Item 654 - Notes by Henry Blundell on physics lectures attended by him at Douai

1 volume, containing 323 leaves with red-sprinkled edges. There are stubs after ff. 276 and 313. Seven of the leaves (ff. 2, 30, 34, 282, 287, 289, and 298 are engravings, of which all but the first two are folded to make them fit in; one leaf (f. 322) is a large printed sheet, folded. Bound in contemporary acid-mottled calf, with double gilt filet borders to the sides and on either side of the five raised bands on the spine.

This book contains a fair copy of notes made by Henry Blundell on a series of physics lectures, presumably attended by him at Douai. The name Douai does not occur in the book, but it is dated in the period when Blundell was there (1743-5).

The title ‘Phy[si]ca | seu | Phi[losophi]a na[tur]alis. | Prol[e]gomena.' appears on f. 1v, and ‘PHYSICA' is stamped on the spine. The
first of these titles is followed below by ‘Hen: Blundell—1744' and some further words. The written text concludes on f. 321r with the inscription ‘Die 1o julii an: D[o]m[in]i 1744 | Horis 84 | Hen: Blundell'.

The text is heavily abbreviated, but the omission of letters is not generally marked, as in the title cited above.

The seven engravings inserted among the MS leaves are as follows:

f. 2. St Thomas Aquinas, in a decorative border, with a descriptive caption beginning ‘SAINT THOMAS de la Noble Race des Comtes d'Aquin', subscribed ‘Chez Crepy a St. Iacques'.

f. 30. Réné Descartes, in a decorative border, with a descriptive caption beginning ‘RENE DES CARTES Seigneur de Peron', subscribed ‘Crepy rue St. Iacques a St. Iacques'.

f. 34. Astronomical diagram, headed ‘Tabula 20' and subscribed ‘Jacobus Jollain aletoille ex[cudit] cum priu[ilegio] regis' (‘aletoille' is written above the line, as if omitted by mistake) and ‘rue st. jacques a la belle etoile'.

f. 282: Diagram, headed ‘Tab. 9' and subscribed ‘A Paris chez Vallet.'

f. 287: Diagram, headed ‘TAB' (no number) and subscribed ‘A Paris chez Vallet 1724.'

f. 289: Diagram, headed ‘Tabula .10.' and subscribed ‘Jacobus Jollain fecit et excudit cum priv[ilegio] Regis aletoile'.

f. 298: Diagram, headed ‘Tabula. 8.'; no imprint.

The printed sheet (f. 322) is headed ‘PHILOSOPHIA NATURALIS', and contains a summary, or syllabus, of the subject broken down into three (perhaps termly) series of numbered sections.