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==
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George Wythe definitely owned this title. A copy at the Library of Congress has "a number of manuscript notes and corrections'' made by Wythe.<ref>E. Millicent Sowerby, ''Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson'', 2nd ed. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983), 1:21-22 [no.43].</ref> [[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. All four of the [[George Wythe Collection|Wythe Collection]] sources (Goodwin's pamphlet<ref>Mary R. M. Goodwin, ''[http://research.history.org/DigitalLibrary/View/index.cfm?doc=ResearchReports\RR0216.xml The George Wythe House: Its Furniture and Furnishings]'' (Williamsburg, Virginia: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library, 1958), li.</ref> Dean's Bibliography<ref>[[Dean Bibliography|Memorandum from Barbara C. Dean]], Colonial Williamsburg Found., to Mrs. Stiverson, Colonial Williamsburg Found. (June 16, 1975), 7 (on file at Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary).</ref>, Brown's 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Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file.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> and [http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe George Wythe's Library]<ref>''LibraryThing'', s. v. [http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe "Member: George Wythe"], accessed on June 28, 2013.</ref> on LibraryThing) list Bryant's ''Mythology.''  
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George Wythe definitely owned this title. A copy at the Library of Congress has "a number of manuscript notes and corrections" made by Wythe.<ref>E. Millicent Sowerby, ''Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson'', 2nd ed. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983), 1:21-22 [no.43].</ref> [[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. All four of the [[George Wythe Collection|Wythe Collection]] sources (Goodwin's pamphlet<ref>Mary R. M. Goodwin, ''[http://research.history.org/DigitalLibrary/View/index.cfm?doc=ResearchReports\RR0216.xml The George Wythe House: Its Furniture and Furnishings]'' (Williamsburg, Virginia: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library, 1958), li.</ref> Dean's Bibliography<ref>[[Dean Bibliography|Memorandum from Barbara C. Dean]], Colonial Williamsburg Found., to Mrs. Stiverson, Colonial Williamsburg Found. (June 16, 1975), 7 (on file at Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary).</ref>, Brown's 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> and [http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe George Wythe's Library]<ref>''LibraryThing'', s. v. [http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe "Member: George Wythe"], accessed on June 28, 2013.</ref> on LibraryThing) list Bryant's ''Mythology.''  
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[[File:BryantNewSystemOrAnalysisOfAncientMythology1775plateVII.jpg |left|thumb|250px|<center>Plate VII, volume II</center>]]
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[[File:BryantNewSystemOrAnalysisOfAncientMythology1775plateVII.jpg |left|thumb|250px|<center>Plate VII, volume II</center>]]
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==Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy==
 
==Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy==
 
Bound in contemporary calf with gilt panelled backstrips and red and green labels.  
 
Bound in contemporary calf with gilt panelled backstrips and red and green labels.  

Revision as of 14:18, 10 February 2014

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

by Jacob Bryant

A New System, or, An Analysis of Ancient Mythology
BryantNewSystem1775.jpg

Title page from A New System, or, An Analysis of Ancient Mythology, volume two, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary.

Author Jacob Bryant
Editor {{{editor}}}
Translator {{{trans}}}
Published London: Printed for T. Payne, P. Elmsly, B. White, and J. Walter
Date 1775-1776
Edition Second
Language English
Volumes 3 volume set
Pages {{{pages}}}
Desc. 4to (30 cm.)
Location [[Shelf {{{shelf}}}]]
  [[Shelf {{{shelf2}}}]]
Plate II, volume I
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]

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

George Wythe definitely owned this title. A copy at the Library of Congress has "a number of manuscript notes and corrections" made by Wythe.[6] 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. All four of the Wythe Collection sources (Goodwin's pamphlet[7] Dean's Bibliography[8], Brown's Bibliography[9] and George Wythe's Library[10] on LibraryThing) list Bryant's Mythology.

Plate VII, volume II

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

Bound in contemporary calf with gilt panelled backstrips and red and green labels.

View this book in William & Mary's online catalog.

References

  1. ↑ S. Foster Damon, A Blake Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake (Providence: Brown University Press, 1965), 61.
  2. ↑ John Charles Whale and Stephen Copley, Beyond Romanticism: New Approaches to Texts and Contexts, 1780-1832 (Routledge, 1992), 92.
  3. ↑ Ibid.
  4. ↑ Bentley, Blake Books 439B:
  5. ↑ Dennis R. Dean, "Bryant, Jacob (bap. 1717, d. 1804)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004- ), accessed October 27, 2013.
  6. ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 2nd ed. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983), 1:21-22 [no.43].
  7. ↑ Mary R. M. Goodwin, The George Wythe House: Its Furniture and Furnishings (Williamsburg, Virginia: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library, 1958), li.
  8. ↑ Memorandum from Barbara C. Dean, Colonial Williamsburg Found., to Mrs. Stiverson, Colonial Williamsburg Found. (June 16, 1975), 7 (on file at Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary).
  9. ↑ 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
  10. ↑ LibraryThing, s. v. "Member: George Wythe", accessed on June 28, 2013.

External Links

Read volume III of this book from Google Books.

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