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Chapter VII: Books and Libraries.

THE flow of books to the New England colonies increased rather than diminished during the second period. Gifts and shipments to individuals continued to come from England; booksellers became numerous; and both the Public Library and the Harvard Library grew in size.

As in the earlier period, John Winthrop, Jr., was one of the chief recipients of books. In 1670 Henry Oldenburg, returning to Winthrop the thanks of the Royal Society for curiosities which he had sent, wrote,¹

And y^t this returne may not be altogether verbal, you are to receiue wth it some few books lately printed here by several Fellows of y^e Society, viz.:

1. Mr. Boyles Continuation of ye Experimts concerning the Spring and weight of the Aire.
2. Dr. Holders Philosophy of Speech.
3. Dr. Thurston de Respirationis usu primario.
4. The Transactions of the last year.

In 1671 he wrote,

I herewith send you a few philosophical Books, lately printed here; viz.:

1. Mr. Boyl’s New Tracts about ye wonderful rarefaction and Condensation of the Air, etc.
2. Monsr Charas’s New Experiments vpon Vipers.
3. The Transactions of 1670.

To these I adde a small discourse . . . . against y^t great Sorbonist, Mons^r Arnaud, touching y^e Perpetuity of y^e Romish Faith about the Eucharist.²

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A year later he wrote,

I cannot but thank you for the particulars contained in y^r letter; for w^ch I have nothing to return . . . . but the Transactions of ye last year. . . . . The Discourse of Mr. Boyle concerning the Origine and Vertue of Gems is not yet printed off: when it is, you shall not faile, God permitting, of hauing a Copy of it sent you by y^e first ship y^t shall goe for y^r parts after its publication.³

Similarly Samuel Petto of Suffolk, England, wrote to Increase Mather in 1677,

I also intend to send with it [his letter], D^r Owen of the reason of faith.⁴

and again in 1678,

I have herewith sent you three books Christianismus Christianandus, and M^r Ny’s paper, of a question which is much debated here, . . . also Mr Troughton of Divine Providence, . . . . if I knew what other such bookes would be acceptable to you, I would send them.⁵

Four years later he wrote,

I did also direct a few lines to you, with M^r Stockton’s book entituled Consolation in Life & Death. . . . . I intend to send you another of Mr Stockton, entituled The best Interest when it is finished.⁶

Others were sending books, too. T. Jollie of England wrote in 1679,

I have sent you herewith 2 treatises, which severall yeares agoe I drew up when I was a prisoner.⁷

Abraham Kick of Amsterdam wrote in 1683 to Increase Mather,

I hope the bookes sent by Mr. John Pecke came safe to your hand . . . .⁸

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Samuel Baker of England wrote, September 2, 1684,

I have given Mr. Epps order to send you,

1. An Acc^o of the present state of the Prot. Religion, supposed by Dr. O[wen], though I guess you have it, for which reason I do not send you his Meditations of Glory.
2. A defence of his 12 arguments in answer to Baxter.
3. The Dr’s Escot reprinted, with a Catalogue at the end, of all the Dr’s books.
4. A little book against Health-drinking.
5. The life of one Mr. Henry Dorney . . . .⁹

He wrote again later,

I . . . return my acknowledgm^t for the books I haue recd. . . . I know not what return to make in this kind more acceptable than of Dr. Burnett’s L^rs10 herewith sent.¹¹

Jonathan Tuckney of Hackney, England, sent books to Increase Mather from time to time, as the following letters indicate.

I wrote to you about two months since & therewith sent you two bookes of my father’s labors, one English sermons, the other Latin Prelections & Determinations (as also two for my Cous. Whiting and two for my Cous. your Br. John Cotton), which I hope may be come to hand.¹²

. . . . your kind letter of May 8, together with your new peece of Illustrious Providences . . . . whereas you desire to see Dr. Spencer of Prodigies, I have procured it you, & herewith send it. . . . .¹³

. . . . I have thought (since my writing that letter of August 29, (wherein I inclose this) myself, to read over Spencer of Prodigies before I part with it from me. . . . And I desire you to accept from me in Exchange (which (you know the old saying is) that it is no robbery) another Latin piece

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of the same author’s concerning Urim & Thummim: what they were.¹⁴

The following letter to Increase Mather from John Leusden, Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Antiquities at Utrecht, January 1688-9, is an example of the correspondence with learned men abroad to which Mather referred in the passage quoted on page 104.

Most Reverend, Much to bee Respected S^r,—I sought you in America,¹⁵ and thither on the 30^th of March I sent some books, viz^t a New Lexicon, a Compendium of the Greek New Testament, two Psalters in Hebrew and English, and one in Hebrew & Latine. The Psalmes in Hebrew & English, I dedicated to M^r Eliot, & those four and twenty Preachers, lately heathens, now christians.¹⁶ The Psalmes in Hebrew & Latine I have inscribed to your Revd. name. . . . I lately received moreover two American¹⁷ Bibles, two American Grammars, & other American books, as also the Indian’s A.B.C. and some others, . . . You now desyre fifty Hebrew Psalters for the use of the students in Harvard Colledge; which I would now have sent, but because you doe not express what kind of Psalters it is which you desyre, whether Hebrew & Latine, or Hebrew & English . . . .¹⁸

Increase Mather sent home books from London during his residence there. His nephew, Warham Mather, wrote to him in 1688,

I delivered the Books I received from yourself according to order. . . . I am yet made a greater debter, by those for me.¹⁹

Cotton Mather recorded in his diary, January 7, 1698, “Arrives to mee, a Book in Folio, this year published in London . . . . a Collection of Remarkable Providences;”²⁰ and again, “ . . . . some such Thing as to read a little

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Book, De Satana Colaphizante, which I received from Holland, the day after I was taken sick.”²¹

Such items give some indication of the way in which books constantly came to America through private gifts. Even more striking is the increased importation of books through the regular channel of the booksellers’ shops. Before this period opened there was at least one well-established book-seller in Boston, Hezekiah Usher, who died in 1676, “leaving a goodly fortune and two sons to quarrel over it and evoke the aid of the law.”²² His son, John Usher, carried on the business, but not without considerable competition. When John Dunton, a London bookseller, arrived in Boston in 1686 for the double purpose of collecting bad debts²³ from New Englanders who had bought books of him and of disposing of surplus stock, he found several booksellers established here, and three others soon followed him. He speaks of some of them thus:

This Trader [Mr. Usher] makes the best Figure in Boston, he’s very Rich, adventures much to Sea; but has got his Estate by BOOKSELLING; he proposed to me the buying my whole Venture, but wou’d not agree to my Terms. . . . Mr. Philips, my old Correspondent . . . I’ll say that for SAM (after dealing with him for some Hundred Pounds) he’s very just, and (as an Effect of that) very Thriving. . . . I rambled next to visit Minheer Brunning,²⁴ he’s a Dutch Bookseller from Holland. . . . Brunning is vers’d in the Knowledge of all sorts of Books, and may well be stil’d a Compleat Bookseller. . . . From the DUTCH, I went to the SCOTCH Bookseller, one Duncan Cambel. . . . The next I’ll mention shall be Andrew Thorncomb, Bookseller from London . . . .²⁵

. . . tho’ I have first broke the Ice, in bringing hither a Cargo of Books; yet by some Letters I receiv’d by the Rose Frigot [sic] . . . I perceive I shall not he the last. [He proceeds to report

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the coming of Benjamin Harris and the How brothers, Job and John.]²⁶

The following list will give an idea of the number of men who engaged in the book business in Boston up to the year 1700, besides the Ushers and Dunton, who have already been mentioned.²⁷

1672. John Tappin published at least one book. Books were incidental to his business in general merchandise as is shown by the inventory of his estate in 1678: Books, £16.00.00, other stock, £4.777.07.07.

1673. Edmund Ranger established himself as bookseller, bookbinder, and stationer. He did little bookselling, his name appearing in three books, but was called bookseller in a legal document.

1675. John Foster took over Marmaduke Johnson’s press when the latter died. He combined bookselling with printing until his death in 1681, when Samuel Sewall succeeded him.

1677. Henry Phillips, after seven years’ apprenticeship with Usher, opened a bookshop in the Town House. Upon his death in

1680. Samuel Phillips, his brother, succeeded to the business. Although his shop was burned down in the great fire of 1711 and he did not resume business, he died wealthy in 1720.

—— Duncan Campbell. Date of arrival unknown; probably before 1679.

1679. William Avery married the widow of John Tappin and took over the bookshop which she and her son, Joseph, had carried on after her husband’s death. When Avery died in 1687, the widow continued the business. She died in 1707.

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1679. John Griffin’s name first appeared as publisher of a book. He died in 1686. Benjamin Harris may have taken over his shop when he arrived that same year.

1681. Samuel Sewall succeeded John Foster. He gave up the press and shop in 1684.

1681-2. John Ratcliff, who came over to work on the Indian Bible, published some books.

1682. Joseph Browning arrived from Amsterdam. He died in 1691.

1684. Richard Wilkins arrived from Limerick, where he had sold books. He opened a shop opposite the west end of the Town House. Dunton used his shop as headquarters and upon leaving put in his hands his collections amounting to £300. Wilkins retired in 1704.

1684-5. James Cowes opened a shop. He returned to England three years later.

