Georgie Moore, our Graduate Trainee, considers how the voices of two early modern criminalized women, the princess and the poisoner, are collected in the St John’s College Library. Restoration London, 1663 When a German princess checked into an inn, the innkeeper did what any astute uncle would do: he summoned his nephew to marry her.Continue reading “The Princess and the Poisoner: early modern wives, capital crime, and autobiography”
Category Archives: Early printed books
“To delight and entertain”: Children’s Literature in the Special Collections
This blog post explores texts in our special collections written and created for children, and the ways in which this genre has evolved through the centuries. These items span from Ancient Greek stories and 17th century fatherly advice, to Victorian adventurers and mischievous modern poems. Links throughout the post will allow you to learn moreContinue reading ““To delight and entertain”: Children’s Literature in the Special Collections”
Literary Landscapers: horticulture in the special collections
November’s blog post featured Philip Miller’s Gardeners’ dictionary (1731), collecting names and offering advice for his fellow gardeners. This month the Special Collections blog further explores the theme of horticulture in early printed books.
A world of words: 17th and 18th Century dictionaries
This month’s Special Collections blog posts celebrates languages by exploring the 17th and 18th Century dictionaries housed in our Old Library. They include texts that share definitions, translations, and even advice on pruning fig trees…
Words on Witchcraft
The late 16th and early 17th Centuries saw the peak of ‘witch hysteria’ in Europe. Paranoia surrounding ideas about sorcery and demons led to accusations, trials and cruel punishments, including tens of thousands of executions. This month’s blog post explores the literature that fuelled this phenomenon: as texts that condemened or seemingly provided evidence forContinue reading “Words on Witchcraft”
The Texts of the Reformation
The 31st October 2017 marks the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, a text that sparked the Reformation. The movement was entwined with the introduction of Gutenberg’s printing press, allowing the rapid spread of texts such as pamphlets and vernacular Bibles. As such, it is a historical moment of shift in terms of reading, writingContinue reading “The Texts of the Reformation”
Scandinavia in the Special Collections
This month, we gather together a number of different items which share a northern theme: twentieth-century cartoons, seventeenth-century astronomy, nineteenth-century literature, sixteenth-century history, eighteenth-century exploration, and a seventeenth-century Bible. Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus [Description of the Northern people], Olaus Magnus (1550) ∑.2.14 Olaus Magnus (1490-1557) was a Swedish writer and Archbishop of Uppsala, and thisContinue reading “Scandinavia in the Special Collections”
Robert Hooke, Micrographia (1667), and Lectures and Collections (1678)
The works of Robert Hooke are well preserved at St John’s College Library with the library holding copies of 17th-century publications of Hooke’s work on microscopy, observations of comets, and the proposition of his eponymous law of elasticity. Robert Hooke (1635-1703) was renowned in his day for being an early member of the Royal SocietyContinue reading “Robert Hooke, Micrographia (1667), and Lectures and Collections (1678)”
Mamusse wunneetupanatamwe up-biblum God (the Massachusett Bible), 1661-1663
St John’s College library has a copy of the first Bible published in America. It is written in the Massachusett dialect of Algonquian, a Native American language which missionary John Eliot learnt in part of his attempt to convert the Massachusett people to Christianity and literacy. In 1663, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Samuel Green published JohnContinue reading “Mamusse wunneetupanatamwe up-biblum God (the Massachusett Bible), 1661-1663”
Abraham Ortelius, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum
In St John’s College Library’s Special Collections there are four copies of Ortelius’s world atlases. These were the first attempts at mapping the known world in its entirety which demonstrate a balance between striving for accurate cartography and presenting the wondrous elements of the distant world. Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598) From Antwerp, Brussels, Ortelius was partContinue reading “Abraham Ortelius, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum”