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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The construction of the first Westminster Bridge, upon which Wordsworth composed his famous sonnet, presented many challenges in terms of the materials and methods with which a sturdy bridge could be built in tidal water and on a gravelly riverbed. A number of candidates presented their surveys to the commissioners of the bridge, but it was the Swiss-born Charles Labelye (1705–62) who was appointed to oversee construction in 1738. The bridge opened to traffic in 1750. This 1751 publication expands upon the shorter work that Labelye had prepared in 1739 to address the laying of the foundations. Significantly, he used caissons - vast wooden structures sunk into the riverbed - within which the stone piers were built. Although the promised illustrations did not appear in this work, the book provides a valuable insight into the technical problems of a major engineering project, and the solutions available at that time.
The Nautical Magazine first appeared in 1832, and was published monthly well into the twenty-first century. It covers a wide range of subjects, including navigation, meteorology, technology and safety. An important resource for maritime historians, it also includes reports on military and scientific expeditions and on current affairs. The 1874 volume continues the previous year's attacks on attempts by Samuel Plimsoll to introduce seaworthiness inspections and other safety regulations, arguing for 'individual responsibility' rather than 'maternal interference by the State in the business concerns of daily life'. In addition to covering these debates, this volume concludes the series of articles on 'great ports' and begins one on 'our colonies'. It also contains the latest statistics on shipbuilding, substantial updates on steam technology, notes on a fascinating selection of court cases, and a song claimed to be highly effective in teaching trainee seamen the 'rule of the road at sea'.
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. . 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 17, comprising issues 33 and 34, was published in 1888.
Richard Hakluyt's 12-volume Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, originally published at the end of the sixteenth century, and reissued by the Cambridge Library Collection in the edition of 1903–5, was followed in 1625 by Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes, now reissued in a 20-volume edition published in 1905–7. When first published in four folio volumes, the work was the largest ever printed in England. An Anglican priest, Samuel Purchas (1577–1626) was a friend of Hakluyt, and based his great work in part on papers not published by Hakluyt before his death. As well as being a wide-ranging survey of world exploration, it is notable as an anti-Catholic polemic, and a justification of British settlement in North America. Volume 2 covers the first circumnavigations, including those of Magellan and the Dutchmen Noort and Spilbergen, and the founding of the East India Company.
The Stuart writer and gardener John Evelyn (1620–1706), whose two-volume Sylva is also reissued in this series, kept a diary from the age of eleven, and in the 1680s began to compile this memoir from his records. It was first published in 1818 in an edition by the antiquarian William Bray; this three-volume version of 1906 was edited by Austin Dobson (1840–1921), the author and poet who also wrote the volume on Henry Fielding in the 'English Men of Letters' series, among many other literary biographies. In an extensive preface, Dobson explains his reasons for revisiting a work which had already received much editorial attention, and his introduction gives a short biography of its author. Volume 3 covers the period from 1677, including the death of Charles II and the Glorious Revolution, and ending with notes made a few weeks before Evelyn's death in 1706.
Published in 1878, this biography of the civil engineer Robert Stevenson (1772–1850) was written by his second-youngest son David (1815–86), also a civil engineer and uncle to the author Robert Louis Stevenson. Having already published The Principles and Practice of Canal and River Engineering in 1872 (also reissued in this series), he set about writing this survey of his father's life and works, based on extracts from Robert's professional reports, notes from his diary, and communications to scientific journals and societies between 1798 and 1843. Perhaps most widely known for his practical and persuasive leadership in building many lighthouses for the Northern Lighthouse Board - including that on the notorious Bell Rock, over which he came into conflict with engineer John Rennie regarding the design - Stevenson ensured that the Scottish coastline became a much safer place for shipping for decades to come.
Harvard's first professor of English, the American scholar Francis James Child (1825–96) had previously prepared a collection of English and Scottish ballads, published in 1857–9, before he embarked on producing this definitive critical edition. Organised into five volumes and published in ten parts between 1882 and 1898, the work includes the text and variants of 305 ballads, with Child's detailed commentary and comparison with ballads and stories from other languages. Although he did not live to fully clarify his methods of selection and classification, modern scholars still refer to the 'Child Ballads' as an essential resource in the study of folk songs and stories in the English language. The work also contains a helpful glossary of archaic terms and a long list of sources. Volume 3, Part 2 (1889) contains ballads 156-188, including 'Flodden Field' and 'The Lads of Wamphray'.
