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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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Head of Rugby School for over a decade, Thomas Arnold (1795–1842) became Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford in the final year of his life. Known for his controversial ideas on schooling and religion, he was a prominent and influential figure in the history of British education. First published in 1844, this two-volume work presents a diverse collection of Arnold's correspondence, compiled by his friend and former pupil Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815–81), Dean of Westminster. Interspersed with biographical commentary by Stanley, the letters in Volume 1 illuminate Arnold's early life and work, and his career at Rugby up to 1835. In them he discusses his ideas for reform in both teaching and religion, revealing his unfailing dedication to both. Offering insights into the role of school and church in the early nineteenth century, Arnold's writings continue to interest scholars of both religion and education.
James Robert Ballantyne (1813–64) taught oriental languages in India for sixteen years, producing grammars of Hindi, Sanskrit and Persian, along with translations of Hindu philosophy. In 1859, for the use of Christian missionaries, he prepared a guide to Hinduism, in English and Sanskrit (also reissued in this series). Published in two volumes in 1852, Synopsis of Science was intended to introduce his Indian pupils to Western science by using the framework of Hindu Nyaya philosophy, which was familiar to them and which Ballantyne greatly respected. Volume 1 proceeds through a series of aphorisms exemplifying Western logic, forms of argument, the workings of the body and the senses, basic astronomy, geography, laws of Newtonian motion, the action of liquids, pneumatics, acoustics and optics. The second part of the volume is a Sanskrit translation. Overall, the work serves as an excellent primary source on the educational aspects of British imperialism.
Head of Rugby School for over a decade, Thomas Arnold (1795–1842) became Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford in the final year of his life. Known for his controversial ideas on schooling and religion, he was a prominent and influential figure in the history of British education. First published in 1844, this two-volume work presents a diverse collection of Arnold's correspondence, compiled by his friend and former pupil Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815–81), Dean of Westminster. Interspersed with biographical commentary by Stanley, the letters in Volume 2 illustrate Arnold's theological position through his correspondence with various church figures. Other letters further reveal his views on education, politics and public affairs, and document his year at Oxford. Included at the end of the volume is a supplement from 1847 which provides additional material that was unavailable at the time of the first edition.
The most renowned naval officer of the mid-nineteenth century, Thomas Cochrane, tenth Earl of Dundonald (1775–1860), led an eventful life. Due to a financial scandal, he left the Royal Navy for a period and became a celebrated mercenary. Volume 2 of this two-volume work, published in 1859, concerns the period, from 1823, of Cochrane's command of the Brazilian navy. It addresses the recruitment of seamen and the strengthening of the fleet, his negotiations with the government for payment, and his eventual resignation after independence had been secured in 1825. Cochrane did not achieve the same level of battle engagement and naval success as he had done in Chile; rather, his time in Brazil was largely characterised by infighting, bitterness and administrative machinations. Cochrane was the quintessential naval hero of the age, and his memoir remains of interest to both scholars and readers of maritime adventure.
An Account of the Mansion, Books, and Pictures, at Althorp, the Residence of George John Earl Spencer, K.G: To Which is Added a Supplement to the Bibliotheca Spenceriana
Volume 2, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Books Printed in the Fifteenth Century in the Library of George John Earl Spencer, K.G.
The bibliophile aristocrat George Spencer (1758–1834) employed Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776–1847) as his librarian for life. The second earl had amassed the greatest private library in Europe, housed at Althorp, and Dibdin was tasked with cataloguing the vast collection and sourcing suitable editions to add to it. In 1814, Dibdin began publishing his four-volume catalogue, Bibliotheca Spenceriana (also reissued in this series). Aedes Althorpianae was published in two volumes in 1822, and although it is to a great extent devoted to further details of the great library and its contents, it is also illuminating for its detailed history of Althorp and the Spencers. Its descriptions of the internal decoration of Althorp, particularly its art, are accompanied by numerous illustrations. Volume 2 records over 300 additions to the fifteenth-century books in the earl's collection, and catalogues the treasures of the great Cassano library, recently acquired by the earl.
As editor and contributor, William Ouseley (1767–1842) published this three-volume collection of essays between 1797 and 1800. Educated at Paris and Leiden, Ouseley became an honorary fellow of the royal societies of Amsterdam, Göttingen and Edinburgh. He researched extensively on Persia, producing important work on Persian handwriting. Several of his translations of works by fellow orientalist J. L. Burckhardt (1784–1817) are also reissued in this series. Ouseley's Oriental Collections consists of miscellaneous pieces contributed by a number of writers on aspects of Asian history, culture and literature. Volume 3 includes an exegesis on Hafez, essays on Chinese dialogue and the Korean alphabet, a catalogue of Sanskrit manuscripts, translated extracts from the historian al-Tabari, and several Persian odes and sonnets, as well as answers to readers' queries. The diverse subject matter will appeal to readers interested in the nature and progress of oriental scholarship in the late eighteenth century.
The language of Bangladesh, West Bengal and parts of Tripura and Assam, Bengali is the sixth most spoken language in the world. A member of the Indo-Aryan family, with its origins in Sanskrit, it has over 230 million speakers. Published in 1825, this is the third volume of a revised three-part dictionary of Bengali, compiled by the Baptist missionary William Carey (1761–1834) during his time in India. Its purpose was to assist Carey's European students at Fort William College in Calcutta, and he endeavoured to include every simple word used in the language, along with all the compound terms found in Bengali literature. Containing over 100,000 entries in Bengali script with English translations, and providing etymologies for most words, it remains of great interest to linguists today. Carey's reference works on Marathi and Sanskrit are also reissued in this series.
The Scottish archaeologist and anthropologist Daniel Wilson (1816–92) spent the latter part of his life in Canada. Published in 1862, this is a seminal work in the study of early man in which Wilson utilises studies of native tribes 'still seen there in a condition which seems to reproduce some of the most familiar phases ascribed to the infancy of the unhistoric world'. He believed that civilisations initially developed in mild climates and judged the Mayans to have been the most advanced civilisation in the New World. Twentieth-century anthropologist Bruce Trigger argued that Wilson 'interpreted evidence about human behaviour in a way that is far more in accord with modern thinking than are the racist views of Darwin and Lubbock', and it is in this light that this two-volume work can be judged. Volume 2 covers topics ranging from ceramic arts to the influence of interbreeding and migration upon civilisations.