1685. Andrew Thorncomb arrived. After the reference to him by Dunton, quoted above, there are no records. He may have returned to London.

1686. Job How arrived. Further detail is lacking except his name in one book as publisher.

1686. Benjamin Harris, a London bookseller, driven out of London because of anti-Catholic publications, set up a shop in Boston. He visited London in 1687 and again in 1688. In 1695 he closed his business in Boston and returned to London.

1690. Nicholas Buttolph opened a bookshop. His shop was burned down in 1711, but he continued the business.

1694. Michael Perry began business in Samuel Phillip’s old shop when the latter moved to a new location. Upon Perry’s death in 1700 his widow continued the business.

1698-9. Benjamin Eliot began a business which was very successful. He died in 1741.

Two others who carried books with other merchandise were

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Elkanah Pembroke, who opened a shop in 1689 at the Head of the Dock, and Joseph Wheeler, who had a shop in Dock Square, and published one book in 1697.

Samuel Sewall, even after he disposed of the printing and book shop, continued to do business in books. During his visit to England, 1688-1689, he recorded at different times payments for books which total over £30; and an invoice records that, among other freight:

Samuel Sewall hath aboard the America, Wm. Clark, Commander:

• Punchin Books
• Barrel of Books
• A Map of England and London.²⁸

His “Letter-Book” under date of April 25, 1698, contains a memorandum of an order per Capt. Thos. Carter to Amsterdam which includes a “Ream of Marbled paper, Spanish Bible of Cypriano Valero, Deodats Italian Bible.”²⁹ In his diary, in 1700, he recorded:

The President³⁰ desires me to send for the above mentioned Books [which are here written below]:

1. A Narrative of the Portsmouth Disputation between Presbyterians and Baptists at Mr. Williams’s Meeting-house.
2. B[isho]p of Norwich’s Sermon of Religious Melancholy.
3. Amintor, a defence of Milton with Reasons for abolishing the 30th Jany; [Two of them.]
4. An Account of the first Voyages into America by Barthol de las Casas 4°. [Two of them].
5. Account of a Jew lately converted . . . at the Meeting near Ave Mary-Lane [Four of them]³¹

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At the same time he copied into his letter-book the following:

The books I would have bought are

1. Ars Cogitandi. 2.
2. Le Grands Philosophy, Latin.
3. Heerboordi Meletomata. 3.
4. Dr. Charletons Physiologia.
5. Dr Moors Imortality of the Soul.
6. Metaphysicks, Ethicks
7. Glanvils Sceptis Scientifica
8. Dr. Wilkins’s nattural Principles, and Duties. His World in the Moon.
9. Stallius his Regulæ Phylosophicæ
10. Stierij Questiones Physicæ cum Praeceptis Philosophiæ.
11. Burgerdicius, Logick with Heerebords Notes.
12. The great Dist. Geographical, and Poetical Dictionary being a curious Misscellany of Sacred and Prophane History printed at London for Henry Rhodes. If there be an Edition since 1694, Send the best Two of them.
13. Francis Turretini Institutio Theologiæ Elencticæ .. Turretini Disputationes de satisfactione Christi.
14. Poles Synopsis criticorum . . . if [you] light on them a peniwoth.
15. A K[ing] Edward 6t , his Common Prayer Book
16. Queen Eliz[abeth] [her Common Prayer Book]
17. Queens Bible, If . . . reasonable;³²

He added to this order:

If the Money doe more than hold out, send in School Books;

• Esops Eng[lish] and Lat[in],
• Corderius Eng[lish] and Lat[in],
• Terrence English] and Lat[in],
• Ovid de Tristibus,
• Metamorphosis,
• Virgil,
• Tullies de Officijs,
• Grammars,
• constr[u]ing Books³³

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Later in the year he ordered:³⁴

• Pole’s Synopsis Criticorum if to be had under five pounds: as much cheaper as you can,
• A Ream of good Marble Paper.
• A gross of Horn-books.
• Two Cambridge Concordances. Octavo Bibles.

and a few days later:³⁵

• Duz. of Dr. Bates’s Harmony of the divine Attributes,
• 6. Flavels mental errors,
• 2 Mordeus Geographie rectified,
• 12. Colsons Seamans Kalendar.
• 6. Wakely’s Compass rectifier.
• 6. Norwoods Epitome of Navigation.
• One great Histor. Geograph. and Poetical Dictionary of the newest Edition . . . ³⁶

There were, evidently, plenty of channels through which the people of Boston and vicinity could obtain the latest books; and they made good use of their opportunities. With all the competition from the established bookshops Dunton seems to have found a good market; he wrote with satisfaction,

. . . having stock’d the Town of Boston with my Books; (some having bought more, I’m afraid, than they intend to pay for)³⁷ and having still a Considerable Quantity left, Several Gentlemen have given me great Encouragement . . . to send a Venture to Salem . . .³⁸

and there also he had success.

