oldest book you own

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oldest book you own

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1tnhomeschoolingmom
Ago 8, 2009, 6:08 pm

just out of curiosity what is the oldest book that you own? How did you get it ie a gift, yard sale find or a dumpster dive find? For me it is an 1825 greek new testament that my husband got for me from a Salvation Army store for free since they weren't able to sell it and were going throw it and about 50 other pre 1900 books away! :-0

2Osbaldistone
Ago 8, 2009, 7:06 pm

revolução e estado actual da frança, 1794. Picked it up in a used bookstore just for it's age (can't read portugese), though a contemporary account of the French Revolution written in a neighboring country does interest me. I've found no sign of an English translation in existance.

Otherwise, two works by Walter Scott - Lay of the Last Minstrel, 1808, and Lady of the Lake, 1810. They were in overall pretty good shape and the printing and paper is still very sharp and clean, plus I'm a big Scott fan.

Os.

3bernsad
Editado: Ago 8, 2009, 7:27 pm

A new survey of the globe by Thomas Templeman from 1729 is an interesting census of the world. Economic output, population, distances between cities etc. If I recall correctly, I picked it up on ebay.

The next oldest I have is not 'til over a century later.

4Larxol
Ago 8, 2009, 7:55 pm

I have one volume (of several) of Timothy Dwight’s Travels in New-England and New-York from an 1822 edition. Dwight was the President of Yale University. I bought it for a few dollars in a used book shop here on Cape Cod.

5J_ipsen
Ago 8, 2009, 8:08 pm

A 1587 commentary on the book of Iob I picked up pretty cheap on ebay

6rowmyboat
Ago 8, 2009, 9:38 pm

Some sermons from the 1770s. Got it for free from a book dealer I used to work for when he was cleaning out. Out of scope of what he sells, so. Text block is good but the covers, what's left of them, are in rough shape.

7PhaedraB
Editado: Ago 9, 2009, 10:15 pm

I did have a 1839 Universalist hymnal, a teeny-tiny leather-bound volume of words only, which I picked up at an estate auction in rural Illinois for less than a dollar. However, I donated it to the library of the Universalist Unitarian Church of Peoria. Current oldest is from my husband's collection, Lectures of Lola Montez (Countess of Landsfeld), Including her Autobiography, 1858. Not sure where he got it. It's currently on my TBR shelf.

8Steven_VI
Ago 9, 2009, 5:58 am

Personal collection: a French philosophy book printed in 1720, Les caractères de Theophrase. Bought at a booksellers sale. Next three volumes with a history of Flanders, printed in 1785 (very good for Ancien Régime facts), bought at a library sale! Then, Estelle, roman pastoral by Jean-Pierre de Florian printed in 1788. I assume that it's a first edition, but it lacks the plates. Bought at a book auction (because I have a Berlioz collection and it was his favourite youth book).

At work: an Egytptian papyrus of c.2400 BC, but that's not really a book. The oldest book is a manuscript of a text by Seneca the Elder, written in the 10th century.

9fig2
Ago 9, 2009, 7:43 pm

I have a tiny collection (9 books) of different versions of the same title: The Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun written by Marianna Alcaforado. I've been hunting them down on ebay, etc. for over 20 years. The oldest (as far as I can tell) is from 1890; some are written in a different language.

Originally written in 1660-something, it is a collection of 5-12 letters (depending on the version) written to a French soldier from a Portuguese nun living in a convent. Apparently they had a raging love affair; after which he "moved on". Even though it seems she will die of a broken heart, she eventually become abbess of the convent and dies a very old lady.

There is a lot of controversy about the letters; many people believe they are a hoax written as, alternately, a "writing exercise" or a bluff to fool friends. See Myriam Cyr's recent book about it.

I don't know what it is about this book, but I'm a little obsessed with it. The letters are beautifully written and completely heartbreaking.

10aviddiva
Ago 9, 2009, 9:03 pm

My oldest is an 1857 copy of Enquire Within Upon Everything, a compendium of facts, household hints and various bits of random information.

