Educational sammelband circa late 17th century

This article describes the provenance, contents, and provides selected transcriptions from the manuscript portions of this collection--the Visus Libelli. For further details, please consult this item's Hamnet record V.a.615.

Provenance

Like many early modern manuscripts, the provenance of this sammelband is unknown. But, it is an excellent example of learning practices of the time. The one name that does appear is that of Sir William Waller (c. 1639-1699), who was a politician who took his own Grand Tour during 1656. Waller's name appears on the final leaf of the Farnaby text bound in this work.[1]

About the sammelband

Visus Libelli contains printed extracts from at least sixteen printed educational titles, mostly in Latin, which are then framed by manuscript prefatory and postscript material, curricula, and a table of contents. Its size was one of its chief assets. Instead of having to travel with an entire library of text books devoted to mathematics, medicine, languages, theology, and astronomy, a tutor could carry a single, very rotund, duodecimo. The compiler provides a unique window into the intended use of his work, and into the needs of tutors on the Grand Tour, which had its beginnings in England at the time that he compiled the book.

For a fuller description of this work, see its featured post on the Folger blog, The Collation.

Sammelband contents

[ALSTED, Johann. Methodus Admirandorum Mathematicorum Novem Libris...]. [Liber 3] Geometriam, pp. 98-144, 4 tables; [Liber 4] Cosmographia pp. 145-168, 11 plates and plate of music; Liber Quintis Uranoscopiam pp. 169-248.
Galtruchii Tabulae Mathematicae, figures [i.e., GAUTRUCHE, P. Mathematicae totius...ca.1668
[Jonas] Moore's Fortification Tables [i.e., Mathematical compendium, ca. 1674] Begins: Chapter I, Of a Perpetual Kalendar or Almanack, pp. 1-[120].
[FARNABY, Thomas] Farnabii Poeticae Phrases Selectae [various, interleaved].
[Jonas] Moore's Mathematical Manual [i.e., Mathematical compendium].
[COMENIUS, Johann A. Ianua linguarum reserata. Elsevier, 1640s?]. Latin and Greek in parallel columns.
Cartesii Diopticae Figurae.
[HORN, Georg. Orbis Politicus] Pars 3. Complectense Meorabilia totius mundi, pp. 1-114, various insertions.
Contracted Euclid. Isaac Barrow: series of 166 + 39 geometric figures with printed notes.
[SCHMITZIUS, Johann Andreas. Medicinae Practicae Compendium. Geneva, 1659?], pp. 250, with "Salmons anatomical figures" [folded leaf].
[Astrological map; Systema Saturni]
[ALSTED, J.H. Methodus ss. Theologiae in VI libros ?Hanover, 1634, 311 pp.] [Running title] Praecognita Theologica / Systematis Theologica pp. 33-[?280]
Figurae Principiorum et Meteororum Cartesii; figures.
Epitome REgularum Iuris Civilis: 5 ff., 32mo.
[Grammaticae Latine Graecae and Hebraicae compendium, ca. 1665] An introduction to the Latine tongue. 70 pp.; Grammaticae Graecae compendium; Rhetoricae adumbratio; Linguae Hebraicae dileatio; Radices Hebraicae.
Mathematical Tables.

Selected manuscript transcriptions

Title

Visus Libelli
This Vade-Mecum Memorial Ma=
nual of Muses, or Compleate Compen=
dious Complexe and Companion, of
Learned Languages Sciences,
Scarcely another to be seen so short,
small and full, is most fitt and servicea=
ble

(folio 1r)

Selected alternate titles

I. Or a Travelling Tutor
and Disciple abroad, or
else much rising and walking
at home. 1. Because this Little
Library of Learnings and lan=
guages saves the troubles and
paines of carrying and turning
great many book-baggages.

(folio 1r)

7. Makes at last a full Treasure of
heart, mind, memory and iudgement,
without whimsing and confounded
Quack cawdle or hotch-potch:
all in a due Right nature and Or-
der of things, both Old and New
Rarities, by a full heart, and
Ingenious exercised iudgement, not
by a pocked paper, and cunning
Coucheon Copy-hold, or a babbling
Quack spirit.

(folios 1v-2r)

[II.] 5. The young Scholar alone, or
with his more or less Learned Com=
panion, may turn, talk, or Con=
verse together, in and with this
Little Library Companion: till
the Book once will be well
wasted, far above the money-
worth.

(folio 2r)

Notes

  1. Marshall, Alan. “Waller, Sir William (c.1639–1699).” Alan Marshall In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/28562 (accessed May 29, 2014).