Visus libelli, V.a.615
This item was featured in a temporary display in the Tea Room case at the Folger Shakespeare Library as one of the Tea Room temporary exhibitions starting in October 2014.
Visit Luna view images of this item's binding.
Item Label
Visus libelli: this vade-mecum memorial manual of muses, or compleat compendious complexe and companion, of learned languages and sciences, scarcely another to be seen so short, small and full, is most fitt and serviceable of a travelling tutor and disciple abroad, or else much rising and walking at home…
(late 17th century)
Shown with facsimile images and cataloging record
This multi-disciplinary all-in-one textbook was designed for tutors to use with their young clients while on tour, condensed into an exquisitely-bound 800-leaf duodecimo volume. The unidentified compiler devotes nine handwritten pages to describing the book’s indispensability, and then supplies roughly eighteen key printed texts, along with engravings and manuscript material. A handwritten curriculum for students aged 5–12 includes such subjects as mathematics, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, rhetoric, medicine, theology, law, geography, and astronomy.
The dense volume is too tightly bound to be viewed without the assistance of a cradle holding it open to a 30 degree angle. The printed texts lack title pages and other preliminaries, and the book as a whole lacks navigational tools such as page numbers or tabs. Despite the compiler’s intent to design a compact and portable library, it is completely impractical to use.
The Folger has dedicated this recent acquisition to the memory of Folger Rare Materials Cataloger Nadia Sophie Seiler, who finished cataloging it in May. Nadia died in a motor accident in August. In her seven years at the Folger, Nadia added over 2,500 records to Hamnet, edited thousands more, and described at least 4,200 individual manuscripts in Folger finding aids. She referred to this manuscript as “the brick,” and her catalog record for it is a masterpiece, succinctly describing its many complexities.