11eromsted
Ago 9, 2009, 10:51 pm

Sunshine and Shadow in New York, 1868. Purchased primarily for the plates:

I'll admit I still have not read it.

I have a few others before 1900, including the original English translation of Anna Karenina and an obscure volume of annotated excerpts of Canterbury Tales. I have read these two.

12lilithcat
Ago 9, 2009, 11:09 pm

A French translation of the Iliad, from 1714, that was originally my father's.

13Thrin
Editado: Ago 10, 2009, 5:56 am

Nowhere nearly as old as some of the marvellous books talked about above - how lucky most of you are to own them - my oldest book is The Gold Colonies of Australia: (in v.small letters) comprising their (in slightly larger print) history, territorial divisions, produce, and capabilities, (in much larger print) how to get to the gold mines, and every advice to emigrants by G. Butler Earp.

Publication date: 1852

14varielle
Ago 10, 2009, 10:40 am

Not so very old, but an 1884 edition of a Swedish Lutheran hymnal Den Svenska Psalm-Boken that I found at a book sale at a Lutheran college in NC, apparently a donation that nobody wanted. It's rather interesting in that it's nicely done in red leather. Many of the pages are cut through the center so that you can flip back and forth to various readings and hymns.

15Romanus
Ago 10, 2009, 10:47 am

A 1565 edition of the letters of St. Jerome, in Latin, published in Rome by Paolo Manutio.

16SusieBookworm
Ago 10, 2009, 3:59 pm

A 1791 abridged edition of Pamela by Samuel Richardson. I got it at an antiquarian book store for $15.

17rocketjk
Ago 12, 2009, 1:49 pm

My oldest is A Memoir of the Life of Peter the Great by John Barrow, published 1838.

19Larxol
Ago 13, 2009, 9:01 pm

20muumi
Set 8, 2009, 12:07 pm

Thomas Wright, Clavis Coelestis bound together with An Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe, about 1750. It's in rather poor condition. I got it in 1965 by throwing a nine year old whiny fit when my mother was selling her antiquarian book collection. "Don't sell THIS book! I love this book! It's about astronomy! It's got pretty pictures! I like to look at them!" Too bad that kind of thing only worked once with my mother (which I knew perfectly well at the time) or I could have scored big. She suspected the book dealer she was selling to of wanting to break books for plates and she had a shelf full of 18th century books... the Thuycidides had coloured plates as I recall. :( But even today I would find it difficult to feign intense enthusiasm for the intrinsic interest of the Peloponesian Wars.

According to the pencilled notation on the front endpaper, she paid $10 for this treasure. But that would have been in the late 1950s, and my dad's earnings then were only in four figures according to his income tax returns (I wish they had kept the books instead of the tax returns).

21Foxhunter
Editado: Set 8, 2009, 1:11 pm

Esta mensagem foi removida pelo seu autor.

22Skyehighmileage
Set 10, 2009, 9:19 am

Not quite as old. A 1563 Ovid's Metamorphoses (in Latin) with woodcut illustrations to every page, bought at auction in London and now rebound as it was without boards - but on the final page is the C18th signature of a student at Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge and we bought it the week my elder son was given a place at Sydney Sussex: we didn't even notice the signature or the coincidence until we got it home. Needless to say, it's staying in the cupboard safely in its nice new slipcase! Wasn't cheap but is treasured.

23benjclark
Set 10, 2009, 11:35 am

I'm close. 1536 book of poetry. Not an Aldus, you lucky dog, but nice. What caught my eye was the duplicate stamp from the Vatican library. Bought in a box lot at an auction this summer.

24johnandlisa
Set 10, 2009, 4:32 pm

You've got us beat. Our earliest is 1586.

But the oldest book I've seen in my various searches of libraries is held by pobanion. He lists a confessional from 1499. It's always hard to say for sure that the date is accurate and genuine, but it's plausible judging by some of his other books.

It's possible that one of the legacy libraries will have something even earlier. Our 1586 agricultural manual is shared by two other libraries: ThomasJefferson and JamesBoswell. Interesting company.

