Difference between revisions of "New System, or, an Analysis of Ancient Mythology"
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==Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library== | ==Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library== | ||
| + | George Wythe definitely owned this title. A copy at the Library of Congress has manuscript notes and corrections made by Wythe. [[Thomas Jefferson]] listed the title in his [[Jefferson Inventory|inventory]] of [[Wythe's Library]] as ''Bryant’s Mythology. 3.v. 4to.'' He later sold it to the Library of Congress in 1815. Both [http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe George Wythe's Library]<ref>''LibraryThing'', s. v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on November 11, 2013, http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe.</ref> on LibraryThing and the [https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433 Brown Bibliography]<ref> Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433</ref> list the 1775-76 edition and this is | ||
==Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy== | ==Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy== | ||
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[[Category:George Wythe Collection at William & Mary's Wolf Law Library]] | [[Category:George Wythe Collection at William & Mary's Wolf Law Library]] | ||
| + | [[Category:Known Surviving Wythe Volumes]] | ||
[[Category:Religion]] | [[Category:Religion]] | ||
[[Category:Titles in Wythe's Library]] | [[Category:Titles in Wythe's Library]] | ||
Revision as of 18:01, 19 November 2013
by Jacob Bryant
Jacob Bryant (1715-1804) was born in England, where he was a respected scholar and mythographer.[1] He believed all mythology came from the Hebrew Scripture and used A New System, or, an Analysis of Ancient Mythology to link mythology to the Book of Genesis specifically.[2] In this way, he explained how contemporary society arose from ancient civilizations. A New System opened conversation between world scholars, as several writers publically opposed Bryant’s ideas and encouraged him to respond through further writing.[3].
"It is my purpose in the ensuing work to give an account of the first ages; and of the great events, which happebned in the infancy of the world. In consequence, I shall lay before the reader, what Gentile writers have said upon this subject, colaterally with the accounts given by Moses, as long as I find him engaged in the generally history of mankind." [4]
n his first book, Observations and Enquiries Relating to Various Parts of Ancient History (1767), Bryant attacked selected opinions in the works of such celebrated antiquarian scholars as Theodore Beza (1519–1605), Hugo Grotius (1583–1645), Samuel Bochart (1599–1667), and Richard Bentley (1662–1742). His work was favourably received. Suitably encouraged, he next published the book for which he is most often remembered, A New System, or, An Analysis of Ancient Mythology, with plates (3 vols., 1774–6). This work, according to its subtitle, was ‘an attempt … to divest tradition of fable, and to reduce the truth to its original purity’, a goal in which he always believed, but the actual result was simply a fantastic hodgepodge of spurious etymology (in the manner of Bochart) and riotous imagination. [5]
Bibliographic Information
Author: Jacob Bryant
Title: A New System, or, An Analysis of Ancient Mythology: Wherein an Attempt is Made to Divest Tradition of Fable and to Reduce the Truth to its Original Purity : in this work is given an history of the Babylonians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Canaanites, Helladians, Ionians, Leleges, Dorians, Pelasgi : also of the Scythae, Indo-Scythae, Ethiopians, Phenicians
Published: London: Printed for T. Payne, P. Elmsly, B. White, and J. Walter, 1775-1776.
Edition:
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
George Wythe definitely owned this title. A copy at the Library of Congress has manuscript notes and corrections made by Wythe. Thomas Jefferson listed the title in his inventory of Wythe's Library as Bryant’s Mythology. 3.v. 4to. He later sold it to the Library of Congress in 1815. Both George Wythe's Library[6] on LibraryThing and the Brown Bibliography[7] list the 1775-76 edition and this is
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
Bound in contemporary calf with gilt panelled backstrips and red and green labels.
External Links
References
- ↑ S. Foster Damon, A Blake Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake (Providence: Brown University Press, 1965), 61.
- ↑ John Charles Whale and Stephen Copley, Beyond Romanticism: New Approaches to Texts and Contexts, 1780-1832 (Routledge, 1992), 92.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Bentley, Blake Books 439B:
- ↑ Dennis R. Dean, "Bryant, Jacob (bap. 1717, d. 1804)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004- ), accessed October 27, 2013.
- ↑ LibraryThing, s. v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on November 11, 2013, http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe.
- ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433
