithilfe der publizierten Architekturfotografien Clarence A. Fuermanns”

American Landscape is a constant strand in Frank Lloyd Wright’s early publications on his Prairie Style. According to Wright, the new, natural homes’ formal elements were deduced from the pictorial notion of the Great Plains. Thus, Wright could advertise his and the “New School of the Middle West’s” architecture as truthful to the American Spirit. Its transatlantic impact on European modernism has been subject to numerous research. It becomes apparent that only by skillfully reinforcing these connotations through his publications of both words and images, photographical as well as hand drawn, Wright was able to maintain the natural character of his Prairie Houses. So readers of his 1911 “Wasmuth” volumes could assume the buildings were situated in an “open, wind-blown landscape” (Richard Neutra), although they actually stood on crowded lots in suburbs like Oak Park. Interestingly enough, these carefully constructed images became alive and lived through photography’s triumph of becoming the key medium of architectural representation. This article examines Wright’s editorial strategies in preparation of his Ausgeführte Bauten (1911) and emphasizes his cooperation with Chicago photographer Clarence Albert Fuermann. The photographs of Avery Coonley House can be used as an example of how they both expanded the boundaries of 1900’s professional photography. In close reading of Wright’s early writings and in recourse to his transcendentalist ardor it is possible to introduce/propose a concept of ‘organic photography’ as a comprehension of the intrinsic nature of photography. As it turns out, Wright’s published photographs represent much more than neutral, factual documents of architectural quality: they have been subtly used to emotionally address and visually guide the beholder towards a carefully constructed, persuading image of Prairie Style architecture.

WrightSign

Wright2

alluNeedSingleLine

Share this:

  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Book of the Week – Notes on the State of Virginia

19 Tuesday Aug 2014

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Book of the Week – Notes on the State of Virginia

Tags

Comte de Buffon, deportation, education, emancipation, Enlightenment, geography, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Indian tribes, liberty, map, Mathew Carey, nature, New World, patriotism, Philadelphia, Samuel Lewis, slavery, slaves, Thomas Jefferson, United States of America, Virginia


Notes on the State of Virginia
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
Philadelphia: Printed for Mathew Carey, 1794
Second American edition

The second American edition of Notes included a large folding map of Virginia made by Samuel Lewis not in the first edition and a folding chart listing Indian tribes. Written in the form of answers to questions about Virginia, Notes contains information about the geography and social and political life of Virginia. Jefferson also used it as a forum for patriotism, expressing great optimism in regard to the future of the fledgling United States of America.

He supported this argument with a dissertation about the nature of the good society as reflected in his home state of Virginia. He discussed constitutional principles such as the separation of church and state, the importance of the system of checks and balances in a constitutional government and the need and right for individual liberty.

Jefferson passionately refuted a theory posited by the contemporary French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788), who stated that nature – plant life, animal life and human life – degenerated in the New World.

In two different chapters, Jefferson discussed slavery, with tortuous attempts to explain and justify American slavery. Jefferson, in fact, held sway with contemporary Enlightenment belief that blacks were inferior to whites (whites were more beautiful and more intelligent). He argued for the mass deportation of slaves toward the common good of whites and blacks, slavery being demoralizing to both races. He suggested education and emancipation for slaves, and then colonization of emancipated slave children outside of the United States. Very outside, in fact. He did not suggest that they colonize any part of the North American continent.

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Follow Open Book via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 172 other subscribers

Archives

  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • September 2011
  • April 2011

Categories

  • Alice
  • Awards
  • Book of the Week
  • Chronicle
  • Courses
  • Donations
  • Events
  • Journal Articles
  • Newspaper Articles
  • On Jon's Desk
  • Online Exhibitions
  • Physical Exhibitions
  • Publication
  • Radio
  • Rare Books Loans
  • Recommended Exhibition
  • Recommended Lecture
  • Recommended Reading
  • Recommended Workshop
  • TV News
  • Uncategorized
  • Vesalius
  • Video

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
  • RSS - Posts

Recent Posts

  • Book of the Week — Home Thoughts from Abroad
  • Donation adds to Latin hymn fragments: “He himself shall come and shall make us saved.”
  • Medieval Latin Hymn Fragment: “And whatever with bonds you shall have bound upon earth will be bound strongly in heaven.”
  • Books of the week — Off with her head!
  • Medieval Latin Hymn Fragment, Part D: “…of the holy found rest through him.”

Recent Comments

  • rarebooks on Medieval Latin Hymn Fragment: “Her mother ordered the dancing girl…”
  • Jonathan Bingham on On Jon’s Desk: Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, A Celebration of Heritage on Pioneer Day
  • Robin Booth on On Jon’s Desk: Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, A Celebration of Heritage on Pioneer Day
  • Mary Johnson on Memorial Day 2017
  • Collett on Book of the Week — Dictionnaire des Proverbes Francais

Proudly powered by WordPress Theme: Chateau by Ignacio Ricci.

 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.

    %d bloggers like this: