{"id":7362,"date":"2024-10-01T17:09:50","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T17:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/emsi\/?page_id=7362"},"modified":"2025-08-25T19:46:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T19:46:55","slug":"early-modern-book-of-the-month","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/emsi\/early-modern-book-of-the-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Modern Book-of-the-Month"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n \n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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This list is curated by Lauren Dodds, EMSI Postdoctoral Researcher (staff).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\n April 2025<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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La storia delle massime e governo della Repubblica di Venezia, descritto da un segretario di un ambasciatore di Francia a Venezia<\/em><\/strong>
\nVenice, c. 1680<\/p>\n

USC Special Collections JN5266.A44 1680<\/p>\n

La storia delle massime e governo della Repubblica di Venezia, descritto da un segretario di un ambasciatore di Francia a Venezia<\/em>\u00a0is a clandestine manuscript translation of\u00a0Histoire du Gouvernement de Venise\u00a0(1676). USC\u2019s manuscript copy withholds the name of the text\u2019s author, Abraham-Nicolas Amelot de La Houssaye (1634-1706), who, in addition to being the described secretary of a French ambassador to Venice, was a printer, humanist, and political theorist. The unknown translator of USC\u2019s manuscript notes on the title page that this text was \u201ccopiata a caff\u00e9\u201d (copied in a caf\u00e9); variations in the text indicate this translation was produced for the Venetian market of forbidden books before the publication of an Italian translation in 1681. USC Libraries Special Collections also holds the 1677 first edition of the\u00a0Histoire\u00a0and the 1681 printed edition of\u00a0La Storia. Scholars interested in the material history of the book may also wish to view this manuscript for its elaborate seventeenth-century lace-case binding.<\/p>\n

For more information, contact\u00a0USC Special Collections<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n March 2025<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Abreg\u00e9 des Principes de La Religion Chretiene du bonheur de l’home
\n<\/em><\/strong>French, 18th century manuscript<\/p>\n

USC Special Collections BR120.A27 1700<\/p>\n

Abreg\u00e9 des Principes de la Religion Chretiene du bonheur de l’home<\/em> is an 18th-century manuscript primer to Christianity. The slim volume contains sixty-seven sections\u2013each a page or two in length\u2013on topics including happiness, Biblical history, the cardinal virtues, prayer, and the concept of grace. The brevity and simplicity of the entries suggest this text was intended for the religious education of children. In addition to the two intaglio prints attributed to Claude Duflos (1665-1727) bound with the text, three tiny paper sea creatures are loosely tucked into the book’s binding\u2013a charming addition further indicating children interacted with the text.<\/p>\n

For more information, contact USC Libraries Special Collections<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n February 2025<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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\nDemandes et R\u00e9ponses: n’en faites pas \u00fan Hasard
\n<\/em><\/strong>France, c. 1790<\/p>\n

USC Libraries Special Collections GV1234.F73 1790<\/p>\n

Demandes et r\u00e9ponses<\/em> is an 18th<\/sup>-century manuscript game book with playing cards. This is a version of \u201cQuestions and Answers,\u201d a popular early modern game that encouraged flirtatious conversation. Men read questions written on the verso<\/em> side of the playing cards, which would then be answered by women reading their replies from the book. The USC copy of Demandes et r\u00e9ponses<\/em> is previously unrecorded and includes all forty original playing cards.<\/p>\n

For more information, contact\u00a0Derek Christian Quezada Meneses<\/a>, Rare Books Librarian, USC Special Collections.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n December 2024<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Polygraphie et universelle \u00e9criture cabalistique<\/em><\/strong>
\nJohannes Trithemius. Translated by Gabriel de Collange.
\nParis: Jacques Kerver, 1561<\/p>\n

