Recently Acquired Rare and Antiquarian Materials

As the new academic year dawns, we present a collection of works acquired over the summer that promises to satisfy scholarly tastes ranging from the historian's to the statistician's.  Of particular interest is Leandro Alberti's famous chronicle of Bologna, a city with a history so long that Alberti only made it to 1253 before death, the ultimate deadline, overtook him.  Social scientists will be happy to note the acquisition of the Belgian astonomer and statistician Adolphe Quetelet's Physique sociale, ou essai sur le développement des facultés de l'homme, a work that is remembered today as a milestone in the study of 'human statistics' and the 'average man'.  For those who fancy man at his extremes, we again showcase Ovidian metamorphosis with Marolles' famous Le temple des Muses, as illustrated by the extraordinary early 18th-century illustrator Picart.

Photo by Sarah Sussman, SUL

Alberti, Leandro. Libro primo [-decimo] della deca prima delle historie di Bologna. Bologna: Per Bartholomeo Bonardo e Marc Antonio Grossi, 1541.

Photo by Sarah Sussman, SUL

"First edition of this important chronicle of the author's hometown of Bologna in ten parts which cover the period up to 1247.  Bound at the end is the separately published eleventh fascicle, and the last published by the author, bringing the chronicle up to 1253. . . .  Leandro Alberti (1479-1552) was an Italian Dominican historian. . . .  He was a close friend of most of the contemporary literati, who frequently consulted him."

Two small manuscript collections documenting  the impact of French Revolution on various sections of the French population  - these would be great sources for students interested in working hands-on with manuscript primary sources of the era:

Collection of 11 manuscript documents: letters, declarations, proceedings of a police search for weapons, executed on the properties of De Bon, Chevalier de Saint-Louis, commander of the Garde Nationale in Savignac (Gers), in June 1791. 11 pieces, forming 42 pp.

Includes pieces by De Bon, and pieces addressed to him.  Some pieces have marginal notes and comments in a different hand, and there is a list of executed people included which carries this note at the end: "on voudra bien observer que dans les départmens on s'est contenté seulement de faire un inventaire des armes qui se trouvoient chez les differens particuliers sans les enlever." 

Section 'Homme-Arme' - Manuscript originating from the 'Section de l'homme armé' of the '7e administration municipale deparée' sub-section 'des enfants rouges', providing the lists of names of people who had a right to vote and the voting results, dated 27 february 1792. 7 pp. - (Followed by:) Voting list of the Assemblée générale of the Section des Enfants Rouges of March 2, 1792. 11 pp. - (Followed by:) A list of March 8, 1792. 1 page. - (Followed by:) Short proceedings of meetings of May 14, May 15, June 5, June 10, June 12, June 19, June 26, June 27, July 8, July 21, July 24, July 25, July 29, July 31, and August 3, 1792, all including lists of members present at the meetings. 'Sections' were basic political divisions and centers of Revolutionary activity in Paris. They played a dual role: first as geographic and administrative subdivisions of the municipality, and second, as foyers of the Revolution. The large number of poor in the sections, underestimated at 10 percent of the population, led to the establishment of lay committees on poverty (see at length: Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution, ii, pp. 885-889.) The lists of March 1792 contain the names of the citizens who have voted for the nomination of 7 commissaires of the Section, with the counting.

