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The Library of Benjamin Franklin (Memoir 257)

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Memoir 257
Beginning in the late 1950s, Edwin Wolf 2nd embarked on a bibliographic odyssey to reconstruct the �lost� library of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin�s library, the largest and best private library at the time of his death in 1790, was sold by his grandson in the last eighteenth century to Robert Morris Jr., who subsequently sold it in the early nineteenth century. None of the catalogs of the collection survive, and the contents of the library were virtually unknown until 1956, when Wolf discovered the unique shelfmarks Franklin used to identify his books. Wolf�s work to reconstruct a catalog of the library continued for the next thirty years but was unfinished at the time of his death. As the tercentenary of Franklin�s birth approached, Kevin J. Hayes took up the work and has continued to discover titles that were part of the library. Everything found to date, close to 4,000 entries, has been compiled here. (Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society and the Library Company of Philadelphia, 2006.)

Al-Kashi's Geographical Tables

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E. S. Kennedy (au); M.H. Kennedy (au).

Lienzo of Tulancingo, Oaxaca: An Introductory Study of a Ninth Painted Sheet from the Coixtlahuaca Valley

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Ross Parmenter (au). History, especially ancient history, gains reality when it can be related to modern geography. The interplay appears in instances cited throughout this study--specifically of Mexican geographical identifications that help recover segments of the country�s pre-Columbia past. This study�s principal aim is to show how a particular identification augments the history that can be extracted from a related group of Mexican pictorial manuscripts, whose historical value, though well recognized, has as yet been little explored. These are the lienzos--genealogical, historical & geographical documents painted on cloth--of the Coixtlahuaca Valley in the northern region of the state of Oaxaca known as the Mixteca Alta. Illus.

Virtuous Pagan in Middle English Literature

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Cindy L. Vitto (au). For pious Christians of every age, the question of ultimate concern has been salvation: What is necessary to ensure the soul�s eternal bliss? During the Middle Ages, within the Church itself, the guidelines were clear: baptism, reception of the sacraments, an attempt to put into practice the teachings of Christ. But a theological debate arose on the possibility of salvation for those outside the Church, who fell into two basic categories: those who had been offered the Christian faith but had refused it, & those who, for reasons of chronology or geography, lacked the opportunity to join the Church but lived as virtuously as possible. Two categories of these �virtuous pagans� who received special attention were the classical poets & philosophers of Greece & Rome, & the Old Testament patriarchs. From the standpoint of human reason, it seemed especially unfortunate that these two groups should be damned eternally. This study discusses the theological background of this issue; the Virtuous Pagan in legend & in Dante; St. Erkenwald�s Harrowing of Hell; & �Piers Plowman�: Issues in Salvation & the Harrowing as Thematic Climax.

Alhacen's Theory of Visual Perception (2 vol.)

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A. Mark Smith (au). Sometime between 1028 & 1038, Ibn al-Haytham completed his monumental optical synthesis, Kitab al-Manazir (Book of Optics). By no later than 1200 this treatise appeared in Latin under the title De aspectibus. In that form it was attributed to a certain "Alhacen." These differences in title & authorial designation are indicative of the profound differences between the two versions, Arabic & Latin, of the treatise. In many ways, in fact, they can be regarded not simply as different versions of the same work, but as different works in their own right. Accordingly, the Arab author, Ibn al-Haytham, & his Latin incarnation, Alhacen, represent two distinct, sometimes even conflicting, interpretive voices. And the same holds for their respective texts. To complicate matters, "Alhacen" does not represent a single interpretive voice. There were at least two translators at work on the Latin text, one of them adhering faithfully to the Arabic original, the other content with distilling, even paraphrasing, the Arabic original. Consequently, the Latin text presents not one, but at least two faces to the reader. This critical edition represents 14 years of work on Dr. Smith's part. Awarded the APS 2001 J. F. Lewis Award. In Latin & English. Vol. 1: Intro. & Latin texts (hardcover); Vol. 2: English Translation.

Africans & Europeans in West Africa: Elminans & Dutchmen on the Gold Coast During the Eighteenth Century

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Harvey M. Feinberg (au). The town of Elmina was the most important trading center on the Gold Coat (GC) of W. Africa for at least 2 cent. Elminans engaged in commercial transactions which linked the GC with 3 very different trade networks. Contents: (I) The Akan on the GC; (II) Europeans on the GC: The Portuguese, 1471-1642; & The Dutch from 1593; (III) Akan Participation in the Atlantic Trading System; (IV) An Intro. to Elmina; (V) The Elmina Political Framework; (VI) The Functioning of Gov�t.: Justice & Dispute Settlement; & Foreign Affairs; & (VII) Elmina-Dutch Relations. Appendices: Elmina Chronology; Weights, Measures & Def.; Dirs. Gen. & Pres. of the 2nd W. India Co.; Counts of Indictment & Defense of the Negroes of Mina; & Elmina Leaders. Biblio. Illustrations.

Journey on the Forbidden Path: Chronicles of a Diplomatic Mission to the Allegheny Country, March-September, 1760

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Robert S. Grumet (ed); James A. Rementer (tr); Bruce L. Pearson (tr). This vol. draws together records documenting a little known diplomatic effort to establish peace along the war-torn Appalachian frontier during the spring, summer, & fall of 1760. Assembled here is a representative sample of the council minutes, speeches, letters of correspondence, warrants, inventories, passports, journals, diaries, & other types of records documenting a frontier diplomatic mission of the period. These records reveal something of the range & diversity of documentary materials available to scholars interested in reconstructing diplomatic events along a distant frontier during a critical period of Am. history. Individually, they document political maneuvers & details of everyday life, many of which are recorded nowhere else. Collectively, they provide additional keys to understand better how Indians & colonists shaped a new diplomatic landscape along the Penna. frontier after the Brit. succeeded in breaking French power in N. Am. in 1760.

Fernando of Cordova: A Biographical & Intellectual Profile

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John Monfasani (au).

Wittich Connection: Conflict and Priority in Late Sixteenth-Century Cosmology

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Owen Gingerich; Robert S. Westman. Contents: Introduction; (I) The Libraries of Tycho Brahe & of Paul Wittich: The Misleading Attribution of the Copernican Annotations; Master Paul Wittich; Tycho�s Attempts to Acquire Wittich�s Library; & The Prague Tychoniana; (II) Wittich�s Copernican Annotations: Reinhold�s Annotations & the Liege �De revolutionibus�; The Vatican Wittich Copy; The Prague & Wroclaw Wittich Copies; & Why Annotate Four Copes of �De revolutionibus�?; (III) Reconstructing the Universe: Tycho�s Early Transformations & Wittich�s Visit; A Theft in the Castle?: Thycho�s �Legal Brief� on the Ursus Affair, & Ursus� Account & Kepler�s Interpretation; & Constructing Tycho�s Cosmology. Appendix: The Vatican Annotations; & Wittich�s Obituary in �Silesia Togata.� Illus.

Renaissance Vision from Spectacles to Telescopes

Renaissance Vision from Spectacles to Telescopes (Memoir 259)

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Memoir 259
This book deals with the history of eyeglasses from their invention in Italy ca. 1286 to the appearance of the telescope three centuries later. �By the end of the 16th century eyeglasses were as common in western & central Europe as desktop computers are in western developed countries today.� Eyeglasses served an important technological function at both the intellectual & practical level, not only easing the textual studies of scholars but also easing the work of craftsmen/small businessmen. An important subthesis of this book is that Florence, rather than Venice, seems to have dominated the commercial market for eyeglasses during the 15th century, when two crucial developments occurred: the ability to grind convex lenses for various levels of presbyopia & the ability to grind concave lenses for the correction of myopia. As a result, eyeglasses could be made almost to prescription by the early 17th century. illus.