Commonplace book (8 Ergebnisse)

4to. French manuscript on paper. 68, 37 (but: 38) pp. Contemporary full cloth with blank spine-label. Extracts from the works of great philosophers, writers and historical personalities, jointly composed by several hands, probably bound together soon after completion. Includes passages from Seneca quoted by C. A. Demoustier in his "Cours de Morale" (1804), Esprit Flechier's "Oraison funèbre de Monsieur de Turenne" (1676), and Chateaubriand's "Martyrs" (1809), as well as an extract from the Gazette de France from 9 April 1808 about the writer Germaine de Stael (1766-1817). Other sources include Voltaire, Jean-Baptiste Massillon, Fréderic César de La Harpe, Marie Jeanne Riccoboni, Jacques Necker, François de Neufchâteau, Jean-François Marmontel, and the Marquis de Bonnay. With the transcript of a description of Prince Potemkin given by Catherine the Great in one of her letters edited by Madame de Stael, as well as a "Recette de faire une Tragédie moderne" by Monsieur Hayley. - Some corrections and deletions. Binding a little soiled. Paper occasionally browned and brownstained; a few marginal tears rebacked with paper. An uncommon survival reflecting the reading habits of what appears to have been a group of students.…

4to (172 x 202 mm). German manuscript on paper by various hands. 298 written pp. on 180 ff. (including flyleaves). Contemporary half calf over marbled boards. An extensive German commonplace book, continuously expanded for nearly a century by a family of merchants, farmers, and mariners, one of whom sailed to Virginia on the HMS Lion to join the fleet of Admiral Cornwallis, probably in 1779 during the American Revolutionary War. - The first part (comprising some 40 ff.) offers an anthology of maxims, aphorisms, and anecdotes about the Vienna Court Theatre, about Garrick and Hogarth, King George III and Voltaire, etc., apparently mainly compiled in the 18th century, with a few later additions by other hands. The second part, begun by the same writer and considerably expanded by several later owners of the book, contains a vast miscellany of historical and historico-cultural themes. Items include a piece about verbal responses to sneezing, another about wigs and elaborate hairstyles throughout history, about the history of playing cards; and tables for housewives with which to calculate their annual expenses. Later entries focus more strongly on household remedies against illnesses (such as cholera and dropsy) and agricultural advice (how to get rid of weevils, how to increase the fertility of fruit trees). - Occasionally, the notes will provide a more immediate glimpse of the life of the writer: underneath a discussion of how to calculate the deadweight tonnage of a ship of 100 cannons with a crew of 1000 men, an early 19th century owner who signs his name "Bindseil" states that he himself "sailed on an English ship of the 2nd line, blue flag, of 64 cannons, named Lion, under Captain Fox, which was taking us to the English general Cornwallis in Virginia. On this ship were 1375 souls, 4 live oxen, 12 large pigs, the same number of rams, and 4 horses, which are not taken into account by the above calculation, as little as the minimum two anchors are, each of which weighs some 600 pounds and yet is quite indispensable [.]" (transl.). Not infrequently, an entry will cite the source from which it is drawn: newspapers and journals mentioned include the "Hamburgischer Correspondent", "Holzmindisches Wochenblatt", "Hannoverscher Anzeiger" and "Braunschweigische Zeitung", pointing to a Northern German origin. - Occasional light brownstaining; binding somewhat rubbed. A fine survival worthy of detailed study.…

Handcolored scene of two children tending a sick dog within scalloped window on upper cover, chromolithograph pictorial sentiments on inside front cover and interior lid. Six printed sentiments (colored), one with embossed gilt floral decorations. 23 autograph verse quotations and sentiments in ink, in various neat hands, including two love poems (one with a colored floral border and one with a pencil portrait of a young man). 1 vols. Obling 16mo. Charming and decorative mind-nineteenth-century German album of sentiments, most dated variously between 1852 and 1854. On the verso of a poem headed Trennung (Separation) and inscribed "Tobis seiner liebsten Anna" is a portait of a pensive young man and the caption "Jetzt bin ich's nicht mehr." One other note is signed and dated, "Anna Hehrner, im Weingarten, den 13 Mai 1862". Green velvet book book box with gilt-metal ornamental borders and corner pieces. Some minor rubbing. Contents generally fine Handcolored scene of two children tending a sick dog within scalloped window on upper cover, chromolithograph pictorial sentiments on inside front cover and interior lid. Six printed sentiments (colored), one with embossed gilt floral decorations. 23 autograph verse quotations and sentiments in ink, in various neat hands, including two love poems (one with a colored floral border and one with a pencil portrait of a young man). 1 vols. Obling 16mo. Signed. …

manuscript in ink on paper, in 2, or 3, hands beginning at both ends, paper watermarked 1853, small pencil vignette on rear fly-leaf, pp. [56], [78], with numerous blanks between, 8vo, original roan backed boards, spine lettered in gilt 'MSS', a little rubbed and worn, headcaps defective, but solid. A curious common-place book, in that it seems to be a combined operation, with the passages at the beginning being of a mainly religious nature, and apparently written by a woman, while those at the end are apparently the work of a man, and mainly light hearted (first text: A Bachelor's Soliloquy). At the front, most of the named authors are women (Jane Taylor and Anne Gilbert favourites), while those at the back are are men (Longfellow a favourite). At the front, one extract is a sermon by Rev. Thomas Stratten, of the Fish Street Congregational Church in Hull. Stratten was a graduate of Hoxton College. A vessel bearing his name was sunk by a U-boat mine off the Butt of Lewis in 1917. …

