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The notes have the character of being source material for an unpublished scholarly work on the subject of the office of Magistrate (chief priest, lawgiver, judge, and commander of the army) in ancient Rome. Compiled in the immediate aftermath of the Napoleonic experiment, Gibelin's exmination of Diocletian's termination of republicanism in favour of autocracy for is surely significant. The author, Jacques Gibelin (1744-1828), in whose hand the volumes are written, was, at the time of composition, the librarian of the town of Aix and secretary of the town's Société Académique. He was already a prominent literary figure and had lived in Paris and England, being responsible for introducing many English scientific ideas to a French audience, having translated and published large portions of the Abridgements of the Transactions of the British Royal Society and important Enlightenment treatises by Joseph Priestley and Richard Kirwan. He also published the French translation Adam Ferguson's History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic and oversaw the first publication of the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, which appeared, in Gibelin's French translation (before the original English version) in 1791 as Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin écrits par lui-méme. The extracts in this manuscript are drawn from Herodian, Dion, Suetonius, Tacitus, Eutropius, Justinian, Plutarch, Apuleius, Orosius, Zosimus and modern commentators such as Isaac Casaubon. The compilation is made with a librarian's thoroughness, with precise references given to the editions consulted (usually giving the editor, and the place and year of publication). Loosely inserted is a printed and manuscript slip, with Gibelin's printed subscription, from the Aix Société Académique, requesting the presence of a member at a meeting on the 4th July 1827 at 6 o'clock. see full details...
Eighteenth-century Mantua was an important cultural hub and Galeotti appears to have been at the heart of its literary and musical life. His day-job was as 'Direttore delle Poste' (according to the caption of the engraved portrait opening this manuscript) but he was evidently also a prolific writer and member of various Mantuan literary societies, notably the brotherhood of the 'Timidi' who met regularly to share poetry and music. Almost all the pieces in this collection, a mixture of sonnets, 'anacreonics' (poems dealing with friendship, love and wine) and lyrics for sacred and secular music, are occasional pieces. Most were composed during the 1730s and 40s for meetings of the Mantuan Accademia (often held in the numerous city churches) and of the Timidi and also for special occasions such as the carnival, weddings and commemorative services. Explanatory titles are given to many of the pieces which, together, give a wonderfully vivid impression of Mantuan entertainments: 'Per l'Illuminatione fatta alla casa di un musico castrato nella promozione al Cardinalato di Mondignor Silvio Valenti Mantovano, sonetto'; 'Didone abandonata, Cantata per musica fatta ad instanza della Sig[no]ra Genoveffa Landini virtuosa di Camera di S.M.C.C. 22 Agosto 1740' and 'Al Carnval [sic] d'Campagna, Canzonetta; L'Amor nell'Inganno, Intermezzo per musica fra Merlina e Falchetto', and so on. Little is known about Galeotti beyond his published works, but this manuscript opens with a list of his membership of no less than 10 literary academies (including those of Rome, Naples, Siena, Ferrara and Milan) and a short octave entitled 'Descrizione dell'Autore, e suoi Uficii'. While we cannot be sure that the manuscript is in his hand, it certainly has the character of one prepared on his behalf, or perhaps for one of the societies to which he belonged. The Rime Piacevoli were first printed in 1782, at Mantua. see full details...
Though anonymous, this is perhaps a transcript of legal lectures given at the University of Caen. Of paramount interest here are laws relating to land and inheritance, by which, according to Norman custom, property passed strictly through the male line to the almost total exclusion of women. The text is divided into five parts: 1. De l’origine et de la definition des fiefes; 2. Des droites féodaux; 3. Des droits naturels; 4. Des droits accidentels; 5. Des moïens de reversion ou consolidation aux fiefs. Within these broad sections is also much of incidental interest to the social historian, including several articles on the laws of hunting, fishing and game; on the customary rights of salvage (‘Varech’) of goods washed up on the Channel coasts and on water law, concerning rivers and ditches. The work is generally theoretical in tone, but it contains very numerous references to external sources, usually giving page references. Le Grant Coustumier du pays & duché de Normandie by Guillaume Le Rouillé is cited many times (it was first published in 1534 but frequently reprinted and here referred to as ‘la nouvelle Rouillé’) as is La coustume réformée du pays et duché de Normandie by Josias Bérault. Alongside these treatises, many chapters include precise references to royal ‘arrêts’ governing the operation of customary law which had been issued in the preceding centuries. The author or copyist may have inscribed his name at the foot of the title page, but this has been carefully obscured at an early date see full details...
