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Tag Archives: Virgil

Virtue and Knowledge

14 Thursday Sep 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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Alexander the Great Gualterus de Castellione, allegory, battle, Biblioteca Angelica, Boccaccio, Boethius, Bolognese, Bosone da Gubbio, Campaldino, canticle, Canto, Christian, Cicero, Dante Alighieri, destiny, dialect, Europe, exile, facsimile, Florence, gold, Guelphs, hand-treated paper, hell, Holy Trinity, Italian, Jacopo Alighieri, Latin, littera textualis, manuscript, medieval, miniature, paradise, Petrarch, philosopher, poem, poet, purgatory, scribe, soldier, song, tanned leather, tercets, terza rima, The Divine Comedy, Thomas Aquinas, tripartite stanza, Tuscan, vernacular, Virgil

PQ4301-A1-2016-Devil

“Consider your origin. You were not formed to live like brutes but to follow virtue and knowledge.”

La Divina Commedia Angelica
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
Castel Guelfo di Bologna, Italy: Imago la Nobilita del Facsimile, 2016
PQ4301 A1 2016

Facsimile. MS1102 from the Biblioteca Angelica, this late fourteenth century Bolognese codex contains The Divine Comedy, commentary by Jacopo Alighieri and Bosone da Gubbio, and a fragment of a poem written by Alexander the Great Gualterus de Castellione. Each of the Cantos are introduced with a miniature depicting the contents of the song. Thirty-four other miniatures depict scenes from hell in bright colors on a gold background. The manuscript is incomplete. Empty spaces were left for miniatures for the songs of “Paradiso” and “Purgatorio.” It is likely that only one scribe is responsible for the text. The script hand is littera textualis. The facsimile has hand applied gold leaf before each canticle on hand-treated paper. The binding is hand stitched in a naturally tanned leather.

Dante Alighieri, born in Florence, to a notable family but of modest means, was an Italian poet and philosopher. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy), a medieval Christian allegory of man’s temporal and eternal destiny. The poet draws on his own experience of exile from his native city, in which he encounters hell, purgatory, and paradise. Along the way, the poet offers analysis of contemporary problems and spiritual wisdom through inventive linguistic imagery. Dante wrote his epic poem in the vivid Italian vernacular, rather than Latin, using primarily a Tuscan dialect which became the literary language in western Europe for centuries. Dante’s use of the vernacular opened his work to an audience broader than the academy.

Dante was classically trained and drew on the works of Virgil, Cicero, Boethius and others for his philosophical thinking. He was also well aware of more contemporary writers such as Thomas Aquinas. A soldier, he fought in the ranks at the battle of Campaldino in 1289 on the side of the Guelphs — a battle instrumental in the reformation of the Florentine constitution.

Dante is credited with inventing terza rima, composed of tercets woven into a linked rhyme scheme. He ended each canto of the The Divine Comedy with a single line that completes the rhyme scheme with the end-word of the second line of the preceding tercet. The tripartite stanza is symbolic with the Holy Trinity. Later Italian poets, including Boccaccio and Petrarch, followed this form.

Facsimile edition of 423 copies, 25 hors de commerce. University of Utah copy is no. 18.

PQ4301-A1-2016-Lion

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On Jon’s Desk: Vergilii Maronis Dreyzehen Bücher von dem tewren Helden Enea, Humanism, and Tying it all Together

01 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by Jonathan Bingham in On Jon's Desk

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1559, 16th Century, Aeneid, Aldus Manutius, David Zopffeln, Erasmus, Frankfurt am Main, German Translation, humanism, Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples, Jon Bingham, Lorenzo Valla, Publius Vergilius Maro, Renaissance, Thomas More, Thomas Murner, Vergilii Maronis Dreyzehen Bucher von dem tewren Helden Enea, Virgil

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“A Brief Preface to the Reader. Please note (dear friendly reader) that Virgil’s books of the Aeneid were translated into German many years ago by an educated man and were published. Here they are again, newly printed, corrected in many places, the printing improved, and every book having its own beautiful illustration attached to it. You can see this for yourself while reading, more than I can quickly show or tell you. Herewith are Almighty God’s commands obeyed.”