Described as a 'hermit nation' because it isolated itself from the rest of the world, Korea remained very little known to English speakers in the late nineteenth century. During his time in Japan, the American author and educator William Elliot Griffis (1843–1928), who did much to foster understanding between the United States and Japan, became fascinated by Korea and its influence on Japanese history and culture. This historical outline of Korea is compiled from printed sources and eyewitness accounts rather than from personal experience since Griffis was yet to visit Korea at this point. Despite this, and the fact that he was sometimes criticised for presenting Korea in comparison with Japan, this book was well received. First published in 1882, it contains an annotated bibliography and features maps and illustrations throughout. Griffis' most famous work on Japan, The Mikado's Empire (1877), is also reissued in this series.
The respected phonetician and philologist Henry Sweet (1845–1912) has had a lasting influence on the study and teaching of linguistics, particularly phonetics and Old English. Sweet is also known for being, in part, the inspiration for Henry Higgins in Shaw's Pygmalion. This two-volume work, first published in 1892–8, marks the start of a new tradition in the study of English, although it received little attention in Britain upon its publication. Building on developments in European linguistics, this was the first grammar of English to adopt a scientific approach to the description of language, in particular of phonology. Volume 1 (1892) contains one of the first studies of English phonology, which applies the same rigorous analysis to the spoken language as to the written, as well as detailed descriptions of the parts of speech, accidence, and the history of English.
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 27, comprising issues 53 and 54, was published in 1901.
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 25, comprising issues 49 and 50, was published in 1897.
The pre-eminent historian of his day, Edward Gibbon (1737–94) produced his magnum opus in six volumes between 1776 and 1788. Reissued here is the authoritative seven-volume edition prepared by J. B. Bury (1861–1927) between 1896 and 1900. Immediately and widely acclaimed, Gibbon's work remains justly famous for its magisterial account of Roman imperialism and Christianity from the first century CE through to the fall of Constantinople and beyond. Innovative in its use of primary sources and notable for its tone of religious scepticism, this epic narrative stands as a masterpiece of English literature and historical scholarship. Volume 1 commences with the early emperors and a survey of the empire's extent and expansion. Examining Roman culture, law, government, slavery and agriculture, Gibbon guides the reader through three centuries to Constantine's emergence as sole emperor in 324.
The Eocene sediments of the London and Hampshire basins in southern England are rich in fossil invertebrates, plants and vertebrates; in particular, they yield a great diversity of often well-preserved fossil mollusc shells. Seeking to provide a methodical treatment of known specimens, Frederick E. Edwards (1799–1875) and Searles V. Wood (1798–1880) had divided the workload of describing the Mollusca found in the English Tertiary formations, with Edwards taking the older formations and Wood the newer. When Edwards became ill, however, Wood took on the Eocene bivalves, yet he was unable to add much to the treatment of cephalopods and gastropods. Featuring detailed illustrations, the two volumes provide for each species a synonymy, diagnosis (in Latin), full description, dimensions, occurrence, and well-informed remarks. Volume 2 comprises Wood's Monograph of the Eocene Bivalves of England, originally published in three parts between 1861 and 1871. This reissue includes the 1877 supplement.
The pre-eminent historian of his day, Edward Gibbon (1737–94) produced his magnum opus in six volumes between 1776 and 1788. Reissued here is the authoritative seven-volume edition prepared by J. B. Bury (1861–1927) between 1896 and 1900. Immediately and widely acclaimed, Gibbon's work remains justly famous for its magisterial account of Roman imperialism and Christianity from the first century CE through to the fall of Constantinople and beyond. Innovative in its use of primary sources and notable for its tone of religious scepticism, this epic narrative stands as a masterpiece of English literature and historical scholarship. Volume 4 focuses on the fifth and sixth centuries CE, examining the Vandal sack of Rome and the fall of the Western Empire, the conversion of barbarians to Christianity, the Saxon conquest of Britain, and the wars of the Goths and the Vandals.