Polygraphie et universelle \u00e9criture cabalistique<\/em>\u00a0is a foundational work in the history of cryptography. Published in Paris in 1561, this is the first French edition of the German Benedictine abbot and polymath Johannes Trithemius\u2019s\u00a0Polygraphiae Libri<\/em> (1518). Gabriel de Collange, a mathematician and valet de chambre to King Charles IX, translated and expanded the text; his additions include \u201cTables et figures planispheres\u201d with 13 volvelles\u2014paper constructions with rotating parts\u2014for encryption and decipherment. Polygraphie introduced systematic and mathematical approaches for encoding messages that set a foundation for future developments in cryptography.<\/p>\n

For more information, contact\u00a0Derek Christian Quezada Meneses<\/a>, Rare Books Librarian, USC Special Collections.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n November 2024<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Josephi Judei Historici pre clara opera non[n] parua accuratio[n]e & diligentia rece[n]ter<\/em><\/strong>
\nFlavius Josephus, edited and translated by Robert Goulet
\nParis: Jean Petit, 1519<\/p>\n

USC Special Collections PA4222.A3 1519<\/p>\n

Josephi Judei Historici<\/em>\u00a0is a Latin edition of Flavius Josephus\u2019s\u00a0Antiquitates Judicae<\/em>\u00a0printed in Paris in 1519. Born in Jerusalem, Josephus (c. 37-100 CE) was a priest, scholar, and army commander. This text provides a Jewish history from Creation to the Great Revolt of 66-70 CE. Josephus was among the most popular ancient historians for early modern humanists in part because his writing provides a historical context for early Christianity. This edition of Josephus\u2019s\u00a0Antiquitates Judicae<\/em>\u00a0was produced for humanist scholars in and around the University of Paris; Robert Goulet, a priest and professor, translated the text, and the prominent Parisian bookseller Jean Petit published it. This may explain the inclusion of the contested \u201cTestimonium Flavianum\u201d\u2014a passage in which Josephus refers to Jesus as the Messiah\u2014which is assumed to be a later forgery.<\/p>\n

For more information, contact\u00a0Taylor Dwyer<\/a>, Curator of Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, USC Special Collections.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n October 2024<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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\nDe spectris, lemuribus et magnis, atque insulitis fragoribus, variisque praesagitionibus, quae plerunque obitum hominum, magnas clades, mutationesque imperiorum praecedunt, liber unus. In tres partes distributes. Omnibus veritatis studiosis summe utilis.<\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/em>Ludg. Batav. Apud Jordanum Luchtmans, Bibliopolae, 1687
\nUSC Special Collections BF1445.L38 1687<\/p>\n

De spectris<\/em> was one of the most frequently printed and translated Protestant texts dealing with the supernatural in the early modern era. The Zwinglian theologian Ludwig Lavater (1527-1586) wrote\u00a0De spectris\u00a0to provide rational and theological explanations for the era\u2019s superstitions. Lavater dismissed ghostly apparitions as misunderstood natural or psychological phenomena or as deceptions of the devil in line with Reformation theology. USC\u2019s copy of\u00a0De spectris<\/em>\u00a0belongs to the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library.<\/p>\n

For more information, contact\u00a0Derek Christian Quezada Meneses<\/a>, Rare Books Librarian, USC Special Collections.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \"frontispiece\n\n \n \n \n <\/a>\n \n\n<\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n
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\n September 2024<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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\nLe Throsne du destin, auquel chacun peut voir sa bonne ou mauvaise fortune en jettant un, ou deux, ou trois dez communs, sur quelz points quilz se puissent recontrer.
\n<\/em><\/strong>Ma\u00eetre C. Coturier, Paris 1632
\nUSC Special Collections GV1303.C68 1632<\/p>\n

Le Throsne du destin<\/em> is a seventeenth-century game book on vellum. Players cast dice to learn which of the game’s one hundred and sixty-four bawdy and scandalous fortunes – divided in half by sex (women’s fortunes on the recto side, men’s on the verso) – would be their fate. USC’s newly acquired copy of this remarkably unique manuscript includes the original bone dice necessary to play the game.<\/p>\n

For more information, contact\u00a0Derek Christian Quezada Meneses<\/a>, Rare Books Librarian, USC Special Collections.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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