The Rudiments of the Latin Tongue or, a Plain and Easy Introduction to Latin Grammar; ... with Useful Notes and Observations, Explaining the Terms of Grammar, and Further Improving Its Rules
by Thomas Ruddiman
| Rudiments of the Latin Tongue | |
 Title page from Rudiments of the Latin Tongue, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary. | |
| Author | Thomas Ruddiman |
| Published | Edinburgh: Printed by Wal. Ruddiman, J. Richardson, and Company and sold by the widow of the author and the booksellers there |
| Date | 1769 |
| Language | Latin |
| Pages | viii, 104, 31, [1] |
| Desc. | Octavo (17 cm.) |
| Location | Shelf H-1 |
This book is a wholesale revision of earlier versions of this particular Latin instruction manual. Intended for the education of youth, this particular method focuses on the ongoing improvement of Latin grammar not merely the replication of old fashioned forms of the grammar. [1]
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as "Ruddiman's larger Latin grammar" Thomas Jefferson gave Wythe's copy to his grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph. The precise edition owned by Wythe is unknown. George Wythe's Library[2] on LibraryThing indicates the 1784 edition published in Lyon. The Brown Bibliography[3] lists the 1795 Paris edition based on the copy Jefferson sold to the Library of Congress.[4] In part because Jefferson did not indicate a two-volume set in his record of Wythe's books, the Wolf Law Library purchased an available copy of the 1784 edition of Traité Élémentaire de Morale et du Bonheur in which the two volumes are bound together.
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
Bound in contemporary biscuit calf, boards bordered with double gilt rules. Spine features raised bands with gilt rules and blind compartments. Purchased with the George Wythe Boswell-Caracci Room Acquisition Fund.
Images of the library's copy of this book are available on Flickr. View the record for this book in William & Mary's online catalog.
See also
References
- ↑ The Rudiments of the Latin Tongue, Or, A Plain and Easy Introduction to Latin Grammar (Google Books) [1]
- ↑ LibraryThing, s.v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on June 22, 2015.
- ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012, rev. May, 2014) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433.
- ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, (Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, 1952-1959), 2:9-10 [no.1249].