It is a mistake to think of these booksellers as carrying only theological or devotional works. No doubt such books

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were an important part of their stock in trade, perhaps even the larger part; but this would have been just as much so in England. We do not know, unfortunately, just what books Dunton brought with him from England, or what he took back with him unsold; but one item in his “Letters” may throw some light on the matter. He wrote of one customer,

The chief Books she bought were Plays³⁹ and Romances; which to set off the better, she wou’d ask for Books of Gallantry.⁴⁰

Plays and romances are hardly in keeping with the common notion of Puritan life in 1686, and it might seem necessary to reject this statement as one of the many untruths in Dunton’s very unreliable “Letters”⁴¹ were it not for the fact that recently discovered invoices of book shipments to New England show that such books were on sale in Boston even before Dunton came. In 1682 Robert Boulter, a London bookseller, sent to John Usher as a venture, “without ordre,” a shipment of nearly 800 volumes under about 125 titles. As Mr. Usher in October, 1680, was owing Mr. Boulter £370, he evidently had traded with him for some time, and therefore Boulter’s consignment was not a blind venture but a shipment of books to a market with which he was familiar.⁴² For that reason the items included in the list are of value as an indication of the probable taste of Boston readers. Some of the more interesting titles follow.⁴³

3	faramond [Pharamond, Or The History of France. A Fam’d Romance . . .]
2	last part of the english rogue
2	parismus [The most Famous . . . History of Parismus, the most renowned Prince of Bohemia]

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1	destruction of troy
1	Valentyn and orson [The Famous History of Valentine and Orson, the two sons of the Emperour of Greece]
4	esops in english
2	felthams resolves
16	Cap of gray haires [A Cap of Gray hairs for a Green head, or The Father’s Counsel to his Son, an Apprentice in London]
2	Clelias [A four volume translation from Scudery]
9	argalus and parthenia [The pleasant and delightful History of Argalus and Parthenia,]
1	pembrooks arcadia [Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia]
2	reynolds on Murther [The Triumphs of God’s Revenge against the . Sin of Murther, Expressed in Thirty several Tragical Histories.]
2	perfect politician [or A . . . Life . . . of O. Cromwell.]
2	temples miscellanea [By Sir William Temple]
1	Bacons works
1	Cambdens Elizabeth
1	Miltons history [The History of Britain]
6	Guy of Warwick
6	Reynard fox
12	dr Faustus [The History of . . . Dr. John Faustus]
12	Joviall Garland [. . . containing a Collection of all the newest Songs and Sonnets used in Court and Country]
12	Crown Garland
6	Garland of delight
6	fortunatus [The right pleasant, and variable Tragical, History of Fortunatus]
6	royall arbours [A Royall Arbor of Loyall Poesie, consisting of Poems and Songes, digested into Triumph, Elegie, Satyr, Love, and Drollerie]
8	Soggins jests [Scoggings Jests]
4	Mandevills travells
4	pack cards

The four other invoices, all of ordered books, show no such proportion of the light reading of that day, but do show that some real literature was imported into Boston. In

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connection with these items it must be remembered that these invoices report only the purchases of one Boston bookseller through a single ship captain (excepting those listed above sent by Boulter without order) in a period of less than two years.

Invoice of September 5, 1683.44
1	Hacklutes Uoyages
1	Mori Utopia
1	Felthams Resolues
7	Accademy Compliments [ . . . with many new Additions of Songs and Catches a la mode]
1	Shaftsburys Life
1	Poeticall History [a mythology]
7	Accademy Compliments, another sorte.
30	History of Dr. Faustus
Invoice of March 3, 1683-4.45
2	Erie of Rochesters Poems
4	Miltons Paradise Lost
6	Lestranges Erasmus in English
1	Baker’s Chronicle [of the Kings of England]
1	Pembrooks Arcadia
3	Accademy of Compliments
6	Nuga Uenales [ . . . being new Jests . . . ]
3	Present State of England
18	Dr. Faustus
6	Wilds Poems
6	Argulus and Parthenia
5	Oxford Jests
Invoice of May 29, 1684.46
4	State of England
3	Markhams way to get wealth
2	History of Parismus

