A collection of out-of-copyright and rare books from the Cambridge University Library and other world-class institutions that have been digitally scanned, made available online, and reprinted in paperback.
A collection of out-of-copyright and rare books from the Cambridge University Library and other world-class institutions that have been digitally scanned, made available online, and reprinted in paperback.
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Daniel Chwolson (or Khvolson) was born in Vilna in 1819 and educated for the rabbinate. He attended universities in Breslau (Wroclaw) and Leipzig and became a professor of Oriental Studies in St Petersburg in 1855. This important monograph, originally published in German in 1859, was a milestone in the scholarly understanding of the ancient Near East. Chwolson argued, controversially, for the existence of a highly developed civilisation in Babylon long before the rise of the Greeks. His hypothesis was based on Arabic texts, preserved in several manuscripts, which the Muslim author (working in the early tenth century C.E.) claimed to have translated from ancient sources. In this volume Chwolson discusses three complete texts (a 1300-page treatise on agriculture, a medical work on poisons, and an astrological work) and a number of fragments. For each text, he considers the date and context of its composition, its authorship and its content.
David Mushet (1772–1847) was a self-taught Scottish metallurgist, who experimented with the making of iron and steel while working as an accountant for a foundry, and soon became an acknowledged authority on the subject. In 1800 he patented a method to make cast steel from wrought iron. His discovery that the previously ignored black-band ironstone could be used without additional coal to economically manufacture iron transformed the Scottish iron industry. Moving to England he was connected with several foundries where he continued his research, patenting a method of making refined iron in the blast furnace. He became a managing director of the British Iron Company, and was involved in collieries, railway and canal companies. Mushet was a pioneer in technical writing, publishing many papers in the Philosophical Magazine. This two-volume collection was published in 1840, and includes analytical data on many coals and their coking properties.
French zoologist and naturalist Georges Cuvier (1769–1832), one of the most eminent scientific figures of the early nineteenth century, is best known for laying the foundations of comparative anatomy and palaeontology. He spent his lifetime studying the anatomy of animals, and broke new ground by comparing living and fossil specimens - many he uncovered himself. However, Cuvier always opposed evolutionary theories and was during his day the foremost proponent of catastrophism, a doctrine contending that geological changes were caused by sudden cataclysms. He received universal acclaim when he published his monumental Le règne animal, which made significant advances over the Linnaean taxonomic system of classification and arranged animals into four large groups. The sixteen-volume English translation and expansion, The Animal Kingdom (1827–35), is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection. First published in 1817, Volume 3 of the original version covers molluscs, arachnids and insects.
The renowned classical scholar and archaeologist A. B. Cook (1868–1952) published the final volume of his monumental Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion in 1940. Part I, which contains the main body of text for the volume, weaves together archaeological, artistic and ancient literary evidence to explore the concept of Zeus as a weather-god - the god of earthquakes, clouds, wind, dew, rain and meteorites. In this final volume Cook draws together his conclusions on the major theme spanning all three volumes: Zeus as god of the sky. This sumptuous work, encyclopaedic in its breath, is a treasure-trove of primary texts, epigraph material and archaeological data. It contains hundreds of illustrations, including images of pottery, statues, friezes and ancient coins and the most important literary sources, both Greek and Latin, are quoted in full. It is an indispensable tool for students and scholars of classics, mythology and ancient religion.
The influence of John Ruskin (1819–1900), both on his own time and on artistic and social developments in the twentieth century, cannot be over-stated. He changed Victorian perceptions of art, and was the main influence behind 'Gothic revival' architecture. As a social critic, he argued for the improvement of the condition of the poor, and against the increasing mechanisation of work in factories, which he believed was dull and soul-destroying. The thirty-nine volumes of the Library Edition of his works, published between 1903 and 1912, are themselves a remarkable achievement, in which his books and essays – almost all highly illustrated – are given a biographical and critical context in extended introductory essays and in the 'Minor Ruskiniana' – extracts from letters, articles and reminiscences by and about Ruskin. This thirty-fifth volume, in two parts, contains Praeterita, Ruskin's autobiography, and Dilecta, his own published selection of his letters.
A precursor of modern academic journals, this quarterly periodical, published between 1810 and 1829 and now reissued in forty volumes, was founded and edited by Abraham John Valpy (1787–1854). Educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, Valpy established himself in London as an editor and publisher, primarily of classical texts. Edmund Henry Barker (1788–1839), who had studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, became a contributor and then co-editor of this journal, which fuelled a scholarly feud with the editors of the Museum criticum (1813–26), a rival periodical (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection). Although its coverage overlapped with that of its competitor, the Classical Journal also included general literary and antiquarian articles as well as Oxford and Cambridge prize poems and examination papers. It remains a valuable resource, illuminating the development of nineteenth-century classical scholarship and academic journals. Volume 6 contains the September and December issues for 1812.
A precursor of modern academic journals, this quarterly periodical, published between 1810 and 1829 and now reissued in forty volumes, was founded and edited by Abraham John Valpy (1787–1854). Educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, Valpy established himself in London as an editor and publisher, primarily of classical texts. Edmund Henry Barker (1788–1839), who had studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, became a contributor and then co-editor of this journal, which fuelled a scholarly feud with the editors of the Museum criticum (1813–26), a rival periodical (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection). Although its coverage overlapped with that of its competitor, the Classical Journal also included general literary and antiquarian articles as well as Oxford and Cambridge prize poems and examination papers. It remains a valuable resource, illuminating the development of nineteenth-century classical scholarship and academic journals. Volume 21 contains the March and June issues for 1820.
Founded in 1868 by the Cambridge scholars John Eyton Bickersteth Mayor (1825–1910), William George Clark (1821–78), and William Aldis Wright (1831–1914), this biannual journal was a successor to The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection). Unlike its short-lived precursor, it survived for more than half a century, until 1920, spanning the period in which specialised academic journals developed from more general literary reviews. Predominantly classical in subject matter, with contributions from such scholars as J. P. Postgate, Robinson Ellis and A. E. Housman, the journal also contains articles on historical and literary themes across the 35 volumes, illuminating the growth and scope of philology as a discipline during this period. Volume 14, comprising issues 27 and 28, was published in 1885.