– David Zöpffeln, Preface to Virgil’s Thirteen Books of the Hero Aeneas, 1559

Title: Vergilii Maronis Dreyzehen Bücher von dem tewren Helden Enea

Author: Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil)

Translated (Latin to German): Thomas Murner (1475 – 1537)

Printed: Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Printed by David Zöpffeln, 1559

Call Number: PA6811 A5 M8

 

We have many important historical contributions to thank the humanists for. This delightful version of Virgil’s Aeneid in German is one of them. Printed in 1559 by David Zöpffeln in Frankfurt using Thomas Murner’s 1515 translation, this palm-size treasure is a combination of several exciting 16th century developments. Holding it in your hand is like having a piece of the Renaissance all to yourself. Sometimes I feel Humanism gets too much hype; that putting the humanist movement on a pedestal risks overlooking a thousand years of important history. Yet if there is one way to convince me how fantastic the humanists were it would be to hand me a copy of Vergilii Maronis Dreyzehen Bücher von dem tewren Helden Enea.

What makes this book special? First, it is Virgil’s Aeneid. Second, it is Thomas Murner’s German translation. Third, it represents a culmination of Renaissance philosophical thinking that occurred in Europe during the 16th century. Let’s break this down.

Who was Virgil? Publius Vergilius Maro (70 – 19 BCE) was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period and is traditionally ranked as one of Rome’s greatest poets. He wrote three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid. The Aeneid has been considered the national epic of ancient Rome since the time of its composition and is considered Virgil’s finest work and one of the most important poems in the history of western literature. Virgil worked on the Aeneid during the last eleven years of his life, commissioned, according to Sextus Propertius (a Latin elegiac poet of the Augustan age), by Augustus (born Gaius Octavius, great nephew of Julius Caesar, founder of the Roman Principate and considered the first Roman emperor). Modeled after Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the Aeneid follows the Trojan refugee Aeneas as he struggles to fulfill his destiny and reach Italy –where his descendants Romulus and Remus were to found the city of Rome. Virgil’s work has had wide and deep influence in Western literature, most notably Dante’s Divine Comedy, in which Virgil appears as Dante’s guide through Hell and Purgatory.

Who was Thomas Murner? He was a German satirist, poet, and translator who lived from 1475 until 1536 or 1537 (accounts differ). He was educated, a member of the Franciscan Order, and a humanist. Never turning to secularism, Murner directed his satires against the corruption of the times and the Reformation (particularly Martin Luther). His most powerful and virulent satire was Von dem grossen Lutherischen Narren wie ihn Doctor Murner beschworen hat (On the Great Lutheran Fool, 1522). In 1523 Henry VIII invited Murner to England, where his writings caught the attention of the famous humanist Thomas More. John Headley (Professor Emeritus, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ph.D. Yale University, 1960) postulates that it was Murner who first made More aware of Martin Luther’s radical ecclesiology (or theology as applied to the nature and structure of the Christian Church).

Okay, so what’s Humanism all about anyways? Humanism is an outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasize common human needs, and seek solely rational ways of solving human problems. In the Renaissance perspective, it was a cultural movement that turned away from medieval scholasticism and revived interest in ancient Greek and Roman thought. Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence (rationalism and empiricism) over acceptance of dogma or superstition.

What’s the big deal with Humanism and why is it so important? Humanism began as a revival of the study of ancient Greek and Roman texts, yet the humanists did not see themselves as being in conflict with Christianity. Some were secular leaders, but many were ordained priests. The humanists’ close study of Latin and Greek literary texts enabled them to discern important historical differences in the texts during various time periods. This was greatly aided by the influx and increased availability of many texts coming into Western Europe after the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. Humanist scholars increasingly turned to the study of Neoplatonism and Hermeticism, hoping to bridge the differences between the Greek and Roman Churches, and even between Christianity itself and the non-Christian world. The refugees from Byzantium brought with them Greek manuscripts, not only of Plato and Aristotle, but also of the early copies of the Christian Gospels, previously unavailable in the Latin West.

When the new invention of printing made these texts widely available, the Dutch humanist Erasmus (who had studied Greek at the Venetian printing house of Aldus Manutius) began a philological analysis of the Gospels in the spirit of Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457), Italian humanist, rhetorician, educator, and Catholic priest, comparing the Greek originals to their Latin translations with a view to correcting errors and discrepancies in the latter. Erasmus, along with the French humanist Jacques Lefevre d’Etaples (c. 1455–1536), began issuing new translations of important historical texts. Italian and French humanism concentrated on scholarship and philology.