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20	Gentle Craft [. . . with Pictures, and Variety of Wit and Mirth]
2	Wonders of the Femall world [ . . . or A general History of Women]
1	Her and His [Haec et Hic, or The Feminine Gender more worthy than the Masculine.
10	Second Part of the Pilgrims Progress.
2	Two Journeys to Jerusalem
2	London Bully [or The Prodigal Son; displaying the principal Cheats of our Modern Debauchees]
2	Informers Doome [ . . . with the Discovery of the Knavery and Cheats of most Trades in London]
3	Uenus in the Cloyster
Invoice of April 13, 1685.47
2	Glissons Common Law Epitomized
8	Jure Maritimo
2	Terms of the Law
3	Daltons Justice [The Country Justice]
2	Keebles Statutes
2	Cooks Reports Engl. [By Sir Edward Coke]
3	Blounts Law Dictionary
1	Sheppards Grand Abridgement [of the Common and Statute Law of England]
1	Hobbarts Reports [law]
3	Miltons Logick
6	History of Dr. Faustus
2	Rochesters Life [Burnet’s Life of the Earl of Rochester]
2	Pulton of the Common Pleas Engls.
5	Sheppards Sure Guide [for his Majesties Justices of Peace]
10	Wonderful Prodogies

From these invoices and certain references to bills and indebtedness Mr. Ford estimates that in the years 1679-1685, inclusive, John Usher imported books to a value of £567. Such a figure is a minimum rather than a maximum; he bought that much and he may have bought more through

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other captains and of other London booksellers, record of the transactions having disappeared, even as these invoices vanished for centuries. One other invoice of the period has survived, together with a letter from the shipper to Increase Mather. The shipper was Richard Chiswell of London, whom Dunton calls “the Metropolitan Bookseller of England.” He seems to have had a large trade in New England; the last four invoices above were of consignments from him. The letter and invoice follow; unfortunately the latter is not complete, including only the books sent to Dr. Mather, and not those to Usher which accompanied them.

Sr,—I rec’^d yours of July 19th, & have in M^r Vsher’s Cask p^r Anderson, in the Ship Blessing, sent you all the books you wrote for, & have returned 8 of your Principles, which I cannot sell .  . . .

I have added a few new things of good note which I hope you will be pleased with, the first of them is an answer to a Pamphlet I sent you in the last pcell, & which makes no small stir here at present. Hales of Eaton, & Stillingfleet are very famous. Walker of Baptism is said to be very learned & exceedingly well done. The two books of Contemplations were writ by the Lord Cheif Justice Hales, a person who for all kind of learning, Philosophy, Physick, Mathematicks, &c., as well as Law, (his proper profession,) and for most exemplary piety . has not le[ft] his fellow, . . . the whole nation mournes for the loss of him. That Great audit or Good Steward’s account, in the first vollume, is a most lively & exact character of his life. . . . I know not any two books have come forth these 20 yeares, that have sold so great a number in so short a time, as these two vollumes of his,⁴⁸ . . . I have sent a few books to M^r Vsher without order, which I put in to fill up the Cask. You may see them at his shop, & I hope may help some of them off his hands, by recom¯ending them to your publick Library, especially the new ones, which cannot be there already, pticularly D^r Caves Lives of the Fathers,

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& Dr Cary’s Chronologicall account of ancient time, which are both exceeding well esteemed by the most learned & ingenious men here.⁴⁹

A Coppy.

	£	s.	d.
Postage . . . Letters . . .	0.	1.	0
Dr Tuckneys Sermons, 4°	0.	8.	0
Straight gate to heaven, 12° bound,	0.	0.	8
Hotchkis reformation or ruine, 8°	0.	2.	0
Discovery of Pigmies, 8°	0.	1.	0
Horologicall Dialogues, 8°	0.	1.	0
Homes Cause of Infants maintained, 4°	0.	1.	0
Whiston on Baptism, all 3 parts, 8°	0.	5.	6
State of Northampton, 4°	0.	0.	3
Tozer’s Directions to a godly life, 12°	0.	1.	0
Barbets Chirurgery, 8°	0.	6.	0
Leybournes Dialling, 4°	0.	3.	0
Hook’s Motion of the Earth, 4°	0.	1.	0
Stephenson’s mathemat. compendium, 12°	0.	2.	6
8 First principles of New England, 4° returnd50.	0.	8.	0
ADDED.—
Pacquet of advices to the men of Shaftsbury, 4°	0.	1.	6
King & Ld Chancellor’s Speeches.	0.	0.	6
Dr Stillingfleet’s Letter to a Deist, 8°	0.	2.	6
Mr Hales (of Eaton) his Tracts, 8°	0.	2.	6
Hornecks Law of Consideration, 8°	0.	3.	6
Walker of Baptism, 12°	0.	3.	6
Rules of Health, 12°	0.	1.	0
Family Physitian, 12°	0.	1.	0
Judge Hale’s Contemplations, 2 Vol. 8°	0.	10.	0
24 Warrs of New England, 4°51
Catalogue No. 7. 8. 9. 10, fol.