25Osbaldistone
Editado: Set 10, 2009, 5:58 pm

>24 johnandlisa: by two other libraries: ThomasJefferson and JamesBoswell.

Speaking of TJ's library - if you're ever near the Library of Congress, go see the Thomas Jefferson collection. It's jawdropping for anyone who loves/collects old books. Lots of vellum. Of course, lots of leather, lot's of Greek, Latin, French...And, of course, since he was collecting in the late 18th, early 19th centuries, they are nearly all 200 years old or older. The oldest dated book in his catalog is Pauli Orosii historiographi clarissimi opus prestantissimum, 1506 (no ISBN). You can see what's in his collection on LT here.

Os.

26libraryhermit
Editado: Set 10, 2009, 7:21 pm

I found a 6 volume edition of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, edited by H. H. Milman (who has added many footnotes) and published sometime in the mid-19th century. I have only got to page 15 or 18 so far and have put it down in order to read some other books. My intention--famous last words--is to try to get around to reading this sometime; I just don't know when. I have skirted around it in the meantime by reading a lot of other books about Roman history from the beginning of the Common Era until the 15th century.

I guess I was not sure if I wanted to read all of Milman's notes, or just skip them. Since I am a compulsive reader and read all the footnotes incase I might miss something, I guess I'm in for it now, and will end up reading all of the above-mentioned notes.

27Larxol
Set 10, 2009, 7:47 pm

So far, the oldest we have in the JamesBoswell library is a 1483 Pliny. But we're not quite finished with it yet.

28MoiraStirling
Set 10, 2009, 8:02 pm

Oooo, fig2! That is so enticing! I'm off to research it!

I have several books from the 1800s...the one I hold dearest is A Compendious System of Midwifery.

Pretty sure I'll purchase most anything older that happens to cross my path. Purely in the interest of history and preservation. (And a bit to do with a raving shopping compulsion.)

29fig2
Set 10, 2009, 9:04 pm

MoiraStirling: Happy searching! Be warned, however: once bitten by the Portuguese Nun bug, you never recover...

30Betelgeuse
Editado: Set 12, 2009, 6:14 am

I have a book by the Rev. Robert Aris Willmott called Poets of the Nineteenth Century -- a premature title, considering it was written in 1857. That's my oldest book.

31Dragonfly
Set 10, 2009, 9:51 pm

Tim Berners-Lee opens his book Weaving the Web with the statement, "When I first began tinkering with a software program that eventually gave rise to the idea of the World Wide Web, I named it Enquire, short for Enquire within upon Everything, a musty old book of Victorian advice I noticed as a child in my parents house outside London. With its title suggestive of magic, the book served as a portal to a world of information..."

So cool when one book links to another.

32benjclark
Set 11, 2009, 9:44 am

I may need to get a copy of that. Enquire within... What a delightful quote.

33Hilaria
Out 7, 2009, 9:35 am

My dad's mother's copy of Beautiful Stories From Shakespeare dating back to 1906. I think it was originally her sister's. I remember it being a big help in high school when we studied Shakespeare. I learned the synopsis of each play in double-quick time! I think it's in storage.

34Sean191
Dez 14, 2009, 1:32 pm

I think I still own some books maybe from about 1810 or so, but I did have one from 1670 (I think?) I'll have to check my records - it was two volumes of a three volume set. I paid $10 and promptly sold them for $400 or so. They were in French, so I wasn't going to get much use out of them since that would require me knowing the language...

35SaintSunniva
Dez 21, 2009, 12:38 am

Tom Brown's School Days - an 1880 copy, in really shabby condition. My mom gave it to me last year.

36tiffin
Editado: Dez 30, 2009, 12:44 pm

Entick's New Spelling Dictionary, Teaching to write and Pronounce THE ENGLISH TONGUE with Ease and Propriety; in which each Word is accented according to its juft and natural Pronunciation; the Part of Speech is properly diftinguifhed, and the various Significations are in general ranged in one Line; with A LIST OF PROPER NAMES OF MEN AND WOMEN. The Whole compiled and digefted in a Manner entirely new, So as to make it A COMPLETE POCKET COMPANION for thofe who read MILTON, POPE, ADDISON, SHAKESPEARE, TILLOTSON, and LOCKE, or other Englifh Authors of Repute in Profe or Verfe; And in particular to affift young People, Artificers, Tradefmen, and Foreigners, defirous of underftanding what they fpeak, read and write. To which is prefixed, A COMPREHENSIVE GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH TONGUE; And a Catalogue of Words of fimilar Sounds, but of different Spellings and Significations.
by William Crakelt, M.A., Rector of Nurfted and Ifield in Kent
London
Printed for C. Dilly, in the Poultry
1796

The first page, verbatim.

"bliff: an extreme ftate of pleafure"

ETA: it belonged to my 4x great grandfather, who was an editor in Edinburgh

37lilithcat
Dez 30, 2009, 12:53 pm

> 36

I have a book printed for C. Dilly! It's The Old English Baron: A Gothic Story, a 1794 edition.

38tiffin
Dez 30, 2009, 1:01 pm

Lovely AND cool, lilithcat!

39Vanye
Dez 30, 2009, 1:13 pm

Navin's Explanatory Horse Doctor published in 1864. I used to have horses & when i found this book (i do not remember where) I knew I wanted to keep it. I've read some of it tho not recently. 8^)

40SusieBookworm
Editado: Dez 31, 2009, 8:17 am

36: You do realize the f's are the way s's used to be printed? Just wondering.
That's awesome, lilithcat!

41tiffin
Editado: Dez 31, 2009, 2:28 pm

yes, SusieBookworm, I do. ;)
ETA: fyi, the long ess was only used for the miniscule and was distinguishable from the eff by a small nub on the left hand side only. In English, it fell out of practise in the early 1800s.

42SusieBookworm
Jan 2, 2010, 7:55 am

I was wondering when it quit being used. Thanks!

43Sean191
Jan 4, 2010, 8:34 am

#36 - that's hilarious. I wish I had that dictionary and then I'd spell words that way and defend myself by saying "It's in the dictionary"

44calotype
Jan 4, 2010, 9:41 am

I think mine is The Court of Napoleon or, Society Under the First Empire with Portraits of Its Beauties, Wits and Heroines, printed in 1858.

The portraits are rather luscious engravings sprinkled liberally through the entire book. I looked at, then hesitated and set it back down. Then, browsing nearby, heard a woman say to her husband it would be fun to cut the book up and frame the plates to hang in the guest bathroom.

She set the book down, and I grabbed it and bought it. Guest bathroom, indeed.

45SusieBookworm
Editado: Jan 4, 2010, 5:14 pm

#44: My mom had the same experience in an antique store; the woman wanted to use the fractur (probably spelled wrong) printing for collages. We now have a hefty German religious book from the mid-19th century by a Johannes Arndt -- we keep running across that name for various German Lutherans, like a Renaissance reformer, an 18th century ancestor who founded a bunch of local churches after immigrating, and the author, so it has some interest to us even if my parents never get around to attempting to translate the 500+ pages.
My entire family finds it disgusting that people would even consider the thought of cutting up books. Seriously, if you want the prints or something just PHOTOCOPY it.

46AndreasP
Jan 6, 2010, 5:36 pm

My oldest book is Des Durchleuchtigsten Fürsten und Herrn ... Cantzley Ordnung, a book that contains the Mecklenburg code of law procedures, printed in 1669. A very nice book that also features some handwritten oath formulas and the likes in the end. It has been in my family since at least 1900, but since the family is of Mecklenburg descent, probably longer, maybe much longer.

47SusieBookworm
Jan 7, 2010, 4:17 pm

The Johannes Arndt who immigrated to America lived in Mecklenburg - North Carolina, though.

48greg1066
Fev 9, 2010, 7:55 pm

My oldest is one volume of Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica published in 1575 by Christopher Plantin. While not the complete work, it's still a rather nice quarto.

49Malmroth
Abr 19, 2010, 1:46 pm

my oldest (by far) is the collected work of Pontanus from 1513. I got it at an auction some ten year back, not that expensive.

