Secretarial copies of ca. 500 letters from about 200 figures in the sciences in France.

Palm-leaf book in Malay and Arabic.

Books of hours were among the most common devotional texts of the Middle Ages. Produced throughout western Europe until the early 16th century, books of hours were important status items, often elaborately illuminated, that might be tailored to the specific tastes of well-heeled clients to reflect interests in particular saints or to incorporate other elements of their personal lives and religious, political, or social commitments. Although the specifics of its origin remain uncertain, the APS Book of Hours is organized in a fairly typical fashion. Beginning with a calendar specifying feast days and other holy days, the book includes readings from the gospels, prayers (Obsecro te, O Intemerata), the Hours of the Virgin, the Hours of the Cross, the seven penitential psalms (6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129), the litanies and prayers, the office for the dead, and additional prayers devoted to Saints Barbara, Anthony, Margaret, and Sebastian. Each of the 22 sections begins with a full-page illustration, many with additional vignettes. An additional vignette of a figure of death is included in the office of the dead. The volume was donated to the APS by Detmar Basse-Müller in 1806.

Books of hours were among the most common devotional texts of the Middle Ages. Produced throughout western Europe until the early 16th century, books of hours were important status items, often elaborately illuminated, that might be tailored to the specific tastes of well-heeled clients to reflect interests in particular saints or to incorporate other elements of their personal lives and religious, political, or social commitments. Although the illuminated pages have been removed from this book of hours, the gift of Timothy Matlack in 1811, it remains an elegant and ornate manuscript, with initials and line fillers in prominent gilt, red, and blue. Only one page remains from the calendar (the last), however many of the major elements of the book can be identified, including the prayers to the Virgin, the Stabat Mater Dolorosa and stations of the cross, the penitential psalms, litanies, and prayers, and the office of the dead.

In a letter to the Librarian of the American Philosophical Society in 1901, Henry Charles Lea noted that a manuscript of this work was known to the compiler of "Biblioteca nova scriptorium Hispaniae," but no printed edition was known.

This copy was secured by Thomas Jefferson, 30 June 1817, and was presented by him to the American Philosophical Society Historical and Literary Committee, 6 November 1817.

A translation, with additions, by J. W., 1806, from Mentzel's Sylloge minutiarum lexici latino-sinico- characteristici ex autoribus et lexicis Chinensium eruta (Nuremberg, 1685). This volume was carefully compiled from lexicons and other Chinese books in their proper characters to which is prefixed a Chinese grammar.

A book of Cakchiquel sermons. Libro de sermones predicables en las fiestas mas principales de todo el año y de las de la orden de N.Serafico Pe San Francisco compuesto en lengua cakchiquel.

Volume of sermons, beginning with the Sermon predicable en el domingo de septuagessima.

The Theologia Indorum ("Theology for the Indians" or "Theology of the Indians") was written by the Spanish Dominican friar Domingo de Vico from 1552-1554. It is considered the first original Christian theology written in the Americas and the longest single text written in an indigenous language of the Americas in the colonial era. Written in K'iche' (sometimes written as "Quiché,") a Mayan language of Guatemala, it played a major role in Spanish efforts to convert the Highland Maya.

This is a manuscript dictionary, apparently of the Mandingo language, with latin equivalents.

These notes, apparently drawn together for lectures, are on general studies, but with a particular emphasis on zoology.

Born in Leith, Scotland, in 1774, Robert Jameson was a pillar of the scientific establishment at the University of Edinburgh for over fifty years, and was one of Scotland's most important mineralogists and natural historians. Kept by W. D. Wilson, a student at the University of Edinburgh, this volume includes notes of lectures on zoology and meteorology delivered by Robert Jameson in 1822-1823. Wilson wrote that he omitted the introductory lectures, and added: "I do not mean to fill this book with copious Notes; -- I shall put down merely a few of the general facts, -- and any thing of interest not to be found in the text books of the class."

It is suggested that this manuscript draft "was written for the court of Charles III of Spain and for the plan of a Madrid academy of sciences. In his text, Condorcet tries to sell the idea of a scientific academy and all its advantages, and he treats questions of academic structure and organization at length. Also, what is most important, Condorcet makes the argument for the academy as an independent center of a professional scientific career" (McClellan 1977:241). Contains also an extract from the [minutes?] of the academie des sciences, May 12, 1785, consisting of a report of committee on this article.