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Besides the regular booksellers, there were hawkers of books whose influence cannot be estimated for lack of information. Ballads, broadsides, popular books such as “Pilgrim’s Progress” and Wigglesworth’s “Day of Doom,” and almanacs doubtless made up much of the hawker’s stock in trade. Cotton Mather’s busy brain saw opportunity for good here, for he recorded in his diary in 1683, “There is an old Hawker who will fill this Countrey with devout and useful Books, if I will direct him.”⁵²

There were, evidently, sufficient opportunities for the growth of private libraries. A letter from Increase Mather to Joseph Dudley, November 10, 1684, gives additional testimony of this fact. Writing of a letter containing defamatory matter to which his name had been forged to discredit him (probably by Edward Randolph),⁵³ he says:

He pretends as if I sent to Amsterdam for the New Covenant of Scotland, Carill upon Job, and Mr. Owen’s last works. Now herein he has so grossly played the fool, soe as to discover the letter to be a meer peece of forgery. As for the new Covenant of Scotland, I never heard of such a thing, . . . Carill have been in my study this fiveteen years, & if I had him not, it is likely that I should send to Amsterdam, for Mr. Carill & Doct. Owen’s works, which are here sould in Boston.⁵⁴

The best of the private libraries of New England were undoubtedly those owned by the Mathers, father and son. Of the latter’s Dunton wrote in 1686, when Cotton Mather was but eight years out of college:

. . . he shew’d me his Study: And I do think he has one of the best (for a Private Library) that I ever saw: Nay, I may go farther, and affirm, That as the Famous Bodleian Library at Oxford, is the Glory of that University, if not of all Europe, . . . so I may say, That Mr. Mather’s Library is the Glory of New-England,

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if not of all America. I am sure it was the best sight that I had in Boston.⁵⁵

Of this library Cotton Mather wrote in his diary, October 16, 1700:

[A widow] had a Parcel of Books, which once belong’d unto the Library of our famous old Mr. Chancey; and if I would please to take them, she should count herself highly gratified, in their being so well bestowed. I singled out, about forty Books, and some of them large Ones, which were now added unto my Library, that has already between two and three thousand in its⁵⁶

An extensive private library was brought to New England in 1686 by Samuel Lee, pastor of the church at Bristol from that year to 1691. Returning to England in 1691 he was taken prisoner by the French and died in France. The books which he left in Bristol were put on sale in Boston in 1693 at the shop of Duncan Campbell. The catalogue of these books, printed by Campbell, contains, besides pages of theological titles, the following titles:⁵⁷

Subject	Number
Physics	124
Philosophy	83
Mathematics and Astronomy	48	(in Latin)
	13	(in English)
History	112	(in Latin)
	45	(in English)
School authors	60
Law books	8
Unclassified	327

The following partial list will give an idea of the range of this library:

Paracelsi	Opera
Paracelsi	de Vita Longa

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Reolani	Anatomia
Willis	Anatomia cerebri
Helmontii	Opera
Helmont[ii]	dies Aurora rubra
Roger Bacon	perspect. per Combas.
———	Theatrum Chemicum vols. 1-4
Platonis	Opera
Seneca	Opera Luciani Phylosoph: Opera
Xenophon	Philosoph.
Aristot[ilis]	[several]
Bacon	de augment [atione] Scientiarum
Cartesii	Metaphisica
Petri Rami	prælectiones
Archemedis	omnia opera
Tychobrachy	opera omnia
Joan: Stadii	Ephimeridis
Evevautii	Ephimerid.
Newtons	Trigonometry
Newtons	Astronomy
Dugdal.	Monast. angl.
Duckdales	Antiquities of Warwickshire
Stout’s	Survey of London
Hollinshead’s	Chronicles of Scotland
———	England & Ireland in 3 vols.
Fox’s	Acts and Monuments
Rawleigh’s	History of the World
Eabran’s	Cronicles
Crackinthorp’s	Councils
Everard’s	Collections
Philpot’s	Survey of Kent
Sayndy’s	History of China
Wilson’s	History of Great Britain
Crossel’s	History of England
———	The Union of the Houses of York and Lancaster
Jones’s	Antiquity of Great Britain
Burlons	description of Leichester
Delaval’s	Travels