French manuscript in ink on paper (the hand is sometimes hard to read, but generally yields), several 'cahiers', lettered A-L (but not in date order), followed by a number of leaves with pencil drawings, a few leaves excised; c. [ff.] 250, folio; contemporary vellum over boards, using an old MS, splits in upper joint, about half the vellum torn off lower cover. An intriguing manuscript, part text, part illustration. It is not clear whether this intriguing manuscript is a school exercise book, or the work of an autodidact: the period of time taken to write the various parts suggests the latter. The first 3 'cahiers' - roughly half the text contents of the volume - comprise extracts from l'Encyclopédie, with a few interpolations from other sources, such as Voltaire. The later notebooks are thematically arranged: Freemasons, 'phrases détachées' from 'Déisme réfuté', and mathematics (including dialling, these with diagrams). The 'Cahier de lettres', has numerous examples of formal epistolary style, and the last - 'Manuel de santé' - contains definitions and cures. The final section is a series of pencil drawings (on different paper), which are charming if somewhat naive. Hinard took the pains to sign some of them, these ones being character studies and caricatures - in the latter category 'Un anglais à Paris', a stout man, apparently oblivious to his surroundings, with a huge umbrella tucked under his left arm. Other subjects include French historical figures (from statues, &c) including a sketch of Napoleon at St. Cyr. The last several represent characters and scenes from French classical drama (Molière, Racine), with appropriate quotations from the plays. Perhaps the most interesting, and as it happens best executed, is 'Turner peintre de marine': 'mort 1851' which seems to have been added later. It shows Turner somewhat advanced in years; as in Edward Bird's depiction of him in the British Museum (1819). While Bird's likeliness of the great painter takes the form of a bust; here, he is standing by an easel, brush and palette in hand. …

Full sheep embossed in blind with gilt to front board, measuring 200 x 160mm and comprised of 155 manuscript pages. A gift inscription to the front pastedown reads "Frances Phoebe Newton, A Present from her Mother, Mrs. A. Morley. July 31st, 1841." On the first page, Phoebe has created a formal title page: "Phoebe Newton's Album. July 31st, 1841." A dense and research-rich piece, in which a young woman documents her reading from a variety of sources including collections of poetry, popular magazines and circulars, church sermons, and oral stories within her community. Potential projects include but are not limited to Victorian reading practices, women's reading, the intersection of popular and evangelical literatures, genealogy, and paleaography. Within her commonplace book, Phoebe gravitates toward poetry and short anecdotes in which the narrating voice calmly uses rhetoric and logic to undermine non-believers or convert doubters. Her faith is the underlying basis for each selection -- even when celebrating a royal marriage or waxing on Queen Victoria's leadership. Early selections such as Doctor Watts and Collins the Freethinker focus on how Christians unshaken in their faith can lead by calm example, responding to criticism or even outright scorn by gesturing to the value of their interior relationship to God rather than to any external possessions. Doctor Watts, for example, responds to a coffeehouse stranger's "contempt at his diminutive appearance" with a short verse concluding "I must be measured by my soul -- The mind's the standard of the man." Similarly, Collins the Freethinker "once met a plain countryman going to church" and attempted to confound him by asking about God's size. The countryman's participation in the dialogue -- and his embrace of contradiction -- impress and convert the Freethinker. "He is so great that the heaven of heaven cannot contain Him; and so little that He can dwell in my heart." In this sense, Phoebe reveals in addition to her evangelical beliefs an attraction to literary realism. Rather than gravitating to soaring sentimentalism and romance, the works gathered here often rely on dialogue and daily settings, presenting a realistic world with idealized social outcomes. Phoebe's selections come from a variety of sources, which speaks to the array of material she had contact with. Some uncredited pieces appear to be stories from sermons or overheard among family. Many include Victorian writers such as Cowper and Toplady. Still others come from popular regional magazines such as the Norfolk Chronicle and the Gospel Standard. More work could be done to identify where she and her family resided and what schooling she had access to. Additional work could be done on at least one other hand in the book, several times signed John Newton and potentially her husband (given that her mother, Mrs. Morley, gifts her the book under the name Newton).…

