Selected
Acquisitions
Fall 2001
Compiled by the Beinecke Library curatorial staff
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Giovanni Villani.
Cronica. Florence, 14th century and Florence, 15th century.
Two illuminated manuscripts of this important fourteenth-century
chronicle of Florence. The earlier copy, on paper, is from the Feltrinelli
collection. The later manuscript, on parchment and preserved in
its original stamped leather binding, is a compendium of books 2
through 9 of Villani’s work. The excerptor eliminated those
parts of the original work that were not strictly about Florence.
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Jerome. Epistolae. Florence,
1464.
An illuminated manuscript on parchment preserving a collection of
ninety-six of the Epistles and other treatises of St. Jerome. The
manuscript is signed by the scribe, Domenico de Attavanti, and dated
1464. Domenico apparently copied the manuscript for the family library,
as it bears the coat of arms of the Attavanti family of Florence.
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Incunable editions of Aristotle.
Among the important influences on Renaissance thought were the rediscovery,
study, and dissemination of the works of Aristotle. Editions of
Aristotle’s works and commentaries on them are the focus of
this collection of twenty-nine fifteenth-century printed books.
The books range in date from 1473 to 1500, and the majority were
printed in Venice. Other cities represented include Florence, Brescia,
Pavia, and Basel. The collection documents in considerable depth
the range of Aristotle’s works as well as the Renaissance response
to his works.
- Thomas Morley. The first booke of
balletts to five voyces. London, “1595.”
This important Elizabethan song book by the “father of the English
madrigal school” is complete for all five voices. Though bearing
the date of the first edition of 1595, this is a copy of the edition
with crown watermarks that dates to about 1606.
Early English books
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The secrete of secretes (London,
1572; stc 770.3). The second surviving edition of this translation
by Robert Copland of the educational manual then attributed to Aristotle,
hitherto recorded in a single, imperfect copy.
Bound with: The secrets of Albertus
Magnus. Of the vertues of herbes, stones, and certain beasts. Whereunto
is newly added, a short discourse of the seven planets governing the
nativities of children. Also a booke of the same author, of the merveilous
things of the world, and of certaine things caused of certaine beasts
(London, 1637; STC 267). A translation of the Liber aggregationis,
supposedly by Albertus Magnus; the last of eleven recorded editions,
hitherto known in six copies.
Bound with: The knowledge of things
unknowne; shewing the effects of the planets, and other astronomicall
constellations: with the strange events that befall men, women, and
children, borne under them. Compiled by Godfrius super palladium de
agricultura Anglicarum. Together with the husbandsmans practice, or
prognostications for ever: as
teacheth Albert, Alkind, and Prolome
(London, 1639; stc 11934). Only known complete copy of this printing
of a very popular text, illustrated with a woodcut frontispiece and
seven small woodcuts.
Bound with: Thomas Hill. Naturall and
artificiall conclusions. Compiled first in Latine, by the worthiest
and best authors, both of the famous University of Padua in Italy,
and divers other places Englished since, and set forth by Thomas Hill,
Londoner, whose own experiments in this kinde, were held most excellent.
And now againe published, with a new addition of rarities, for the
practise of sundry artificers; as also to recreate wits withall at
vacant times (London, 1650; Wing H2018). Fourth surviving edition,
augmented, of the first English book containing conjuring tricks;
only recorded in two complete copies.
Bound with: Walter Rumsey. Organon salutis.
An instrument to cleanse the stomach, as also divers new experiments
of the virtue of tobacco and coffee: how much they conduce to preserve
humane health (London, 1657; Wing R2280). First edition of the author’s
only book, one of the first English books to discuss coffee.
- Friedrich Logau. Epithalamion.
Breslau, 1636.
This marriage poem for Joachim von Niemitz and Anna Helene von Bebran
is Logau’s first separate publication, unrecorded in the pertinent
bibliographies. A Silesian by birth, Logau was famous in his day for
his mastery of the epigram, the form in which he principally wrote.
Game books
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Arthur Saul. The famous game of
chesse play. Being a princely exercise; wherein the learner may
profit more by reading of this small booke, then by playing of a
thousand mates. Now augmented of many materiall things formerly
wanting, and beautified with a threefold methode, viz. of the chesse-men,
of the chesse-play, of the chesse-lawes (London, 1652; Wing
S729A).
Bound with: The royal game
of the ombre (London, 1665: Wing R2130B). And with: Thomas Master.
Mensa lubrica; anglicè shovel-board [ca. 1650-60?].
The first title is the rarest of early
editions of the first chess manual by an Englishman: of this printing
only one other complete copy is known. The second title is the first
book on the game of Ombre, popularized by Queen Catherine of Braganza,
and later immortalized by Alexander Pope in The rape of the lock.