The manuscript includes 6 pages of finely-executed diagrams of alchemical furnaces and stills. The recipes include both ingredients and methods. At least a quarter are concerned with the central alchemical processes of transmutation and many involve metals: mainly gold, silver, mercury and the related element of antimony. These concern purification, the extractions of essences and alloying using processes such as melting and calcination (bringing about decomposition at a temperature below melting point). Others describe chemical offshoots from these processes and include practical applications for the manufacture of dyes and pigments, and of materials such as ‘malleable glass’. The medical receipts are not formally separated from the others and are interspersed throughout, as further examples of alchemical and hermetic philosophy. Their ingredients are both chemical (or pharmaceutical) and herbal. In addition to these numerous recipes the manuscript has also been used to copy up more theoretical texts in the alchemical sciences: we find substantial excerpts from the Italian alchemist Bernard of Treviso, from Ramon Lull, from the sixteenth-century Marcello Palingeni (his well-known reflection on the Philosopher’s Stone from his Zodiacus Vitae is reproduced here, see full contents below) and large extracts from the Rosarium philosophorum by the medieval Arnaldus de Villanova. Throughout, there are also many occasional references and allusions which might further illuminate the writer’s context. For example, we find: a transcription of a recipe (for ‘sale armoniaco’) from a manuscript of Theophrastus with a folio number (363), [our p. 67]; a description of ‘Ein Gradier Wasser von Lorenzen Camper[?] wie es dem Römischer Kayser Rudolfo [Rudolf II] übergeben un probiret worden’ [p. 75]; a remedy for gout proved in the city of Augsburg in February/March 1690 [p. 167]; and a recipe for malleable glass demonstrated to the Count of Fiesco in 1679 [p. 187-9]. This is a manuscript compiled over a period of time and the entries are often in a variable ink and slightly variable hand. Whether the latter indicates compilation by several people is debateable. The hand certainly changes as the manuscript moves between German, Latin and Italian, but it is quite possible (indeed probable) that the same writer changed his hand according to the language. Nonetheless there are certainly numerous corrections, amendments and annotations in other and later hands and at least one insertion of materials from elsewhere: the inserted bifolium pp. 193-6 bearing a list of herbal and medical ingredients. The status of the fine illustrations of alchemical furnaces towards the end is also arguable: they are drawn on the same paper-stock but are clearly by another hand to the main text. Variability of condition throughout suggests an oft-consulted and oft-amended text. The likely place of production is Augsburg or at least Southern Germany to judge by the reference on p. 167 and which might explain the presence of German and Italian texts within the same manuscript and perhaps the preponderance of texts of Italian origin in a largely Germanic volume. We have found only a few dated entries, of 1604 (p. 134), 1690 (p. 167) and 1679 (p. 187) and the styles of handwriting suggest writing and compilation around the latter dates. An unfortunate loss is from the central portion [pp. 89-104] of the extract from the Rosarium philosophorum which may have included the well known sequence of hermetical illustrations found in sixteenth-century printed editions. Contents: pp. 1-42: 85 chemical, alchemical and medicinal recipes in German and Italian: to make: aqua fortis (1), shining gypsum (1), gold plating (2), green pigment (2), a good furnace (4), an oil for gout (14); vitrum antimonii (16) red and black pigments (20); pearls, in the manner used by Pope Paul III (22); wine from legno santo (23); solid mercury (35); mercury sublimate (36); red flowers of antimony (39) &c. pp. 42-46: Ex Epistola Comitis Bernardi (Bernard of Treviso) (in German, probably an excerpt from the alchemical text Responsio ad Thomam de Bononia). 