Descripçaó e uso De Dynamomêtro, Para contreur e comparar a forca relativa dos homens a dos cavallos e de todas as bêstas de tiro: para julgar a resistencia das maguinas... This instrument was used for measuring and comparing the relative strength of men, horses, and other beasts of burden. Also included are descriptions of other instruments, and engraved plate illustrations.

This manuscript was presented to the Société Royale des Sciences de Montpellier, and endorsed as being received by them on 8 October 1786, for a prize in physics which the society was sponsoring on the question if the Newtonian explanation of rainbows was incontestable. Flaugergues' presentation won the prize. Included are numerous geometrical and other types of sketches.

One of the great scientists of colonial Mexico, Martin de Sessé y Lacasta arrived in Mexico City from his native Aragon in 1780. A founder of the Botanical Garden in Mexico City, Sessé was also co-leader of the sixteen year long Royal Botanical Expedition, which surveyed the flora and fauna of the Spanish colonies from California to Costa Rica. Sessé returned to Spain in 1803 to write up the results of his expedition, but died before completing the project. The results were finally published in 1887, when they appeared as Plantae Novae Hispaniae and Flora Mexicana. The Catalogo de animales y plantas Mexicanas by Martin de Sessé y Lacasta represents a catalog of plant and animal specimens collected by the Royal Botanical Expedition in Mexico as of 1794. The manuscript is arranged in three parts: a brief letter of introduction to the Conde Revillagigedo (11p.), an inventory of animal specimens (52p.), and an inventory of the plants (163p.). The plant and animal sections are organized by Linnaean class, with a code indicating whether they were drawn from life, whether a specimen was collected, and whether the species was new to science.

John Benbow, Jr., of Cowley Hall Mills, Middlesex, England, was an avid amateur beekeeper in the 1840s and 1850s. His "Bee Book" is a small (16mo) copiously illustrated treatise and journal of beekeeping. Divided into three parts -- "Other people's experiments," "Our own experiments," and an annual log (1846-1854) -- the book includes information on hive construction, seasonal management, the cleaning of hives, and other miscellaneous information culled both from printed sources and personal "experiments." The 44 pen and ink drawings include technical drawings of hives and beekeeping apparatus, along with humorous sketches of the activities of an "amateur apiarian."

One of the broadest scholarly minds at the University of Göttingen during the eighteenth century, Johann Beckmann helped establish the theoretical basis for scientific agriculture in Germany and pioneered a rational approach to technological innovation and government. The "Grundsätze der teutschen landwirthschaft" consists of exceptionally detailed notes kept by the otherwise unidentified C. F. Rüze on two well known works by the Göttingen scholar, Johann Beckmann. Organized page by page, apparently as Ruze worked his way through Beckmann's book, these are divided into two sections: "Einleitung in die teuchtschen Landwirthschaft überhaupt" (90p.), which are observations on Grunsätze der Teutschen Landwirtschaft, and "Policey und Cameralwissenschaft" (87p.), which refers to Beckmann's Beyträge zur Oekonomie, Technologie, Polizey und Camaralwissenschaft.

Antonio Leon y Gama, an astronomer sometimes considered the first Mexican archaeologist, provided the first European account of Aztec archaeology. His description of the discovery of the "two stones", Descripcion Histórica y Cronológica de las dos Piedras (Mexico, 1791) -- the Coatlicue and Sun Stone (a massive sacrificial stone and calendar) emphasized the sophistication and high scientific and artistic achievements of the Aztecs, responding to and quickening the stirring of Mexican nationalism. Leon y Gama died in Mexico City on September 12, 1802 William E. Hulings' translation of Leon y Gama's Descripcion Histórica y Cronológica de las dos Piedras reflects the intense early American interest in the archaeological marvels of Aztec Mexico. Made in 1818, the manuscript also includes ethnographic notes on the Aztecs, particularly on Aztec religion, and is divided into three sections with separate pagination: "An historical and chronological description of two stones found under ground, in the great square of the City of Mexico, in the years 1790" (84p.), "Notes to Antonio de Leon y Gama's Work" (19p.), and "Translated from the Diary of Mexico, for Augt. 5th 1806" (3p.).