Sometimes you find amazing things in odd places.
Some of you may know of my love of books. You will understand how I felt when I found this.
At a goodwill store.
For $.50 per volume.
Indulge me for a moment, I'm going to retype the intro page, more or less verbatim:
Encyclopaedia Brittanica;
or a DICTIONARY of ARTS and SCIENCES,
Compiled upon a new plan.
In which the different SCIENCES and ARTS are digefted into diftinct Treatifes or Syftems;
AND
The variousTechnical Terms, &c. are explained as they occur
in the order of the Alphabet.
Illustrated with one hundred and sixty copperplates,
By a Society of Gentlemen in Scotland.
IN THREE VOLUMES
EDINBURGH
Printed for A. Bell and C. Macfarquhar;
And fold by Colin Macfarquhar, at his Printing-office, Nicolfon ftreet.
M.DCC.LXXI.
The book is leatherbound, and in more or less amazing condition for it's age, which according to the Roman Numeral above, is in the neighborhood of two hundred and thirty-seven years.
And I have it. And its sister volumes.
I actually went weak at the knees when I translated the date.
I also think I scared a poor asian lady at the store, since I dug through four bins of loose nooks to find the third volume, and was just about to give up when she flipped a magazine over and I saw the corner of the faded leatherbound gem... I picked up the book, and almost shouted for joy, and almost hugged her on the spot. When she asked why I was so excited, I explained that the book was older than anybody that she or I had EVER known. At the time though, I mistranslated the date, thinking it was printed in the 1800's. I nearly fell over when I verified it.
OK you can all go back to your business, I'm done spouting.
As an aside... the entry for America only details the geographical location and notes that whatever the animal and vegetable output is there, it is surely most different from anything yet harvested.
How cool is that?
-RJ out
At a goodwill store.
For $.50 per volume.
Indulge me for a moment, I'm going to retype the intro page, more or less verbatim:
Encyclopaedia Brittanica;
or a DICTIONARY of ARTS and SCIENCES,
Compiled upon a new plan.
In which the different SCIENCES and ARTS are digefted into diftinct Treatifes or Syftems;
AND
The variousTechnical Terms, &c. are explained as they occur
in the order of the Alphabet.
Illustrated with one hundred and sixty copperplates,
By a Society of Gentlemen in Scotland.
IN THREE VOLUMES
EDINBURGH
Printed for A. Bell and C. Macfarquhar;
And fold by Colin Macfarquhar, at his Printing-office, Nicolfon ftreet.
M.DCC.LXXI.
The book is leatherbound, and in more or less amazing condition for it's age, which according to the Roman Numeral above, is in the neighborhood of two hundred and thirty-seven years.
And I have it. And its sister volumes.
I actually went weak at the knees when I translated the date.
I also think I scared a poor asian lady at the store, since I dug through four bins of loose nooks to find the third volume, and was just about to give up when she flipped a magazine over and I saw the corner of the faded leatherbound gem... I picked up the book, and almost shouted for joy, and almost hugged her on the spot. When she asked why I was so excited, I explained that the book was older than anybody that she or I had EVER known. At the time though, I mistranslated the date, thinking it was printed in the 1800's. I nearly fell over when I verified it.
OK you can all go back to your business, I'm done spouting.
As an aside... the entry for America only details the geographical location and notes that whatever the animal and vegetable output is there, it is surely most different from anything yet harvested.
How cool is that?
-RJ out