This is the second edition, known in one copy in the British Library.
The third title is an unrecorded printing of a Latin poem on the
game of shove—or shovel-board by a fellow of New College, Oxford.
- Franz Ritter. Speculum solis.
Nuremberg, 1660.
A treatise on sun dials, illustrated
with elaborate woodcuts and folding charts. First published in 1609,
this second, expanded version was edited by Georg Philipp Harsdörffer,
one of the principal mid-seventeenth-century poets and literary figures
of Nuremberg. The work is bound with Philipp Uffenbach’s De quadratura
circuli mechanici (1653), on squaring the circle, also illustrated.
Both titles were printed by Paul Fürst in Nuremberg.
Frankliniana from the Laird
Park Collection
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A treaty held at the town of Lancaster...
by the provinces of Virginia and Maryland, with the Indians of the
Six Nations, in June, 1744 (Philadelphia, 1744). Printed by
Franklin, the third of thirteen Indian treaties issued by his press.
The friendly instructor; or,
a companion for young ladies and young gentlemen: in which their
duties to God and their parents, their carriage to superiors and
inferiors, and several other very useful and instructive lessons,
are recommended. In plain and familiar dialogues. With a recommendatory
preface, by the Rev. Dr. Doddington (Philadelphia, 1750). Sixth
edition of this instructional chapbook for children, printed by
Franklin. This copy, though incomplete, is the only one known.
From the
Bougainville Papers
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The Beinecke’s collections relating
to the naval officer and explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville,
superbly enriched last year by the bequest of Paul Mellon, were
further augmented this past year by the acquisition of two groups
of documents. The first group relates to Bougainville’s early
career under Montcalm during the Canadian war and comprises two
autograph letters to his brother, dated 4 June 1756 and 3 July 1757,
and a memoir entitled “Précis de ce qui s’est passé
de plus considérable dans l’Amérique septentrionale
pendant l’hyver de 1756 à 1757.”
The second group consists of
the papers Bougainville assembled in his defense after being blamed
for the defeat suffered by the French fleet commanded by Admiral
de Grasse at the battle of the Saints in April 1782.
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Sir William Blackstone. Autograph manuscript
legal opinion, with autograph notes and queries in the margins.
12 January 1767.
This example dates from an important juncture in Blackstone’s
(1723-80) legal career. The fame of his Oxford lectures and early
publications had made his rise at the Bar rapid. He took silk in
1761, entered Parliament the same year, and was appointed Solicitor-General
to the Queen in 1763. His reputation gained new heights with the
appearance of the Commentaries. The counsel’s opinion
given here concerns the soundness of a title to property in Stanford
and the Vale, Berkshire, about fifteen miles from his residence
at Wallingford.
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William Butt. Dye Book. 24 November
1768 and later.
A large folio master recipe book for an English dye-maker, with
over 700 detailed recipes for colors, with original color swatches.
Many hand-written, folded notes have been inserted, recording variants
of colors and sometimes identifying the client for whom they were
produced.
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Josiah Wedgwood. Letter, signed, to
Lord Sheffield, 12 October 1786.
Wedgwood (1730-95) writes to Edward Gibbon’s closest friend
and later his editor, a leading authority on trade and commerce.
A significant and magisterial letter welcoming the prospect of freer
trade, discussing the effects of a treaty which might lead to more
open trade with France.
Trading
with America at the end of the 18th century
This collection of 118 Scottish reprints
of orders made in council in the presence of the king or the privy
council concerns, among other topics, trade with America, Africa,
and the Caribbean, quarantine measures, whaling, and shipping embargoes
(1786-94). Some documents bear the signature of customs officials
and their annotations. One of these officials is Richard Elliston
Philips, who was secretary of the Scottish Board of Customs and a
close associate of Adam Smith—who was himself one of the five
commissioners from 1777 until his appointment as lord rector of Glasgow
in 1787. Philips (who died at the age of 104) and Smith are buried
in the same grave in the Canongate kirkyard.
Literary
anthologies and almanacs
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The German Literature Collection contains
an extensive and growing collection of literary almanacs and yearbooks,
especially publications of the late eighteenth century and early
nineteenth. These books, usually small in format and often exquisitely
illustrated, are a rich source of information about popular literature
and style at the time.
Berlinischer Damen Kalender
auf das Jahr 1800. Edited by Sophie Mereau, with several stories,
poems, and translations from her pen, eight copper-plate illustrations
by Chodowiecki, a fashion page, a frontispiece portrait of Queen
Luise of Prussia, and one song setting, by Goethe's friend Zelter.