46-63: 25 alchemical recipes in German and Latin to make: oil of vitriol [sulphuric acid] (47); essences of antimony (47-8); purifying and preparing metals (49-52); extract from Ramon Lull (54-57); aqua solis (57); Arbor philosophorum (58); calcinatio solis (61 & 62); to make mercury from any metal (62) &c. 64-66: Ex Marcello Palingenis in suo Zodiacus Vitae [In Latin, Book 10, entitled Capricorn this excerpt being lines 180-238, the famous consideration of the Philosopher's Stone]. 66-80: 22 alchemical recipes in German and Latin, including several for processes involving gold. 80-88: Hec sequitia’ sunt ex Valde antique manuscipte excerpta… [fragmentary extract from the Rosarium philosophorum by Arnaldus de Villanova]. 89-104: blanks, on original paper stock, but apparently replacing a portion of the above text previously extracted. 105-109: [conclusion of Rosarium philosophorum]. 108-9 being a table and a list of metals and compounds with their alchemical symbols. 109-160: c. 50 alchemical texts and recipes, mainly in German and Latin, with some Italian, in several hands. Includes a recipe on p, 134 for ‘Ein schöner goldtgrundt’ for illuminating parchment, dated 1604 at head. 161-166: a register of recipes contained in the preceding text, with a continuation in a slightly later hand giving a table of recipes found in the subsequent text. 167: a medicinal recipe for the treatment of gout (‘Podaggra’) used in Augsburg in February 1690. 168-169: Requista. Seu proprietates Mercurii Sorfici, ad sequentem tractatum Elucitatio. 170-172: blank 173-191: Sapientia aperta / Incipit liber Sapientia, followed by c. 10 alchemical recipes and including a sketch diagram of what appears to be the exterior of a large alchemical laboratory. Includes an entry giving a recipe for malleable glass shown to the Conte Fiesco in 1679. 193-196: inserted bifolium, previously folded several times with a list of herbal and medical ingredients in Latin. 197-211: original blanks, followed by a number of inserted later blanks. 213-218: finely executed pen and ink drawings of alchemical furnaces and apparatus, captioned in a neat calligraphic German hand. 219-220: blank. Plus early notes to endpapers, two early inserted slips with manuscript text, 16pp. modern manuscript transcriptions loosely inserted. see full details...
This is an interesting group of association copies and letters from his family collection: the most significant among them being the first edition of Trilby (1894) by his friend and colleague, George Du Maurier. The three volumes contain significant, candid and often critical annotation by Burnand: 'So far, end of vol 1 a novel without a story' [in pencil to final blank of vol. 1]; 'This is slang Americanism'; 'I remember how he sketched all these characters in Punch, years ago….' Additionally, Burnand has preserved in the volumes of Trilby four letters to him by Du Maurier, two of which contain small ink sketches in characteristic style: one a self-portrait, the other depicting famous Punch contributors: Du Maurier himself, John Tenniel, Burnard, Harry Furniss, Linley Sambourne and Charles Keene. The volumes were evidently passed to Burnand's second daughter Margaret Mary, who preserved them along with the other copies of her father's books, at her house in Ramsgate. see full details...
Dating from the end of the thirteenth century, MS 1830 in the Library of Saint Germain (now Bibliothèque nationale MS 19152), is the largest corpus of popular medieval poetry from this early date, containing numerous familiar beast fables (some derived Aesop) and longer narrative poems such as Piramus et Tisbé. The original manuscript comprises 61 different texts of different genres including popular proverbs, translations from Latin, fabliaux, courtly tales, moral poems and burlesque recitations. The anonymous nineteenth-century editor of our manuscript pursues a rather disruptive method of copying much of the original text verbatim, but interpolating his own prose for sections he believes to be repetitive or uninteresting. While frustrating for the medievalist, such a method is interesting as an example of contemporary scholarly method. The editor adds a significant number of additional fables drawn from other manuscripts in the Library of Saint Germain. A 4-volume manuscript copy of the entire codex, apparently made in the eighteenth century, is held by the British Library (Additional MS 15210-15213). A printed edition appeared in 1930. see full details...
![GOUBIN, [Mathieu].](/photos/480/main/480.jpg "GOUBIN, [Mathieu].")