That is why this 1559 edition of Vergilii Maronis Dreyzehen Bücher von dem tewren Helden Enea is so fantastic – its connection to something bigger than itself. That is what makes all of us humans so special, as the humanists realized centuries ago. We are all individually and collectively amazing, like books, because of our ability to connect to and become part of something bigger than just ourselves – yet without fearing the loss of our personalities. This palm-size copy of Virgil’s Aeneid in German has some great personality, but it is also part of something big and wonderful.

~Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

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A fine piece of early Americana and a very fine gift

20 Tuesday Dec 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Donations

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almanac, American, American Antiquarian Society, American Revolution, Americana, battles, Benjamin Franklin, bibles, bindery, books, bookstores, Boston, broadsides, Caleb Alexander, Charles River, collector, Concord, dictionaries, Dr. Ronald Rubin, English, Greek, Greek New Testament, history, independence, Isaiah Thomas, John Mill, Lexington, literature, London, Maryland, Massachusetts, medicine, music, Newburyport, newspaper, Nova Scotia, Oxford, pamphlets, paper mill, printer, printing history, rare books, Ronald Rubin, sedition, Vermont, Virgil, war, Worcester, Yale University

title

HE KAINE DIATHEKE, NOVUM TESTAMENTUM
Wigorniae, Massachusettensi: excudebat Isaias Thomas, Jun, 1800
Editio Prima Americana

This is the first American printing of the Greek New Testament, considered a milestone in American printing history.

Isaiah Thomas’ printing shop was dubbed “the sedition factory,” during the American Revolution. Thomas moved his press from Boston across the Charles River to Worcester in order to avoid confiscation by British troupes. His press reassembled, Thomas remained in Worcester for the rest of his life, printing the first reports of the battles of Lexington and Concord (“Americans! – – – Liberty or Death! – – – Join or Die!”) and continuing to print until he sold his business in 1802.

Isaiah Thomas was born in Boston in 1749. Thomas was apprenticed to a printer, at the age of six, after the death of his father. He stayed for ten years, then broke his bond and headed to London, much as Benjamin Franklin had done earlier. Thomas got as far as Nova Scotia, where he stayed to print a newspaper. After six months, he was sent packing because of his anti-Stamp Act actions. After another foray, this time to the south, Thomas returned to Boston to set up his own newspaper, The Massachusetts Spy. At the same time, he began what would become a lucrative printing business, which included an almanac and the Royal American Magazine, in 1774.

After the war for independence was won, Thomas built his press into an enterprise that included a bindery, a paper mill and bookstores from Vermont to Maryland. In 1773, he established the first press in Newburyport, Massachusetts, at the request of some of its citizens. He printed books on medicine, music, history, and literature; and printed spellers, dictionaries, and bibles. Caleb Alexander (1755-1828), a graduate of Yale University, worked with Thomas as editor for his first American editions of Virgil and other works in Greek, including He kaine diatheke. Alexander based his edition on a 1707 Oxford edition by English scholar John Mill (1645-1707).

Thomas retired around 1802, about two years after his printing of He kaine diatheke. He spent the rest of his life collecting printed American works – books, pamphlets, broadsides, almanacs, and newspapers. He used these as primary sources for his History of Printing in America, published in 1810. He donated his collection to the American Antiquarian Society, an institution he organized in order to provide a home for print material from early American history.


This is the most recent of numerous gifts throughout the years from Dr. Ronald Rubin, a collector, like Isaiah Thomas, of early Americana and a very fine friend of Rare Books. Thank you, Dr. Rubin!

238-239spread

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Book of the Week — He Kaine Diatheke

04 Monday Apr 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Antoine Augereau, Aristotle, astrology, Bible, bibliographer, binding, Book of Hours, calendar, Calvin, Chartres, Christmas Eve, Cicero, classics, cosmology, Demarruello, Estienne, Euclid, France, French, Garamond, Geoffroy Tory, Gothic, Greek, Greek New Testament, Henri Estienne, heresy, heretic, Hesiod, hinges, Hippocrates, Horace, Hore beate marie, indices, initials, italic, Latin, Louvain, Lutheran, New Testament, Ovid, Paris, Paris Parlement, pressed paper boards, printing, proof sheets, Protestant, putti, R. Peter, Renaissance, repair, Robert Estienne I, Roman Catholic, signatures, Simon de Colines, Sophocles, subheadings, Terence, The University of Utah, theological, tools, typeface, typefounder, University of Paris, Virgil, woodcut

Title page

“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” — Hebrews 8:11, New King James Version

HE KAINE DIATHEKE
Paris: [Antoine Augereau for] Simon de Colines, [29 November or 22 December] 1534
BS1965 1534

This is the first Greek New Testament printed in France. Simon de Colines edited the text, using printed and manuscript sources. To save his own neck, Colines hid the involvement of the book’s printer, Protestant typefounder Antoine Augereau. Augereau was condemned as a heretic, hung, and then burned at the stake on Christmas Eve 1534, only a few days after finishing the printing of Ha Kaine Kiatheke.