502wonderY
Maio 6, 2010, 6:27 pm

Moriae Encomium: or, The Praise of Folly
translated by Kennett Lord Bishop of Petersborough, White.

The frontespiece says:

"Adorn'd with A great Number of COPPER PLATES, neatly engraven: To which is added, the EFFIGIES of ERASMUS, and Sir THOMAS MORE, from the Sefigns of the celebrated HANS HOLBEINE.
The Fourth Edition.
LONDON:
Printed for STEPHEN AUSTEN, at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-yard. 1726"

51cbellia
Editado: Maio 25, 2010, 7:12 pm

The oldest book I own is a (missile) Missal given to me for my First Communion when I was about 6 years old. I still own it. It is the best book in my library. There is a bible in the library printed in Venice by Arrivabenus in 1487. Does this put me in the running?

52Steven_VI
Maio 25, 2010, 2:15 pm

cbellia, I'm nominating you and your missile for best typo of the decade ;-)

53cbellia
Maio 25, 2010, 7:10 pm

Missile / Missal. why quibble over a 60 year old book?
Thanks Steven, I feel a little like Dan Quayle's "potatoe".

54DeusExLibrus
Maio 25, 2010, 7:48 pm

A Modern Library edition of Varieties of Religious Experience by William James from the 1930's. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how legit it is, as it does not match descriptions of any modern library book from that period, and I have gotten no responses on the thread I posted asking about it in the Modern Library collectors group here on LT.

55cbellia
Maio 25, 2010, 9:44 pm

The (Modern Library Price Guide) lists The Varieties of Religious Experience as a regular issue, in print between 1936 and 1985

56DeusExLibrus
Maio 26, 2010, 12:40 pm

Thanks Chellia. I don't have a copy of the guide yet, so its nice to know its included.

57oregonobsessionz
Maio 29, 2010, 3:01 pm

My oldest are not so old: The Life and Beauties of Shakspeare {sic} Comprising Careful Selections From Each Play; With a General Index, Digesting Them Under Proper Heads from 1852 and The Most Eminent Orators and Statesmen of Ancient and Modern Times; Containing Sketches of Their Lives, Specimens of their Eloquence and an Estimate of Their Genius from 1854, which I bought for their bindings and plates.

>14 varielle:
Varielle, I also have Den Svenska Psalmboken from 1884 - it belonged to my great grandmother, who immigrated to the US in 1888. The pages on mine are not split though. The burgundy color leather binding was beginning to crumble, so I had it rebound.

58Elaine099
Ago 24, 2012, 11:14 am

My old books are not in this league at all ...mostly only about 100 years old... perhaps there are 30 of them that had come into the family to remain in the house that I now own... what ever to do with them when I down-size and move...?

59Keeline
Ago 24, 2012, 2:09 pm

I already made a reply in a similar thread in this group with my 7 volume set called The Spectacle de la Nature with dates from 1736 to 1748 but bound similarly.

Outside of this set, we only have 9 entries between 1750 and 1850. For us, an old book also needs to have interesting content and preferably that which we can read (English or perhaps Latin) as well.

James

60Nicole_VanK
Editado: Ago 25, 2012, 3:41 am

A 1786 French edition of Oeuvres by Nicolas Boileau. I remember I found it decades ago in a used book store - further details are hazy.

I picked it up because the author - as a literary theorist - had some influence on 18th century French art theory, which was the topic of my thesis I was working on at the time. His views on poetics and particularly on the "sublime"* are fascinating. His own literary output boars me to tears though.

(I do have older fragments. For example some pages from the a mid 16th century Latin Bible - possibly the 1540 Estienne Bible - interesting for me because they show a reconstruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by Vatablus. But obviouslsy a book was pilfered because of this).

* He also translated Longinus "On the Sublime" (Περὶ ὕψους).

61henkl
Ago 25, 2012, 3:58 am

Mine is also from 1786: Fabelen van J. de La Fontaine, two volumes (out of five) of a Dutch translation of La Fontaine's fables.

