Folio. 139 leaves; title-page printed in red and black.
Arber, Term Catalogues II, page 176.
Madan 2170
note.
STC H1411.
Christoph Helwig, 1581-1617, German chronologist. This work was originally written in Latin and published in 1609. The Francofurt and Oxford
editions mentioned in the title were printed in 1666 and 1651 respectively. This is the
second edition of the English translation which had first appeared in London in 1677. In this edition Roger L’Estrange’s License,
October 19, 1686, is on the verso of (c)
1. The work is arranged in tabular form; it begins with Adam and ends in 1685. There is no mention of the discovery of America,
of Columbus nor of other American explorers. The invention of the art of printing by John Gutenberg of Strasburg is noted
in the year 1440.
[136]
5
Weeks’ introduction to chronology.
12
mo.
1815 Catalogue, page 15. no. 1, as above.
WEEKS,
James Eyre.
The Gentleman's Hour Glass. Or, An Introduction to Chronology; being a plain and compendious analysis of Time and its Divisions
Dublin,
printed for J. Hoey, 1750.
12mo.
No copy of this book has been located for collation, and no copy has been traced in any bibliography. Not in the British Museum
Catalogue.
This book is not listed in Lowndes, the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, Watt, Allibone, or the British Museum Catalogue. The title was obtained from the card of the University of Minnesota in the National Union Catalog.
James Eyre Weeks, or
Weekes, who may have been the author of this work, died in 1762.
[137]
6
Not in the Manuscript Catalogue.
1815 Catalogue, page 10. no. 11, Colvin’s historical letters, 12mo.
[COLVIN,
John B.]
Historical Letters; originally Written for and Published in the Virginia Argus: including a brief but general View of the
History of the World, Civil, Military and Religious, from the Earliest Times to the Year of our Lord, 1811 . . .
Richmond: Printed and Published by
Samuel Pleasants,
1812.
D7 .C7
First Edition. 12mo. 142 leaves: [ ]
4, the first a blank, [ ]
6, C-Y
6, the last a blank, in a 25 letter alphabet.
This edition not in Sabin, not in the Virginia State Library Catalogue.
Jefferson’s copy was a presentation from the author, who wrote to him from Washington City, March 26, 1813: “I beg you to accept the accompanying volume of “Historical Letters.” I confess I am ashamed of the typographical execution
of the work, the badness of which is chiefly to be attributed to its being published to the South of the Potomac. It is a
reproach to that part of the United States that so useful an art as that of printing, should be there so much neglected, in
point of embellishment, as it is . . .”
Jefferson replied from Monticello on April 8: “
I thank you for the historical work you have been so kind as to send me . . . it will also be a convenient Manuel even to
proficients, who often wish to consult shorter works for a refreshment of memory when occasion occurs for taking more general
views. for these purposes doubtless the work you sent me will be useful, & it’s cheapness as well as brevity will probably
bring it into considerable demand . . .
”
In the second edition of this work published in 1821 by Milligan in Georgetown, this letter is quoted in full.
Jefferson is mentioned in the text of the volume, page 282:
In 1801 Thomas Jefferson was elected to the same office [i.e., the Presidency]
, and was re-chosen in 1805: He voluntarily retired in 1809, when James Madison succeeded him.
John B. Colvin, fl. 1800-1821, American newspaper editor and lawyer, was for a time a clerk in the State Department in Washington. The
Preface Dedicatory of the book, dated October, 1812, is addressed to Mrs. James Madison.
[138]