In 1520, Colines married the widow of Henri Estienne, the founder of the distinguished Estienne press, and took charge of that press until Estienne’s son, Robert I, took over in 1526. Colines then set up his own shop nearby. He focused his publishing efforts on Greek and Latin classics – works by Aristotle, Cicero, Sophocles, Hesiod, Horace, Ovid, Virgil, Terence, Euclid, Hippocrates and others – works then considered the literary backbone of the civilized world. He added to the classics publications of anti-Lutheran theological writings and works by the faculty of the University of Paris. In all, Colines’ press produced at least seven hundred and fifty publications. Although not a scholar himself, he used his considerable familiarity with the Estienne publications and extended his own press to include writings on the natural sciences, cosmology, and astrology.

Colines was an important part of the development of book and reading structure in Renaissance printing. It was during this time that chapter headings, subheadings, running heads, page numbers, tables of content, indices and source notes became elemental fixtures in the publication of texts.

Pg210

Colines designed his own italic and Greek fonts and a roman typeface from which Garamond type was derived. He was one of the earliest printers to mix italic fonts with roman typefaces. During at least one of his printing projects, he worked with type designer Geoffroy Tory.

Ha Kaine Kiatheke is the first book printed in Simon de Colines’ second Greek font, including initial guide letters. The University of Utah copy has three lines (possibly an oath) written in an early hand in French and signed by “Demarruello.”

Inscription

It also contains the book plate of Calvin bibliographer R. Peter.

Pastedown

The University of Utah copy bound in contemporary tan calf blind decorated with an outer roll of foxes, winged putti, acanthus leaves and lilies, central rectangle with brazier and foliage tools.

FrontBoard

An earlier repair to the hinges of the binding revealed the following, making up the pressed paper boards: 28 leaves from Les choses co[n]tenues en ce present liure…Le contenu en ceste second partie du nouveau testament, Paris, S. de Colines 10 January 1524; and leaves from Hore beate marie [virgi]nis Secundu[m] vsum insignis ecclesia[?e] Cathedraiis Carnoten[sis]…, Paris, s.n., ca. 1511-1512.

The printed signatures found hidden in the binding appear to be proof sheets for the first Protestant French translation of the New Testament, second edition.

Leaf3

The printing of this edition was completed only months before the Paris Parlement condemned the work as heresy. Yet, the 1524 edition, due to its literary quality and scriptural analysis, served as the basis for nearly all future French versions throughout the century. Ironically, it also served as the 1550 Roman Catholic Louvain Bible.

The leaves from Hore beate…, which also formed part of the binding’s pressed boards, are from an unrecorded Latin-French Book of Hours for the use of Chartres, with a calendar for 1512-1520. The type is Gothic, printed in red and black and includes two-line woodcut initials.

Leaf2

Leaf1

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Book of the week – De rerum natura

04 Monday Jan 2016

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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.

 

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Book of the Week – THE WORKS OF VIRGIL: CONTAINING HIS PASTORALS,…

22 Tuesday Sep 2015

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Aeneas, Aeneid, Alexander Pope, Antwerp, Augustus, coats of arms, Cologne, Earl of Arundel, England, English, engraved plates, engraving, etching, Frankfurt, Great Fire of 1666, illustration, Jacob Tonson, John Dryden, London, Marcellus, Matthaus Merian, Octavia, Parliament, pastorals, patronage, Prague, Prince of Wales, subscription, Thomas Howard, translation, verse, Virgil, Wenzal Hollar (1607-1677), William III


THE WORKS OF VIRGIL: CONTAINING HIS PASTORALS,…
London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1697
First edition
PA6807 .A1 D7 1697

