A New System, or, An Analysis of Ancient Mythology

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by Jacob Bryant

"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." [1]

In 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. [2]

Bibliographic Information

Author: Jacob Bryant, (bap. 1717, d. 1804)

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

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

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

External Links

Google Books

References

  1. Bentley, Blake Books 439B:
  2. Dennis R. Dean, ‘Bryant, Jacob (bap. 1717, d. 1804)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 11 June 2013