Comprised of 7 pages in ink in a single hand, containing six works of poetry. Dark blue printed wraps over lined paper, measuring 7x 6 inches. Ownership signature of Mrs. Russell to header of front wrap. Scattered foxing and some dampstaining not affecting text. Text block loose but holding. In all, an intriguing glimpse into a woman's use of literature to express her own preoccupations with humans' place between nature and the divine. The six poems contained in this slim volume appear to have been thoughtfully selected and carefully copied out. Indeed, among them exist several thematic threads that teach us about the elusive Mrs. Russell, who leaves no identifying information except her ownership signature. The first poem, The Silent Expression of Nature, first appeared in the religious collection Musae Biblicae (1819) before being reprinted in Pierpont's National Reader of 1829, which was designed to provide teachers with reading exercises in class and copy exercises out of class. From its opening line, it places the narrator and reader at the center of the earth and heavens, emphasizing how nature moves before "my wondering eyes," "fills my heart," and "around me falls." Not copied in full, the opening selection of the poem emphasizes the senses in these lines, and encourages the individual to experience the cosmos. The second work, titled simply Hymn, is drawn from John Bowring's 1823 Matins and Vespers, critiqued the same year by the Monthly Review which praised its "sentiments as pure and excellent, and the language is elegant and often poetical," though the editors note "we could have wished for the occasional display of a higher spirit" (Griffiths). The poem in question is pulled out as an example of a more simplistic, childlike poem of wonder. Indeed, it shows the narrator turning to the reliable comfort of sunrise and sunset to push away existential doubts. Notably, Blue Stocking Anna Laetitia Barbauld's poem Tomorrow (1773) is included within the selection. While Baurbauld had herself written a poem in praise of Bowring, this particular piece undercuts the sentiments of his, warning the reader not to trust nature because while the sun rises and sets, no individual lives to see the process without end. Across the selections, one experiences a push and pull of humanity between nature and the divine. One also sees the carefully formed letters created by Mrs. Russell, and the care she has placed into copying out these specific pieces. With research possibilities including but not limited to paleography, gender studies, poetic publication and transmission, the role of Blue Stocking writers within the poetic community, and the use of literature to explore science and theology. …

Manuscript in ink on paper watermarked J. Kool & Comp (see below) in a single, neat, extraordinarily regular and legible sloping copper-plate hand, inner margins ruled in red, the play, and succeeding pieces, in double columns with a double red rule dividing them, one section with top outer corners sliced off, the paper in the latter part shorter at the outer margin, textblock nearly split at centre, pp. 90, [65], folio, contemporary, non-professional, half calf over canvas covered boards, some abrasions, text block edged a bit forward, detached from headbands but by no means loose, good. Commonplace Book is perhaps not entirely apposite in describing this intriguing volume. Rather, it would seem to be an exercise book for a Dutch person perfecting their English (the English is pretty good, good Regency English, but it sometimes goes awry). The paper is Dutch, J. Kool & Comp being paper makers not far from Amsterdam, who flourished 1774-1836; the handwriting might be from any date within the period, but the mid-point seems about right. People and places are usually introduced just with an initial, but the people often have a 'van' or 'van der' before the initial, and the places have Burgomasters. All this suggests a Dutch provenance, and though literarily and calligraphically accomplished, the 'primitive' binding lends the volume a rather charming domesticity. Contents:- "Squire van Roderycke or a Double Murder Discovered by the Title of a Comedy." Pages 1-27. "The Blue Horseman and his Family or a Process of Singular Connexion Resolve by the Final Discovery of a Capital Crime." Pages 27-56. "The Coach Man James or a Remarkable Instance of Possible Innocence Notwithstanding an Accumulation of Apparent Charges." Pages 56-72. "The Enigmatical Stranger or Remarkable Discovery of a Committed Murderer after a Lapse of Eleven Years." Pages 73-90. "Fables." Eight fables, with moral instructions; at least one, "The Dog and the Wolf," is from Aesop. The others are: "The Cock and the Precious Stone"; "The Lion and the Rat"; "The Fox and the Wolf"; "The Dog, the Cock and the Fox"; "A Countryman and His Children"; "The Animals"; and "The Two Foxes." Pages [91-97]. "Tales." Eight instructive anecdotes and sketches: "The Released Galley Slave"; "Alphonsus, King of Naples and His Bufoon"; "Filial Love"; "The Innocent Treason"; "The Algerine Slave"; "The Discovery of the Island of Madeira"; "On Human Distresses"; and "Magnanimity and Gratitude." Pages [97-109]. "The Mathematicians or the Eloped Lady." A play in double columns. Pages [111-128]. "Peter, A German Tale." From the French of Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian. In double columns with the French and English versions side-by-side. Pages [129-140]. Not the translations published by T. Becket, 1786 (ESTC N25864: 1 copy in the UK, Bristol; and 4 in Noth America). "Sophronimus, a Grecian Tale." From the French of De Florian. In double columns with the French and English versions side-by-side. Pages [141-155]. A curious mixture then of the improving, and the Gothic.…