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Howel’s	History of London
Isaacson’s	Chronology
Brughton’s	Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain
Evebins [Evelin]	Discourse of Trees
Morison’s	Travels
Summer’s	Antiquity of Canterbury
Isaac’s	Rarities of Exeter
Langhorn’s	Introduction to the History of England
Allan’s	History of King Henry VII
Pitit’s	ancient Right of the Commons of England
———	The History of Mary Queen of Scotland
———	The History of the Navy of Great Britain
———	The Life of Merlin
———	The History of Scanderberg
Prin’s [Prynne]	new Discovery of the Prelates Tyranny
Bacon’s	Natural History
Bacon	Hist[oria] Naturalis
Baconi	Hist[ory of] Hen[ry] 7th
Demosthen[es]	Oration[es] &c.
Homeri	Iliad (3 copies)
Homeri	Odysse[y] (5 copies)
Lucan	cum notis
Ashylii	Tragediæ
Terentii	Tragediæ
Hesiodi	opera cum Scholiis
Pindari	Odes
Persii	Satyr[æ]
Sophaclis	Antigone
Sophaclis	traged[iæ] cum Scholiis
Horatius	(3 copies)
Aristophanis	(3 copies)
Euripidis	Hecuba Græca Salust
Martialæ	Epigram Tascitus
Macrobius
Boetius	de Gemmis
Plutarchi	vitæ
Caesaris	Comment. (2)

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Ceneca [sic]	Tragicus
Erasmi	Colloqui
Beda venerab.	de natura return (2)
	Marmora Arundeliana

As another example of the variety to be found in colonial libraries, the following list of titles from a library of only thirty volumes in all is of interest.⁵⁸

• London Despencettory
• Dixonarey
• Norwood’s Trigonometry
• Gervase Markham’s Gentleman Jocky
• Lambarde’s Perambulation of Kent
• Morton’s New England’s Memorial
• Sir Matthew Hale’s Contemplations
• The Effect of Warr
• 11 books on law

Some idea of Increase Mather’s library may be gained from the statements as to his reading which are found in his fragmentary diary for the years 1675 and 1676.⁵⁹ The authors read, with the titles of the books when given, are listed here. It should be noted that this list contains almost no duplicates of the titles found in the lists given on pages 52 and 53 and on pages 237-242.⁶⁰

Albaspinus	De Ritibus Ecclesiæ
Alsted	[not stated]
[Alwaerden?]	History of Severitus [Servetus?]
Autores	De Sinceritate
Bates	Vocatio
Bell	[not stated]
Boreman	“de swearing”
Bownd	“of Sabbath”

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Bridges	On Luke 17: 37
Buxtorf	Lex.Thalmud
Camel	not stated
Carter	On Hebrews 1: 1
Caryl	[not stated]
Chamberlain	State of E[urope]
Cicero	Orations
Clark	Vanity of Earthly Things
Clark	Examples
Elias Levita	[not stated]
Fenner	Alarm
Firmin	Real Christian
Franklin	Of Antichrist
Franzius	History of Brutes
Aul. Gallius	[not stated]
Goclenii	Logicæ
Goodwin	Sermons
Hall	On Timothy 3: 2
Herbert	Country Parson
Hubbard	History of Pequot War
Jerome, St.	Of Pliny
Johnson	[not stated]
Leigh	Of Colledges
May	History of War in E[ngland]
Morton	History of New England
Moxon	Of Globes
Owen	[various]
Paget	Chronography
Pareus	Orationes
Powell	[not stated] Purchase [sic] “of America”
Revius	de Capillitio
Reynolds	[not stated]
Rivet	[not stated]
Rutherford	“de drawing to Ct [Christ]”
Schindler	de Moseroth
Sibs	On Hosea 14
Smith, C.	Experiences
Stoughton	Of Covetousness

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Twisse	[various]
Voetius	[not stated]
Ward, R.	Politick Strategy
Willisius	de Memoria

Other books are mentioned without sufficient detail for identification. A few of these items follow.

• Discourse of Witchcraft
• Help to discourse
• Cabinet of Mirth
• Autores de Conviction
• Tollisⁿ of ye Jews
• de doctoribus Misnicis
• Coma Berenices Capell Hall
• Life of Richard 3
• History of Formosa.

The Public Libraries as well as private ones continued to grow. There are unfortunately few references to the Boston Public Library in the town-house during this period. Sir Thomas Temple, in a will drawn up and filed October 14, 1671, before he sailed for England, inserted the following clause:

. . . .  as also all my Bookes which I estimate at £150 &c in case of sd Nelsons death before he receive them then I doe give & bequeath . . . . the Bookes above sd. at the select men of Bostons dispose viz: such as are fit for the Towne Lybrary unto that; and the rest to be sold & given to the poor of this Towne.

