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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In 1866, William Howard Russell (1820–1907) published this work, the official account of the July 1865 expedition on board the Great Eastern to lay a cable along the Atlantic Ocean floor between Valentia, Ireland, and Foilhummerum Bay in Newfoundland. It is illustrated with 26 lithographs of watercolours by Robert Dudley, who also travelled with the expedition. The cable, constructed by the Telegraph Construction & Maintenance Company, was designed to create a communications bridge between North America and Europe, enabling telegrams to be sent and received within minutes, when previously messages could be sent only by ship. The 1865 expedition was the fourth attempt to lay the cable, and although after 1200 miles the cable broke and was lost in the ocean, an expedition the following year was finally successful. This lively account of a pioneering attempt will appeal to anyone with an interest in the history of technology.
In the second half of the eighteenth century, the English philologist Nathaniel Brassey Halhed (1751–1830) was employed in India by the East India Company. There he was asked to translate into English the Hindu legal code, so that the British authorities could better understand native laws. The result was this accomplished work, first published in 1776, which served to correct Western misinterpretations of Hindu law, and to show that it was fully adequate for application in Bengal, and also the most appropriate system, as opposed to Western-style laws, in the region's cultural and religious milieu. In preparing it, Halhed sought advice from experienced native lawyers, who provided verifications of both the Persian version and its Sanskrit original. Accompanied by the translator's preface and a glossary, this extensive code remains of relevance to scholars of Indian law and history.
This two-volume compilation contains the texts of documents in Latin, Middle French and Middle English (with translations and abstracts) concerning the later phases of the Hundred Years' War, focusing on the period 1423–50. Published between 1861 and 1864, it was edited by Joseph Stevenson (1807–95), a Northumbrian archivist and clergyman who had been instrumental in persuading the British government to sponsor the Rolls Series project. Volume 2, Part 2 focuses on material from English libraries including Lambeth Palace and the College of Heralds. It covers court and dynastic matters, and contains lists of combatants and casualties, articles of surrender, a papal bull with its delivery receipt, an invoice for copying two books, details about the procurement of bows and arrows, ships and horses, and an account for the expense of keeping a prisoner in custody. This volume also includes a chronological summary of the documents in each book.
Despite a frustrated ecclesiastical career - his ongoing failure to secure the See of St David's embittered him - Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales, Gerald de Barry, c.1146–1220/23) composed many remarkable literary works, initially while employed as a royal clerk for Henry II and, subsequently, in semi-retirement in Lincoln. Eight volumes of his works were compiled as part of the Rolls Series of British medieval material. Volume 4, edited by historian J. S. Brewer (1809–79) and published in 1873, contains two texts, one a moral, quasi-pastoral critique of the monastic orders, the other a life of Geoffrey Plantagenet (1151–1212), Archbishop of York, focusing on power struggles at the Angevin court. Noted for his vigorous Latin and anecdotal style, Giraldus gives a vivid portrait of medieval Britain, while the English editorial preface illuminates nineteenth-century interest in the period.
Published in two volumes for the Rolls Series between 1888 and 1889, this is the oldest surviving metrical chronicle in vernacular French. It was written by the Anglo-Norman poet and historian Geoffrei Gaimar (fl.1136–7), who lived in England at a time when French was still used among the aristocracy. The text is largely based on the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and also draws on various French, English and Latin sources. Gaimar's unique perspective breaks with the tradition of religious chronicles by offering the first secular account of the history of England. Edited by archivist and antiquary Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy (1804–78) and Charles Trice Martin (1842–1914), Volume 2 is a translation of the original text into modern English. It covers the period from the arrival of Cerdic in 495 to the death of Henry I and includes the story of Havelok the Dane.
Consciously modelling himself on the Venerable Bede, William of Malmesbury (c.1090–c.1142) was one of the most learned of all the medieval chroniclers. His monumental Gesta regum anglorum ('Deeds of the English Kings') is a model of historical scholarship, written in engaging, fluid Latin. It was first completed around 1125, but was later revised and extended. The first two books of the Gesta are an impressive demonstration of William's extensive bibliographic and antiquarian knowledge. In this first volume of a two-volume set, originally published between 1887 and 1889, editor William Stubbs (1825–1901) presents these first two books, which narrate events from the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons to the Battle of Hastings. Stubbs' own lengthy preface is a detailed examination of William's life and work, which sets his historical writings in the context of his time and credits him as the first truly systematic historian since Bede.
Despite a frustrated ecclesiastical career - his ongoing failure to secure the See of St David's embittered him - Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales, Gerald de Barry, c.1146–1220/23) composed many remarkable literary works, initially while employed as a royal clerk for Henry II and, subsequently, in semi-retirement in Lincoln. Eight volumes of his works were compiled as part of the Rolls Series of British medieval material. Volume 8, edited by archivist George F. Warner (1845–1936) and published in 1891, contains his 'Liber de principis instructione', a moral treatise including much invective against the Angevin court. Written while Louis of France - in whose support Giraldus composed a poem - was scheming to replace King John, the Latin text, in Giraldus' vigorous and anecdotal style, gives a vivid picture of contemporary politics, while the English introduction illuminates nineteenth-century interest in the period.