Poetisches Taschenbuch für
das Jahr 1806, edited by Friedrich Schlegel, with contributions
by him, by his wife Dorothea, and several others. With six sheets
of music.
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F. Rzehula. Jux fexirbuch. Prague,
ca. 1840.
This unusual hand-colored flip book was designed for the nineteenth-century
magician. The volume can be thumbed in several places, and in both
directions. The illustrations form several series, including playing
cards, costumed figures, and birds.
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Peter Cunningham. The Story of Nell
Gwyn and the Sayings of Charles the Second. London, 1852.
Extra illustrated copy with numerous letters and documents, including
a document signed by Nell Gwyn, referring to the support of her
son, the first Duke of St. Albans, by his father Charles II; an
unrecorded printed playbill for a performance of Vanbrugh’s
The Provok’d Wife, with David Garrick and Mrs. Cibber;
and about sixty additional autograph letters and documents, by Queen
Hen-rietta Maria, Joseph Addison, James Boswell, and many others.
Frederick
& Florence Marryat papers
This collection of papers relating to
the popular early-Victorian novelist Frederick, known as “Captain”
Marryat and his daughter Florence comprises an album in which are
pasted letters from Marryat and to him, including letters from William
and Thomas Longman, Richard Bentley, William Harrison Ainsworth. The
items relating to Florence Marryat include two autograph letters,
signed, from Charles Dickens (6 August 1867 and 29 March 1869), and
letters from Hamilton Aïdé, George Bentley, Randolph Caldecott,
Wilkie Collins, Blanchard Jerrold, Harry Furniss, John Murray, Ouida,
Charles Reade, Charlotte Riddell, George Augustus Sala, John Tenniel,
and Edmund Yates. Additional material documents Florence Marryat’s
work for the theater and her career as a literary recitalist and includes
notebooks, source material, original artwork, photographs, and ephemera.
Also in the collection are letters to Richard Bentley from Edward
Bulwer Lytton, Anthony Trollope, and
Frances Trollope.
Through a different source, but from the same provenance, the Beinecke
has also just acquired the holograph manuscript of a large portion
of an unpublished early draft of Frederick Marryat’s Joseph
Rushbrook; or, The poacher, serialized in The era from December
1840 to May 1841 and published in book form in 1841.
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Theodor Fontane. Balladen. Berlin,
1861.
_____. Der Stechlin. Berlin, 1899.
Fontane (1819-98) began his career as a novelist late in life, publishing
the first of his fifteen works of fiction at age 59. They were preceded
by a career in the military and as a journalist and by several travel
books, including one about London, published in 1854. Der Stechlin,
the story of an aging, widowed Prussian aristocrat and his son,
has little plot but is greatly admired for its nuanced characterization,
political insight, and masterful use of dialogue.
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George Eliot. Essays, printed versions
with manuscript corrections, ca. 1880.
This bound volume—one of the last important George Eliot manuscripts
likely to appear on the market—comprises offprints of seven
of her essays, published in the Westminster Review and other
periodicals, with manuscript revisions in her hand with a view to
a republication in volume. The work was probably undertaken towards
the end of her life but not completed. All seven essays were included
in the posthumous Essays and leaves from a notebook (Edinburgh
and London, 1884), edited by her stepson and executor Charles Lewes,
but her revisions were not all taken into account.
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Emil Pirchan. Wein-Wunder. Ein
Spiel in Sinntänzen. Berlin, 1918.
_____. Josephslegende. Berlin, 1922.
_____. Mensalströme. Munich 1923.
Three titles illustrated by the author, artist, and theater designer
Emil Pirchan (1884-1957). The second shows Pirchan’s designs
for the Berlin production of the ballet Josephs Legende on a text
by Hugo von Hofmannsthal with music by Richard Strauss.
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Oscar Kokoschka. Der gefesselte
Columbus. Berlin, 1921.
This famous twentieth-century painter also produced literary works,
most of them plays in the Expressionist style, written while he
was in his thirties. Columbus in Chains is a series of twelve lithographs
with a prose text by the artist. Cnefelius Fund.
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Else Lasker-Schüler. Theben.
Berlin, 1923.
Else Lasker-Schüler (1869-1945) was a member of the Berlin
avant-garde before her emigration in 1933. By 1937 she had settled
in Palestine, where she died in poverty. Her letters to Kurt Wolff,
decorated with crowns drawn in colored pencil (she always addressed
him as “the king”) are part of the Kurt Wolff papers at
Beinecke. Theben is a volume of poems and ten lithographs,
signed by the poet/artist.