Translated into English verse by John Dryden. Alexander Pope called Dryden’s translation “the most noble and spirited translation I know in any language.” The book was published by subscription, a method of publishing by which the subscriber’s patronage enabled the production of particularly lavish books. In all, one hundred and one persons subscribed. For five guineas they would each have a full-page illustration in their copy with their names and coat of arms. A second subscription list went out after Dryden had completed half the translation. These subscribers paid two guineas for their copy, which did not include plates dedicated to them. Two hundred and fifty copies were added for this list. Correspondence between Dryden and Jacob Tonson reveal several arguments during the publication process. One such quarrel evolved over the desire of Tonson to dedicate the book to William III and Dryden’s refusal to do so. Tonson made sure that the engravings were adapted so that Aeneas sported a hooked nose a la William. Illustrated with one hundred and one engraved plates by Wenzel Hollar (1607-1677) as well as an engraved title-page and a full-page engraving of Virgil reciting the Marcellus passage in Aeneid Bk VI to Augustus and Octavia. Hollar, born in Prague, studied engraving in Frankfurt in 1627 with publisher Matthaus Merian. In 1633, he was working in Cologne. Under the patronage of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, he moved to England in 1637, where he taught drawing to the Prince of Wales. He fought in the ranks of the King, was captured by Parliament and escaped to Antwerp in 1644. He returned to London in 1652, where he died in poverty. A master etcher he was recognized in his own time and to this day for his work, producing nearly three thousand plates, many of which illustrated books such as this. He is best known for his etchings of London after the Great Fire of 1666. He married and had a daughter, described by a contemporary as “one of the greatest beauties I have seen.” A son died in the plague. He had several children by a second wife. Bound in contemporary speckled calf, the spine tooled in gold.

alluNeedSingleLine

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Brooke Hopkins, In Memoriam

23 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by rarebooks in Donations

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19th century, Alexander Pope, apprentice, Baltimore, Baltimore Sun, Basil Manly, Benjamin Edes, bookselling, Boston, Boston Tea Party, Brooke Hopkins, Cambridge, cartographer, Charles Manly, Childe Harold, cholera, Columbian press, compositor, Daniel Boone, Dante Alighieri, descriptive letterpress, engraved, engraved plates, engraved vignettes, Eton, Europe, Fielding Lucas, Francis Scott Key, George Gordon Byron, Greek, Henry Franci Cary, Henry St. John Bolingbroke, Homer, Horace Walpole, Iliad, initials, James Adams, John Conrad, John Dryden, John Fox, Jon Filson, Jr., Kentucky, law, letterpress, Lord Byron, M. Gustave Dore, Maine, manuscript, maps, Maryland Historical Society, Maryland Institute College of Art, melancholy, Negro suffrage, newspaper, Norwich, Ohio, pamphlets, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Convention, Peter Edes, Philadelphia, Philidelphia Library, Philip H. Nicklin, poetry, print, printer, printing, printing shop, publisher, Raleigh, rare book collections, Rare Books Division, Richard Bentley, Robert Strange, Roman Catholic, Samuel Sands, Sir Thomas Browne, Star Spangled Banner, stationer, Thomas Gray, Tory, typesetting, United States, University of Alabama, University of North Carolina, vignettes, Virgil, War of 1812, Washington Monument, William Fry, Wilmington

The staff of the Rare Books Division extends its heartfelt condolences to the family of Brooke Hopkins. Professor Hopkins was a friend of the rare book collections through his donation of several books, each of which has been used by students for research and the Rare Books staff for lectures, presentations, and exhibitions. We are ever grateful for his generous support. Thank you, Brooke. Memory eternal!

Brooke Hopkins

 

The beings of the mind are not of clay;
Essentially immortal, they create
And multiply in us a brighter ray
And more beloved existence…
–Lord Byron from Childe Harold

 

 

U Mourns Death of Beloved English Professor Brooke Hopkins

PSEUDODOXIA EPIDEMICA
Sir Thomas Browne (1605 – 1682)
London: Printed by R.W. for N. Ekins, at the Gun in Paul’s church-yard, 1658
Third edition, corrected and enlarged by the author

In this famous book, the writer and physician from Norwich demonstrated the absurdity of commonly presumed truths. Among the traditions which Thomas Browne deposed of were the beliefs that “The Elephant hath no joynts, That an Horse hath no Gall, That the Chameleon lives only by Aire, That the Ostridge digesteth Iron; That the forbidden fruit was an Apple; That our Savior never laughed, That a man have one rib lesse than a woman, That there was no Rainbowe before the flood.” University of Utah copy gift of Brooke Hopkins.

Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, 1658
Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, 1658

DESIGNS BY MR. R. BENTLEY FOR SIX POEMS
Thomas Gray (1716-1771)
London: R. Dodsley, 1753
First edition

English poet Thomas Gray was educated at Eton in Cambridge. There he met Horace Walpole, the father of the Gothic novel, and traveled with him throughout Europe. After his return to Cambridge, where he remained for most of his life, Gray lived in seclusion. Much of Gray’s poetry was tinged with melancholy. Richard Bentley (1708-1782), another friend of Walpole’s, created illustrations for several of Gray’s poems. Gray admired the drawings very much. This book contains six engraved plates, thirteen engraved vignettes, and six engraved initials by Muller and Grignon based upon designs by Robert Bentley. University of Utah copy on loan from Brooke Hopkins.

Gray, Designs by Mr. R. Bentley, 1753
Gray, Designs by Mr. R. Bentley, 1753


THE DISCOVERY, SETTLEMENT, AND PRESENT STATE OF KENTUCKE: AND AN ESSAY TOWARDS THE TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY OF THAT IMPORTANT COUNTRY; TO WHICH IS ADDED, AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING, I. THE ADVENTURES OF COL. DANIEL BOON, ONE OF THE FIRST SETTLERS, COMPREHENDING EVERY IMPORTANT OCCURRENCE IN THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF THAT PROVINCE. II. THE MINUTES OF THE PIANKASHAW COUNCIL, HELD AT POST ST. VINCENTS, APRIL 15, 1784. III. AN ACCOUNT OF THE INDIAN NATIONS INHABITING WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES…IV. THE STAGES AND DISTANCES BETWEEN PHILADELPHIA AND THE FALLS OF THE OHIO; FROM PITTSBURGH TO PENSACOLA AND SEVERAL OTHER PLACES. THE WHOLE ILLUSTRATED BY A NEW AND ACCURATE MAP OF KENTUCKE AND THE COUNTRY ADJOINING, DRAWN FROM ACTUAL SURVEYS…
John Filson (ca. 1747-1788)
Wilmington, DE: Printed by James Adams, 1784
First edition

Land speculator John Filson’s early history of Kentucky contained, among other appendices, a narrative of Daniel Boone. Filson was the first American to write about the area. The book was very popular and helped influence the decision of many to migrate to this newly opened land. A tipped-in map is missing in most copies, as it is in this one. The map is so rare that antiquarians began to suspect that there never was one, in spite of reference to it on the title page. However, the Philadelphia Library has a copy with map intact. The map, drawn by Filson, was printed separately in Philadelphia. Filson was killed by Indians of the Ohio. University of Utah copy gift of Brooke Hopkins.

Filson, The Discovery…,1784
Filson, The Discovery…,1784
Filson, The Discovery…,1784


AN ESSAY ON MAN: IN FOUR EPISTLES TO H. ST. JOHN, LORD BOLINGBROKE
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
New York: Printed and sold by Smith & Forman, 1809

Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man, first published in 1733, was a philosophical work consisting of four epistles in couplets and addressed to his friend, Henry St. John Bolingbroke, head of the Tory ministry. University of Utah copy gift of Brooke Hopkins.

Pope, An Essay on Man, 1809
Pope, An Essay on Man, 1809
Pope, An Essay on Man, 1809


THE ILIAD OF HOMER TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK BY ALEXANDER POPE
Homer
Baltimore: Philip H. Nicklin, 1812

Stationer Philip H. Nicklin (1786-1842) studied law. Due to financial difficulties after the death of his father in 1807, Nicklin began selling books, first in Baltimore then in Philadelphia. After 1827, he confined his bookshop’s inventory to law. He retired in 1839, having earned enough money to live out his life in comfort. He occupied the rest of his short life with writing, mostly about literary copyright. This book, although sold from Baltimore, was printed in Philadelphia by Fry and Kammerer. William Fry (d. 1854) formed a printing partnership with Joseph L. Kammerer in 1806. Fry was a well-respected pressman, compositor and proof-reader. Fry and Kammerer separated in 1810, but renewed their joint printing efforts a year later. In 1814, Kammerer died. Fry was the first to use the newly developed Columbian press, and ordered several of them for his large print shop. Added title-page engraved. University of Utah copy gift of Brooke Hopkins.