The neatly laid out text, with few corrections, suggest that the volumes were prepared, as was frequently the case in contemporary French universities, by copyists for sale to students attending lecture courses. In this case the owner was one Ludovic Loyau du Coteau, whose manuscript ex libris appears in volume 1 of the Physiologia. Goubin taught at Caen, one of the oldest French universities, from the 1750s and was also director of its Jardin des Plantes. Though an active teacher (presenting frequent anatomical dissections) he does not appear to have published anything under his own name, hence the value of this manuscript collection. While we have identified seven theses bearing his name presented at the university in the later 1750s, these are likely to have been supervised rather than written by him. The Physiologia begins with several short chapters on the nature of medicine, before turning to physiology on p. 16. The first volume describes the various functions of the body, the circulation of the blood, systole and diastole, fluids and secretions and nourishment. The second volume opens with a discussion of wounds and diseases, followed by discussion of the body’s processes, including perception, memory, sight, hearing, taste, smell, sleep, the nervous system, circulation and reproduction. The Pathologia is a complete treatise on physical and mental ailments. see full details...
A later bibliographical note to the endpaper asserts that this must “sans aucune doute” be Giard’s manuscript for his edition. This is perhaps unlikely: early manuscript copies of hard-to-come-by imprints are an important (if under-appreciated) aspect of the contemporary circulation of new books. Chastelet’s treatise (dedicated to the King) covers all aspects of war: types of troops, garrisons, ranks, invasion, battle, morale, treatment of casualties, defence, sieges, sea warfare, civil wars, discipline, military law, espionage and treaties. see full details...
The minute book covers six years and includes the record of the club’s foundation. After an initial section of club rules and procedures the entries alternate between monthly meetings and the records of club runs. The runs began at the club’s headquarters at the Rechabites Hall in the city centre and took members to local towns and beauty spots, including Prestbury, Latchford, Budworth, Knutsford and Buxton, most at a distance of around 30 miles, making the customary round trip around 60 miles. The club run records are brief but informative, describing the weather, the riders, the state of the roads, accidents and something of the destinations. On a run to Prestbury (near Macclesfield) in May 1898, 8 members turned out ‘owing to the unfavourable look of the weather’ to cover the 30 miles to Prestbury where the church was visited and ‘a call was made to a friends house when we had a musical half hour with a dash of ginger beer’, followed by a return journey to Manchester during which members spent ‘about half an hour at Ms H. Jackson’s where we regaled ourselves with herb beer & more music. There were no casualties on the road.’ A run to Marton in early June 1899 was hot, dusty and beset with punctures so ‘the club pump was in great demand’, while a a midnight run to Chester at Midsummer a few days later seems to have been a highlight; in July 1900 the clerk was ‘sorry to say that one of our lady members met with an accident, but fortunately however sustained no personal injury.’ Another midnight run in August 1900 took four members to Chester: ‘The return journey commenced about 12.15 a.m. & with nothing to impede their progress but cats and policemen the club rattled home in fine style & arrived in Manchester again about 4 a.m. Despite the serious distances covered on the road, the Walla Walla was evidently also a social club. Among the striking items in the manuscript are the tipped in formal invitations for meetings and social events which were printed on behalf of the Walla Walla. These include a Dinner and Social Evening at the Grotto Cafe in Stevenson Square in Manchester in November 1899, complete with an award of medals recorded in the attached minutes, and a full printed programme of entertainment for a social evening in 1900, with half tone photograph of the club members dressed as Napoleonic soldiers which had been first published in Cyclers News. The latter years’ minutes document the dissent within the club’s membership, concern over falling numbers, and the club’s diversification into rambling and swimming. see full details...