The botanist and explorer John Bartram (1699–1777) is regarded as having created the first true botanical collection in North America. Alongside Benjamin Franklin, he was also in 1743 a founding member of the American Philosophical Society. In the summer of the same year, he set out from Philadelphia on an expedition through Iroquois lands. Published in London in 1751 through the efforts of Bartram's correspondent and fellow botanist Peter Collinson, this short work chronicles the six-week journey, offering an important early insight into the region's ecology. As well as providing observations on flora, fauna and geography, Bartram includes insightful descriptions of the activities of the Native American population. The expedition members were able to travel further than was previously possible owing to the participation of the agent and interpreter Conrad Weiser, who had earned the respect of the Iroquois. The work concludes with a brief description of Niagara Falls by the naturalist Peter Kalm.
As well as being the most distinguished painter of his generation, Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–92) was also the author of several works of art criticism and guides for artists, some of which originated as lectures delivered to the students of the Royal Academy by him as their founding president. This work, first published in 1778, collects six of the addresses given to the Academy on 'Prize Day', between 1769 and 1776, prefaced with the first address by Reynolds to his fellow artists of the newly founded institution in 1769. Each discourse was later printed and distributed to those present at Reynolds' expense. They present his views of the purpose of art, and in particular the necessity of intellectual dignity in what he calls the 'great style' of the Florentine Renaissance masters. The discourses also demonstrate his wide reading among the aesthetic theorists of his own and earlier ages.
Laurence Austine Waddell (1854–1938) spent twenty-five years as a medical officer in the colonial Indian Medical Service. Fascinated by the landscapes and cultures of Darjeeling and Tibet, and inspired by reports from British spies surveying the remote Himalayan valleys, Waddell studied local languages, and spent his leisure time researching and writing on Tibetan topics. His books The Buddhism of Tibet (1895) and Lhasa and its Mysteries (1905) are also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection. This 1899 publication, illustrated with photographs and drawings, claims to describe 'the grandest part of the grandest mountains in the world', for the first time since Hooker (whose 1854 Himalayan Journals are also reissued), and anticipates today's trekking industry. Waddell's colourful account of jungles, snakes, glaciers, yaks, dizzying mountain ridges, rickety bamboo bridges, tribal peoples and unfamiliar food aims to 'bring home to the reader a whiff of the bracing breezes of the Himalayas'.
Originally published in Dutch in 1715, this two-volume work by the philosopher and theologian Bernard Nieuwentyt (1654–1718) is reissued here in the 1724 third edition of the English translation by John Chamberlayne (1668/9–1723). The book seeks to persuade both Christians and atheists that scientific examination of the natural world is compatible with religious belief. According to Chamberlayne, Nieuwentyt published this illustrated work to 'magnify the Wisdom and Goodness of God' while challenging those who did not see proof of the divine in nature. The work is known to have influenced the natural theology of the English philosopher William Paley (1743–1805), whose famous analogy of the watchmaker is believed to have been taken directly from Nieuwentyt. Arguing against rationalist philosophers such as Spinoza, Volume 1 defends natural theology and presents a series of detailed 'contemplations' about the complexity of the human body.
Richard Hakluyt's 12-volume Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, originally published at the end of the sixteenth century, and reissued by the Cambridge Library Collection in the edition of 1903–5, was followed in 1625 by Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes, now reissued in a 20-volume edition published in 1905–7. When first published in four folio volumes, the work was the largest ever printed in England. An Anglican priest, Samuel Purchas (1577–1626) was a friend of Hakluyt, and based his great work in part on papers not published by Hakluyt before his death. As well as being a wide-ranging survey of world exploration, it is notable as an anti-Catholic polemic, and a justification of British settlement in North America. Volume 15 focuses on the West Indies, Mexico, and 'New Spain', and especially on the narratives of José de Acosta.
The horticulturalist John Lindley (1799–1865) worked for Sir Joseph Banks, and was later instrumental in saving the Royal Horticultural Society from financial disaster. He was a prolific author of works for gardening practitioners but also for a non-specialist readership, and many of his books have been reissued in this series. The first volume of this two-volume work was published in 1834, and the second in 1837. At a time when botany was regarded as the only science suitable for study by women and girls, Lindley felt that there was a lack of books for 'those who would become acquainted with Botany as an amusement and a relaxation', and attempted to meet this need. In the second volume of 'this little work', Lindley continues to introduce new 'tribes' of plants, including exotica such as mangoes and Venus fly traps, to his lady correspondent and her children.