Before he died he drew up another will in London, in which there was no mention of the Library.⁶¹ In a will dated March 12, 1673-4, John Oxenbridge made the following bequest:

To the Public Library in Boston or elsewhere, as my executors

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and overseers shall judge best, Augustine’s Works in six volumes, the Century’s in three volumes; the catalogue of Oxford Library.⁶²

The Boston Athenæum owns a copy of Samuel Mather’s “Testimony against Idolatry and Superstition,” inscribed “ffor the Publike Library at Boston, 1674.”⁶³ On August 2, 1683, the Selectmen gave an order to David Edwards

to receaue of Elder John Wiswall & Doct^r Elisha Cooke £34.4s. in mony for severall things he brought from England for y^e vse of the Library, by order of Captain Brattle. . . .⁶⁴

In 1686 the Town Records mentioned “the library room at the east end of the town house;”⁶⁵ and the same year Andros met the ministers “in the Library” at the townhouse.⁶⁶ At a town meeting March 11, 1694-5, it was voted

. . . . that all Bookes or Other things belonging to the Library . . . . be demanded and Taken care of by the Selectmen.⁶⁶

At a meeting of the Selectmen January 1, 1701-2, it was

Ordered that whereas Samuell Clough did formerly borrow the Towns Globes that he do now return them unto the Town Treasurer.⁶⁷

In Chiswell’s letter already given on pages 124 and 125 there is also a reference to this Library which would seem to indicate that Chiswell was accustomed to having many books of his sending bought by or for it:

I hope may help some of them off his hands by recommending

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them to your publick Library, especially the new ones, which cannot be there already.⁶⁸

The last phrase sounds as though any books but the newest might be expected to be found there.

The Harvard Library during this period received many important accessions. Under date of May 1, 1675, John Knowles wrote to John Leverett,

Alderman Ashurst hath about 50 books of history for the College from Mr. Baxter.⁶⁹

The same year John Lightfoot bequeathed his library, containing “the Targums, Talmuds, Rabbins, Polyglot, and other valuable tracts relative to Oriental literature.”⁷⁰ In 1677 the Reverend Theophilus Gale left to it all his books, consisting chiefly of patristic and controversial theology.⁷¹ In 1682 Sir John Maynard, sergeant-at-law, gave to the Library eight chests of books, valued at £400.⁷² The last two gifts brought in so many duplicates that the Fellows of the College ordered “that the double Books in the Colledge Library be prized & sold & ye money improved for the buying other books y^t are wanting.”⁷³

There exists in the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society a manuscript “Catalogue of such books as are double in ye Colledge Library,” and with it what purports to be a record of volumes sold, with the amounts paid. The second list, containing 396 items, is more extensive than

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the “catalogue,” which lists 99 in folio, 36 in quarto, and 37 in octavo and smaller. There are no dates on either. The record of sales is partly in Increase Mather’s hand. It may be that the second list covers a longer period of time, including later additions of duplicates. At any rate, about 400 titles of duplicates were sold, adding to the Library’s funds about £98.10.00. Among the duplicates sold were:

• Bacon’s Essays (2 copies sold, one at 2s, one at 1s.)
• Bacon’s Advancement of Learning
• Feltham’s Resolves
• Hackluit’s Voyages
• Herodotus
• Aristophanes
• Gassendi
• Keckermann
• Plutarch in English⁷⁴

John Dunton’s visit also added books to the Harvard Library, and gives us a glimpse of it through London eyes. He wrote home,

I was invited hither [to Harvard] by Mr. Cotton⁷⁵ . . . by his means I sold many of my Books to the Colledge.⁷⁶

Elsewhere he wrote,

The Library of this Colledge is very considerable, being well furnish’d both with Books, and Mathematical Instruments.⁷⁷

With the increased importation of books and with the growth of libraries there seems to have been an increase rather than a decrease in the borrowing and lending of

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books. Of this the following extracts from letters written during this time are indicative. More letters illustrating this tendency are given in the Appendix.

G. F.⁷⁸ hath sent the a booke of his by Jere: Bull, & two more now, which thou mayest communecatte to thy Counsell & officers.

Allso I remember before thy last being in England, I sent the a booke, written by Francis Howgall againest persecution, . . . . which booke thou loueingly accepted. . . .⁷⁹

My last to thee was of the 29 D. 4. 72,⁸⁰ which Richard & Ester Smyth informed me they sent it to thee, so that they made noe doubt of thee safe convaience of it, with George Ffox bookes to thee, to which I shall refere thee. I haue other writings of G. F. not yet copied, which, if thou desireth, when I heare from thee, I may convaie them vnto thee; . . .⁸¹

May these few hasty lines salute you acceptably though only to certify the receiving of yours of the 18 of the former, & to thank you for that kindnesse, & that little volume of poetry therewith.⁸²

Thinking it might be acceptable, I have sent you a verse-book; and desire you would send the other to Mr. Walley.⁸³

It is evident from the details given in this chapter that the colonists did not lack for books, and that those which deserve the term literature were on their shelves in a fair proportion for the time. Evidence of the possession of still other books, and of their familiarity with and use of them, is to be found in the quotations with which they embellished their own writings.

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