Beginning with ‘Feinem Marocco Toback’, (Fine Moroccan Tobacco) the recipes are unusually detailed (usually covering a page or more) and offer specific ingredients and methods of tobacco preparation. Other tobaccos include ‘Feinen Pariser Toback’ (two different blends!), ‘Rappe d’Hollande Grand Cardinal’, ‘Bolongaro,’ two varieties of ‘Violet’. The ‘Morhendro’ blend seems especially potent, with the inclusion of 4 grains of opium. The contents of several tobacco canisters are also described, such as a Moorish blend (Canister 1), a Swiss blend (Canister 2), ‘Peter’s Best Blend’ (Petrum Optimum, Canister 3), and more. The upper cover bears the contemporary MS inscription of ‘J.A. Neeb’ (i.e. Johannes Adam Neeb) who was tobacconist active at Lich, Hesse (approximately 25 miles from Marburg) in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. A later owner has written inside the front cover in pen ‘Organist Joh. Adam Neeb’ in error: the organist in question was in fact Johannes Adam’s son Heinrich (1806-1878) who achieved fame as a composer, conductor and teacher in Frankfurt. (Franz Kössler, Personenlexikon von Lehrern des 19. Jahrhunderts: Berufsbiographien aus Schul-Jahresberichten und Schulprogrammen, 1825-1918, mit Veröffentlichungsverzeichnissen, 2007.) see full details...
![BLONDEL, [Lieutenant Colonel d’artillerie.]](/photos/474/main/474.jpg "BLONDEL, [Lieutenant Colonel d’artillerie.]")
It was repared by a prominent artillery captain, largely from material gathered first-hand from visits to military academies (notably West Point), arms factories, arsenals and from observations aboard the US warships Tennessee and Kearsarge. The year 1881 saw a special diplomatic visit to the United States by representatives of the French armed forces, partly in celebration of the the centenary of the combined French-American victory at Yorktown. Descendants of the victorious Comte de Rochambeau and an array of military top-brass were lavishly entertained in New York, with a sequence of visits, dinners and balls. Among the guests were General Boulanger and Lieutenant Colonel Blondel. On November 9th The New-York Tribune reported the imminent departure of Boulanger for France and that ‘Lieutenant-Colonel Blondel will spend the next few weeks visiting West Point, the Frankfort and Springfield arsenals, and the firearms manufacturies at New-Haven and Bridgeport, in order to prepare a report on the subjects of arms and defence.’ This manuscript is an overview of the American armies and a description of the military curriculum of West Point, which is followed by the illustrated description of American weaponry, including a variety of artillery (large guns by Hotchkiss, Parrott, Dean, Sutcliffe, Lyman and Woodbridge are illustrated); small arms (the Springfield rifle is described and compared with the Martini-Henry model and the Colt, Schofield Smith and Wesson revolvers are illustrated). There is an extensive section on the specification of artillery shells and small arms cartridges and on the American preparation of gunpowder. Blondel adds several observations on artillery exercises aboard American ships, which include an early description of the use of telegraphy for range-finding. He notes at the opening that some of the information (comprising three sections) is derived from the [printed] reports of General S.V. Benet but that remainder was gathered from his own observations at the installations noted above. The report is remarkable for the detailed access the French were given to American military establishments, which is perhaps to be explained by the diplomatic context. The 1870s and 80s saw a rapprochement in French-American relations, and several celebrations of the natural connection between the two great republics: from the celebration of the Yorktown victory to the gift of the Statue of Liberty by the French nation. The manuscript is from the personal collections of General Boulanger. Boulanger continued his rise to prominence throughout the 1880s, firstly with popular army reforms and later with real political influence, to the extent that his popular right-wing Royalist stance while running for deputy of Paris threatened to topple the Third Republic in 1888-9. He was charged with treason and conspiracy and exiled by the government; a disgrace from which he never recovered. He committed suicide in a Brussels cemetery in 1891. see full details...
![[SOULAVIE, Michel, valet to Madame la Marquise de Brégançon.]](/photos/542/main/542.jpg "[SOULAVIE, Michel, valet to Madame la Marquise de Brégançon.]")
![(MILITARY MANUSCRIPT). C[HASTELET, Paul Hay, Marquis de.]](/photos/205/main/205.jpg "(MILITARY MANUSCRIPT). C[HASTELET, Paul Hay, Marquis de.]")
![[FLEISCHMANN, Gottfried.]](/images/user/custom_placeholder.jpg "[FLEISCHMANN, Gottfried.]")
