CATALOGUE OF THE LIBRARY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY IN CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS. Catalogorum idem plane munus est in Republica literaria, quod in Romana fuit olim MIDDLETON. VOL. I. CAMBRIDGE: E. W. METCALF AND COMPANY, 1830. PREFACE. THE present Library of Harvard College dates its origin from the destruction of Harvard Hall, with its valuable contents,* by fire, in the year 1764. The General Court, which, in consequence of the prevalence of the small pox in Boston, was then sitting in Cambridge, and occupying the room appropriated to the Library, immediately voted to erect a new building; and Harvard Hall was in a short time fully replaced by the present edifice of the same name. A corresponding zeal was manifested by other friends of the institution, to furnish the new hall with a library and philosophical apparatus. The General Court of New-Hampshire, which at that time had no college of its own to provide for, granted, at the instance of Governor Wentworth, three hundred pounds sterling towards restoring the Library; "The Society for Propagating the Gospel in * Library, Philosophical Apparatus, &c. The Library was a very valuable collection of more than 5000 volumes. Among the principal Contributors to it were the Rev. John Harvard, the founder of the University, the Hollises, and several other names of great celebrity, as Sir Kenelm Digby, Richard Baxter, Governor Winthrop, Dr. Gale, Dr. Lightfoot, Dr. Watts, Dr. Mead, Bishop Berkeley, Bishop Sherlock, Dr. Hales. A particular statement of the different benefactions is necessarily deferred for the present. What is now proposed is to give some account of the existing library. |