Houghton MS Am 1369

Title Untitled
Archive Houghton Library
Call Number Houghton MS Am 1369
Complete Yes
Description

Benjamin Church, 1750–1752.

16 poems.

Mainly satirical poems by group of Harvard students. 

Format Quarto
Book Size 19cm x 15.7cm
Filled Page Count 28 pages
Item Count 19
Poem Count 16
Periods
First Line Index Yes
Digitized Yes
Region
Additional Genres Prose - miscellaneous, Prose quotation
Print Sources
Major Themes

Major themes prominent among the manuscript contents in alphabetical order.

Minor Themes

Other themes of interest among the manuscript contents in alphabetical order.

Links
Bibliography
Citation

Houghton MS Am 1369.” Manuscript Verse Miscellanies, 1700–1820, edited by Betty A. Schellenberg, Simon Fraser University, https://mvm.dhil.lib.sfu.ca/manuscript/372. Accessed .

Created 2020-04-23 4:48:08 PM
Updated 2023-07-25 11:14:04 AM
Feature Note
Author attributions

Regular, and for the majority of the volume twice for each item—once at the beginning and again at the end, with the addition of place (Harvard Uni) and date of composition. 

Binding

Post-bound. The writing goes into the gutter on the first page.

Visible string holding the pages together, ie. the binding is quite loose. 

Paper covers.

Hands

Single.

Indications of use

Seemingly missing the first page, or the first couple pages. No remnants of a tear-out, but the page begins, “and Thus having copulated our plebian[sic] Endeavours…” and it seems odd to begin with a lower-case “a.” Also, this short passage is followed by a couple footnotes (“*—together with our Domesticks” and “+ Grammatic quam non Intelligant populi”) that don’t connect to anything in the above (or below) text.

p. 1 scribbles between items, not sure what they say.

Item formatting

All items pp. 1–23 end with some variation of, “Harvard College 175—,” sometimes underlined, often in a box or circle, sometimes decorative, sometimes simple.

Items p. 23–27 end, “Finis.”

Frequent lines between items, eg. p. 15.

Some attempts at decorative lines, eg. p. 25, but always very casual.

Organization

No opening or concluding gesture.

Items from pp. 1–23 seemingly revolve around Church’s Harvard cohort. pp. 24–28 are not connected to Harvard, and end with a different concluding gesture, demonstrating a turn away from the manuscript’s character up to that point.

Original poetry

Yes, one poem, "An Answer to Satire on Samuel Quincy."

Ownership mark

Signed.

Later owner wrote in pencil on p. 24: "This Book was the property and in the Autograph of Dr. Benjamin Church the Rector to his Country [?]" 

Page layout

Frequent ruled lines (though not perfectly straight), seemingly added by the compiler. 

Regular margin rule on the left side of the page (for both the recto and verso), seemingly added by the compiler. 

First page and last page are crowded, all other pages are more comfortably full.