Pope, An Essay on Man, 1809
Pope, An Essay on Man, 1809


THE POETICAL WORKS OF LORD BYRON…: CONTAINING ALL HIS POEMS, ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATED, FROM THE LATEST EDITIONS
George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)
Baltimore: B. Edes, 1814

Benjamin Edes, the son and grandson of printers from Maine and Boston, continued the family business in Baltimore, where he worked as job printer and printed the newspaper, The Minerva and Emerald. Benjamin was an officer in the 27th Militia during the War of 1812 and supposedly printed the first version, in the form of handbills, of Francis Scott Key’s poem, “The Star Spangled Banner.” According to one story, the manuscript was taken to Edes’ printing shop, located on the corner of Baltimore and Gay Streets. Edes was on duty with his regiment, so the typesetting and printing was done by his apprentice, Samuel Sands, only twelve years old. Benjamin’s father, Peter Edes, moved from Boston to work for Benjamin, typesetting and keeping account books until 1832. Peter’s wife and Benjamin died that year of cholera. Peter returned to Maine, where he died in 1840. At the time of his death, according to his obituary in the Baltimore Sun, he was the oldest printer in the United States. Benjamin Edes’ grandfather, after whom he was named, participated in the Boston Tea Party. He was the printer of The Boston Gazette and Country Journal. University of Utah copy gift of Brooke Hopkins.

Byron, Poetical Works, 1814
Byron, Poetical Works, 1814
Byron, Poetical Works, 1814


THE WORKS OF VIRGIL TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE, BY JOHN DRYDEN
Virgil
Baltimore, MD: F. Lucas, Jun., 1814

Fielding Lucas, Jr. (1781-1854) was a prominent publisher and cartographer in the early 19th century. He was especially recognized for his excellently produced maps. Lucas founded his first print shop in 1804 and became the first stationer of the newly formed United States. In 1806, Lucas became a partner in the Philadelphia publisher and bookselling firm, M. & J. Conrad, which focused on schoolbooks, maps, atlases, art instruction, children’s literature and Roman Catholic religious material. Baltimore, in most part because of Lucas, became the major center for Roman Catholic publishing through the beginning of the twentieth century. Lucas was a leader in the effort to raise funds for the Washington Monument. He was a founder of the Maryland Historical Society and the Maryland Institute College of Art. Added engraved title-page printed in Philadelphia by John Conrad. University of Utah copy gift of Brooke Hopkins.

Virgil, Works, 1814
Virgil, Works, 1814
Virgil, Works, 1814


THE POETICAL WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE: IN THREE VOLUMES COMPLETE, WITH HIS LAST CORRECTIONS, ADDITIONS, AND IMPROVEMENTS, TOGETHER WITH ALL HIS NOTES AS THEY WERE DELIVERED TO THE EDITOR A LITTLE BEFORE HIS DEATH TOGETHER WITH THE COMMENTARY AND NOTES OF MR. WARBURTON
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Philadelphia: S. A. Bascom, 1819

University of Utah copy gift of Brooke Hopkins.

Pope, Poetical Works, 1819
Pope, Poetical Works, 1819


ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE ALUMNI AND THE SENIOR CLASS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA…
Charles Manly (1795-1871)
Raleigh, NC: Printed by T. Loring, 1838

A collection of miscellaneous pamphlets including, “An address delivered before the two literary societies of the University of North Carolina” by William B. Shepard; “Opinion of John Fox against the exercise of Negro suffrage in Pennsylvania, also, The vote of the members of the Pennsylvania Convention; Address of his excellency Governor Bagby: when inducting into office the president of the University of Alabama, together with The address of the president Rev. Basil Manly; An address delivered before the two literary societies of the University of North Carolina by Robert Strange; and Report of Chas. B. Shae on the drainage of the swamp lands of North Carolina. University of Utah copy gift of Brooke Hopkins.

Manly, An Address…, 1838
Manly, An Address…, 1838
Manly, An Address…, 1838


THE VISION OF HELL
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1866
New edition: with critical and explanatory notes, life of Dante, and chronology

Translated by Henry Franci Cary. Illustrated with the designs of M. Gustave Doré. Each plate accompanied by leaf with descriptive letterpress. University of Utah copy on loan from Brooke Hopkins.

Dante, The Vision of Hell, 1866
Dante, The Vision of Hell, 1866
Dante, The Vision of Hell, 1866

 

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