62chg1
Editado: Ago 26, 2012, 6:27 pm

The oldest I own is a 1784 original and rare compilation of possibly somewhat plagerized (from the likes of William Lilly?) writings on astrology by Ebenezer Sibley:

A New and Complete Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology : or, the Art of Fortelling Future Events and Contingencies By The Aspects, Positions and Influences of the Heavenly Bodies, Founded on Natural Philosophy, Scripture, Reason and the Mathematics, In Four Parts.

It is somewhat confusing to read as some of the letter s's are like a small f. Styles change...

63Keeline
Ago 26, 2012, 10:40 pm

62>

Before a point in the very early 1800s, showing a lower case "s" as an "ƒ" was fairly common. In most typefaces there is not a crossbar on this character. It takes a bit of getting used to but can be done. What is even more interesting is that sometimes you will see a modern "s" in some positions. I'm not sure of the rule to use the modern "s" vs. the long "s".

Much harder, for me, is to see "black letter type" (some might call it "Old Engish" but this is a misnomer) in German books even of fairly recent vintage. Being unfamiliar with the shapes of these letters, it is harder for me to readily identify these letters to even begin a translation with a web tool like Google Language or Babel Fish.

This is why, if I'm going to get an early book, I prefer it to be in English and contain some illustrations.

I also like it when an old book I have has been scanned into PDF for Google Books or Archive.org. Such is the case for the Spectacle de la Nature though the fold-out illustrations are not scanned in these versions.

James

64chg1
Ago 26, 2012, 11:26 pm

>63 Keeline:

showing a lower case "s" as an "ƒ" was fairly common

...which leads me to wonder if, during the transition from the older style, that there was a saying "mind your f's and s's"
like "mind your p's and q's"

65anglemark
Ago 27, 2012, 5:09 am

>63 Keeline:

The round s is used in final position and as the second s in a double s. The long s (ƒ) is used in all other positions.

66Keeline
Ago 27, 2012, 11:52 am

64>

"Mind your p's and q's" comes from typesetters. The small bits of metal type for a typeface were in two large divided drawers. One of these was for the capitals ("upper case") and the other tray was called "lower case." After a page was set up, proof prints made, and possibly electrotype plates made for printing, the type would be "distributed" back into the trays.

Unless one is paying attention, the "q" and "p" look very much alike. In most typefaces they are mirror images of one another. Hence, if letters are put in the incorrect compartment during distribution or pulled while the type is set on the composing stick, you can end up with the wrong letter printed. This is also a problem for "u" vs. "n" and "0" vs "O" sometimes.

There are even fictional stories (short ones of course) that make reference to this sort of thing. I recently found one in Golden Days, a Philadelphia weekly story paper, from the 1890s.

Early typesetters had to be concerned not just with common letters like these but also combinations of characters, called "ligatures", and diacritical marks on characters. There are interesting studies of the 42-line Bible (aka Gutenberg Bible) to show how many different pieces of type were necessary for it and even places where you can buy such type to set your own Gutenberg page.

James

67Vanye
Ago 27, 2012, 1:41 pm

I once heard that 'mind your p's & q's comes from people who ran a tab in pubs. The bartenders would admonish them to mind their p's (pints) & q's (quarts) so they would know what their tabs were and I suppose that he hoped to keep them from running them up to where they could not pay them.
8^)

68tiffin
Ago 27, 2012, 2:38 pm

Both Wiki and the Oxford Dictionaries discuss these interpretations, and both conclude that there is no conclusive answer!
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/01/origin-to-mind-your-ps-and-qs/

69chg1
Ago 27, 2012, 5:58 pm

OMG...I made another digression...Really, my comment was meant to be a joke about the transition from the "Old" style to the "New" style "s".

70jordan.ethier
Editado: Set 27, 2012, 5:33 pm

I have an 1810 copy of "Pilgrims Progress" by John Bunyan. I have several copies of this work because they always come with such gorgeous plates!

71SavageDougall
Set 29, 2012, 12:41 am

The Oldest book in my library is a copy of St. Ronan's Well from 1832 that my cousin found for me at a flea market

722wonderY
Set 29, 2012, 12:40 pm

I just found an oldish hand drawn engineering journal dated 1880. It appears to have been required for a class, in order to practice architectural lettering and drawing.