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Erik Satie. Recitatives for Gounod’s
Le médecin malgré lui, holograph manuscript,
1924.
For the 1924 season of the Ballets russes at the Monte-Carlo Opera,
Serge Diaghilev had the pioneering idea of reviving classic French
opéras-comiques of the preceding centuries in arrangements
by avant-garde composers: Gounod’s
La colombe was entrusted to Francis Poulenc (and to Juan
Gris for the sets and costumes) Chabrier’s Une éducation
manquée to Darius Milhaud; and Gounod’s Le médecin
malgré lui to Erik Satie, a more exotic choice.
Gounod’s work, a close adaptation of Molière’s
1666 farce by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, had always
been a connoisseur’s favorite since its premiere in 1858. The
manuscript of Satie’s version reveals that he received assistance
from the young Georges Auric, in whose hand part of the manuscript
is written; there are also a few annotations by Serge Lifar. Performances
took place at Monte-Carlo on January 5 and 12, 1924, but Satie’s
work has remained unpublished. The manuscript has now joined that
of the original Gounod, which is part of the Frederick R. Koch collection.
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Georges Hugnet. Enfances. Paris,
1933.
The surrealist poet Georges Hugnet (1906-74), a lifelong friend
of Virgil Thomson, was introduced by him to Gertrude Stein in 1926
and for the next five years was a devoted member of her entourage.
The poetic cycle Enfances, written in 1930, put a definitive
end to their friendship. Stein decided to translate it into English—“Stein
English” in Thomson’s words—, Hugnet objected to
her adaptation being called translation, and she took terminal offence
at his objections. Stein’s version first appeared in the magazine
Pagany in 1931 under the title “Poem Pritten on Pfances of
Georges Hugnet” and in book form later in the same year under
the title (dear to Donald Gallup) Before the flowers of friendship
faded friendship faded.
The original French was the last
to come out: it was published by Christian Zervos’s Cahiers
d’Art Editions, illustrated with three etchings by Joan Miró.
Of the 129 copies announced in the colophon, it appears that few
were actually printed, hence the book’s extraordinary rarity.
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Hermann Broch. Die Schuldlosen.
Munich, 1950.
Die Schuldlosen (The guiltless) is Broch’s last book,
a novel loosely composed of short stories, some of them written
and published much earlier. This set of corrected proofs represents
a state of the work between the proofs already in the Beinecke collection
and the finished book. Broch gave these proofs to his friend Hermann
J. Weigand, professor of German literature at Yale and the person
who invited Broch to New Haven when poor health made it difficult
for him to stay in Princeton. Broch added a handwritten dedicatory
birthday poem for Weigand, which turns on the fact that both Hermanns
were born under the sign of Scorpio.
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Goethe. Prométhée.
Paris, 1951.
The first edition of Gide’s translation of Goethe’s dramatic
fragment, with eight original color lithographs and six lithographed
initials and tail-pieces by Henry Moore, his first large-scale book
illustrations. The drawings were executed between 1948 and 1950.
One of 165 numbered copies on Vélin du Marais.
- Jean-Paul Sartre. The Bauer manuscript.
In 1964, the American scholar George H. Bauer bought in Paris a collection
of manuscripts by Sartre that turned out to include the holographs
of La mort dans l’âme, the third novel of the trilogy
Les chemins de la liberté (the manuscript of the second,
Le sursis, was already at Yale), and, even more importantly,
substantial drafts of an unfinished fourth one, originally entitled
“Drôle d’amitié,” then “La dernière
chance.” The collection, which also comprises miscellaneous shorter
manuscripts and correspondence, was acquired from Mr. Bauer’s
widow.
Some early
works by American authors
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Daniel Berrigan. Crime Trial.
Boston: Impressions Workshop, 1970. Twenty-two poems with thirteen
etchings by Robert Marks. No. 7 of an edition of seventy-five copies.
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Robert Edward Duncan. My Mother
Would Be a Falconress. Berkeley: Oyez Press, 1968. Broadside.
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Jim Harrison. Returning to Earth. Berkeley:
Ithaca House, 1977.
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James Ingram Merrill. Jim’s
Book: A Collection of Poems and Short Stories. New York: Privately
printed, 1942. Merrill’s father had this first book of his
son’s work printed when Jim was sixteen.
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Annie Proulx. Heart Songs and Other
Stories. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1988.
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Carl Sandburg. M’Liss and Louie.
Los Angeles: Jake Zeitlin, 1929. Of an edition of one hundred and
fifty copies printed by Ward Ritchie.
- Gilbert Sorrentino. Sky Changes.
New York: Hill and Wang, 1966.
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