Photo by Sarah Sussman, SUL

Maison LeClaire - Extrait du recueil de notes sur les abus introduits dans la peinture en bâtiment, ainsi que dans la dorure, la tenture et la vitrerie; avec les moyens de les prévenir et de les faire cesser. Suivi d'un règlement d'ouvriers. Paris, CarilianGoeury, 1841. (16) pp, 3-33 pp. (complete). - (Followed by:) DES AMELIORATIONS qu'il serait possible d'apporter dans le sort des ouvriers peintres en bâtiments, suivies des réglements d'administration et de répartition des bénéfices que produit le travail, et mis en pratique en 1842 dans sa maison. Paris, Ve Bouchard-Huzard, 1843. 61 pp. - (Followed by:) DIALOGUES sur la concurrence sans limites dans la peinture en bâtiments, ainsi que dans le dorure, la tenture et la vitrerie. Paris, Carilian-Goeury, 1842. (4), 36 pp. - (Followed by:) COMPTE RENDU aux clients de sa maison des résultats qu'ils lui ont aidé à obtenir pour le bien-être de ses ouvriers. Société de secours mutuels intéressée dans une entreprise industrielle. Participation de l'ouvrier aux bénéfices du patron. Paris, Ve Bouchard-Huzard, 1865. 31 pp. - (Followed by:) SUPPLEMENT au compte rendu. Paris, Ve Bouchard-Huzard, 1867. 20 pp. - (Followed by:) SOCIETE DE SECOURS MUTUELS des ouvriers et employés de la maison Leclaire. 28e assemblée générale annuelle, 5 mai 1867. Discours prononcé par M. Barral, ouvrier peintre en lettres. Paris, Ve BouchardHuzard, 1867. 16 pp. - (Followed by:) PROCES-VERBAL de la 29e assemblée générale de la Société de prévoyance et de secours mutuels des ouvriers et employés de la maison Leclaire. 3 mai 1868. Paris, Ve Bouchard-Huzard, (1868). 40 pp. - (Followed by:) MAISON LECLAIRE devenue A. Defournaux et Cie. Société de secours mutuels intéressée dans une entreprise industrielle. Association de l'ouvrier aux bénéfices du patron. Règlement de la maison. Règlement de la Société de prévoyance et de secours mutuels des ouvriers et employés de la maison Leclaire. Paris, Ve Bouchard-Huzard, Guillaumin et Cie., 1873. xxvi, 142 pp. - (Followed by:) REGLEMENT de la Société de prévoyance et de secours mutuels pour les ouvriers peintres de la maison Leclaire, autorisée par décision du Ministre de l'intérieur (no 160), en date du 28 septembre 1838. Paris, Ve BouchardHuzard, 1854. 16 pp. - (Followed by:) REGLEMENT à observer dans les ateliers par les ouvriers et employés. Paris, Ve Bouchard-Huzard, 1854.

Photo by Sarah Sussman, SUL

Very rare and very interesting: Maison Leclaire was the first company to apply worker's participation in the profits of the company and which also maintained a system of mutual insurance and mutual aid. The system of Leclaire served as a model for Louis Blanc in the 4th edition of his 'Organisation du travail' (1845). There exists a short treatise on Leclaire’s schemes for his workers: Mary H. Hart, A Brief Sketch of the Maison Leclaire and its founder (1882). A highly interesting collection.

Marolles, Michel de, Bernard Picart, Jacques Favereau, Abraham van Diepenbeeck, Cornelis Bloemaert, and La Barre de Beaumarchais. Le temple des Muses: orné de LX tableaux où sont représentés les evenemens les plus remarquables de l'antiquité fabuleuse. Amsterdam: Chez Zacharie Chatelain, 1749. 

Among the leading illustrators of the 18th century, Bernard Picart bridged the era between the late Baroque and the emerging trends of his own day.  The illustrations update Marolles' important collection of classic stories derived from Ovid's Metamorphosis.

Quetelet, A. Physique sociale, ou essai sur le développement des facultés de l'homme. Bruxelles, C. Muquardt; Paris, J.B. Baillière et fils; Saint Petersbourg, Issakoff, 1869.

Photo by Sarah Sussman, SUL

The revised and enlarged edition of Sur l'homme et le développement de ses facultés (1835) with much new material.  The first to promote the study of human statistics in France, Adolphe Quetelet (1796-1874), Belgian astronomer and statistician. He received instruction from Laplace in the theory of probability while he was in Paris to study the methods of practical astronomy. Quetelet's influence on statistics came first of all from his practical work in census taking, the practical rules developed by him still forming the basis of modern census work. In addition he was largely responsible for the extension of statistical study from such physical facts as population, economic resources and the like to the wide field of 'moral statistics', which includes the whole realm of acts determined by moral or psychological factors. In the field of theory Quetelet is known above all for his conception of the homme moyen or average man, a conception which in its positive contribution represents the application of the Gaussian normal law of error to the analysis of distributions of data on human characteristics. As a pioneering conception, however, Quetelet's doctrine was inevitably couched in metaphysical terms-as a theory of social determination through a hypostatized abstraction.