73cbellia
Nov 23, 2012, 9:05 am

/Users/Carmelo/Desktop/DSCN1225.JPG

74Osbaldistone
Nov 24, 2012, 2:20 pm

>71 SavageDougall:
Your copy was published about the time of Scott's death. Not long before that, he had finished a major effort to add significant footnotes and end-notes, new introductions, and expanded glossaries (the Scot's English glossaries are great help). Scott referred to this effort as his magnum opus and they came to be called the "Magnum Edition". Yours may be this expanded edition. I know there was a "Magnum Edition" of 1932.

This was for the most part the standard edition used in sets produced by publishers for several decades, though not always identified as the "Magnum Edition" or "Magnum Opus Edition". They've not been published with the extensive additions much after the late 1800s.

Os.

75wjburton
Fev 28, 2014, 6:22 pm

My oldest book is a 1534 copy of Cicero's rhetorical works, Rhetorica ad Herennium and De Inventione, in Latin. I bought it on eBay from an Italian seller. The book has a vellum binding. It has the strange condition that some pairs of joined pages are heavily browned while often times the adjacent pages are almost white. I like the fact that the book has handwritten annotations in a tiny script dated 1627.

76papyri
Mar 1, 2014, 10:07 am

The variation in paper quality and discoloring/browning of some pages and not others is not that unusual in 16th and 17th century books. It shows the paper used was from different batches and has aged differently. It is the result of quality and type of linen (old rags) used by the the original papermaker/mill to make the paper. Generally, the paper, though discolored, is not brittle. Also, sometimes the discolored pages show round light circular "water' spots as well.

77wjburton
Editado: Mar 3, 2014, 3:58 pm

I thought it might have something to do with the paper itself, but I was puzzled by it - I wasn't thinking of it in terms of batches. Some of the pages are brittle, they've turned a dark even brown.

78Keeline
Mar 3, 2014, 4:37 pm

Beginning in the 19th Century it was fairly common for books to be printed from electrotype or stereotype printing plates. A page of type would be "copied" into a single plate. No longer was it necessary to try to print from the individual letters (or lines from Linotype devices) cast from soft lead-based type metal.

An electrotype plate could be made by pressing wax against the page of type. The wax was brushed with something conductive like graphite and this was dipped in a tank with an electrical source and source of copper. After enough time and electrical current, a deposit of copper would fill the impressions of the wax mold. A hard backing would be added. The copper was harder than lead so would last longer than lead type.

An important aspect of this is that once the plates were made, by either method, the type could be redistributed to the drawers or melt it back into the typesetting machines. Hence, a printer was no longer limited by the quantity of type on hand or that which could be cast.

On much older books like you are describing, it was more likely that not all of the pages would be printed at once. Instead, several pages (in multiples of 4) would be set and printed. The printed sheets would be set aside and the process repeated for other pages in the book.

On a longer process like this, it is easy to imagine that the source of paper and its quality and constituent materials could change.

Storage of the sheets until the final binding could also impact the appearance of the paper.

I don't know if this is what happened for your copy. However, I merely want to convey that there are a number of possibilities that could cause different kinds of paper be used on different portions of a book.

James

79wjburton
Mar 3, 2014, 7:42 pm

Thank you. It might help explain that while the signatures of the leaves are (mostly) correct, the pagination in Roman numerals is really inconsistent - it could be explained by different batches of paper being inserted at different times and consequently losing track of the page numeration.

80nrmay
Set 1, 2014, 9:13 pm

My oldest!

The American instructor, or, Young man's best companion : containing spelling, reading, writing and arithmetick, in an easier way than any yet published, and how to qualify any person for business, without the help of a master. Instructions to write variety of hands, with copies both in prose and verse ... Also merchants accompts ... with a description of the several American colonies. Together with the carpenter's plain and exact rule, shewing how to measure carpenters, joyners, sawyers, brickl
by George A. Fisher

Printed by Benjamin Franklin in 1753