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Found a book from 1719

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Cool, but not very rare. I was in a local university library a while back and they had hundreds of books of that age and older just sitting on the shelves.
 
Originally posted by: aswedc
Cool, but not very rare. I was in a local university library a while back and they had hundreds of books of that age and older just sitting on the shelves.
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That's irresponsible of them IMO. You don't just let 300-year old books just sit around unprotected. At least, I wouldn't think so.
 
Originally posted by: aswedc
Cool, but not very rare. I was in a local university library a while back and they had hundreds of books of that age and older just sitting on the shelves.
Click to expand...

age does not equal rare. rare does not equal $$$ in all cases.
 
Originally posted by: DeadByDawn
Originally posted by: aswedc
Cool, but not very rare. I was in a local university library a while back and they had hundreds of books of that age and older just sitting on the shelves.
Click to expand...
age does not equal rare. rare does not equal $$$ in all cases.
Click to expand...
I realize that. But even if it's not rare it should still be preserved IMO.
 
Originally posted by: ThePresence
Originally posted by: DeadByDawn
Originally posted by: aswedc
Cool, but not very rare. I was in a local university library a while back and they had hundreds of books of that age and older just sitting on the shelves.
Click to expand...
age does not equal rare. rare does not equal $$$ in all cases.
Click to expand...
I realize that. But even if it's not rare it should still be preserved IMO.
Click to expand...

My message was directed at the guy that said your book wasn't rare because he saw books of the same age at a university.
 
Originally posted by: DeadByDawn
Originally posted by: ThePresence
Originally posted by: DeadByDawn
Originally posted by: aswedc
Cool, but not very rare. I was in a local university library a while back and they had hundreds of books of that age and older just sitting on the shelves.
Click to expand...
age does not equal rare. rare does not equal $$$ in all cases.
Click to expand...
I realize that. But even if it's not rare it should still be preserved IMO.
Click to expand...
My message was directed at the guy that said your book wasn't rare because he saw books of the same age at a university.
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Okay.
But still, I think they should be protecting 300 year old books, rare or not.
 
Originally posted by: ThePresence
This is cool stuff.
My great-uncle died not too long ago. He was a religious Jew. His daughter is not religious so she has no use for all his old books. She is selling his house now and called me and my brother, and asked us if we want to go through his books and take what we want. So I got a few boxes of old stuff. I'm going through it and I find this little thin volume wrapped in plastic. It's completely handwritten, with a handwritten date of 1719 on top of the first page. The writing is neat, but not the type of hebrew that I'm used to reading (it's an old style of lettering) and the pages are splotched and brown so it's really difficult to read. Either way, I think it's pretty cool. It certainly looks legit.

EDIT: Pics here

EDIT2: Okay, from what I've been able to translate, it seems to be the story of Avrohom ben Avrohom (Abraham ben Abraham). There is some scholarly debate if that story ever even took place. And the date on top is probably the date of the events of the story, not the date it was written. Oh well. It's still pretty damn old and might actually be able to change some scholars opinions that the story did take place, so it can be an important document.
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non religious people don't read? 😕
 
Originally posted by: pontifex
Originally posted by: ThePresence
This is cool stuff.
My great-uncle died not too long ago. He was a religious Jew. His daughter is not religious so she has no use for all his old books. She is selling his house now and called me and my brother, and asked us if we want to go through his books and take what we want. So I got a few boxes of old stuff. I'm going through it and I find this little thin volume wrapped in plastic. It's completely handwritten, with a handwritten date of 1719 on top of the first page. The writing is neat, but not the type of hebrew that I'm used to reading (it's an old style of lettering) and the pages are splotched and brown so it's really difficult to read. Either way, I think it's pretty cool. It certainly looks legit.

EDIT: Pics here

EDIT2: Okay, from what I've been able to translate, it seems to be the story of Avrohom ben Avrohom (Abraham ben Abraham). There is some scholarly debate if that story ever even took place. And the date on top is probably the date of the events of the story, not the date it was written. Oh well. It's still pretty damn old and might actually be able to change some scholars opinions that the story did take place, so it can be an important document.
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non religious people don't read? 😕
Click to expand...
They were almost all religious books.
 
Originally posted by: ThePresence
Originally posted by: aswedc
Cool, but not very rare. I was in a local university library a while back and they had hundreds of books of that age and older just sitting on the shelves.
Click to expand...
That's irresponsible of them IMO. You don't just let 300-year old books just sit around unprotected. At least, I wouldn't think so.
Click to expand...

I don't know how much to rely on a one line statement from someone on a forum. I know at Trinity College in Dublin, there was a huge library (with about 3 stories of bookshelves) filled with very old books. As all the tourists walked in you could see students behind a window working on preserving the books. If a university did have books that were very old I don't think they would just leave them lying around.

In fact if the book isn't worth much and you don't have much of a use for it I would recommend donating it to a university with such a collection.
 
I'd try to contact a historian familiar with the subject. Maybe they can shed some light on the real year the book was written and where it came from. That wiki link shows two historians.
 
was this story featured in any recent movies? the man's name or the story rings a bell but i don't recall where i heard about it before
 
Originally posted by: ThePresence
Originally posted by: aswedc
Cool, but not very rare. I was in a local university library a while back and they had hundreds of books of that age and older just sitting on the shelves.
Click to expand...
That's irresponsible of them IMO. You don't just let 300-year old books just sit around unprotected. At least, I wouldn't think so.
Click to expand...

LoL. Never heard of Archimedes Palimpsest, eh? 😉 He wrote down what could have been early foundations for integral calculus and could have led to faster discovery of the calculus (debated). Last known copy was made in the 10th century, the parchment was recycled in the 12th century, and its hidden treasure went largely unknown until 1906 😉

BTW that book is a cool find. As you said, it has potential historical value and could bring in some money. (I wouldn't sell it if the value was 5k or less, but if it was of historical value to that story, it could bring in tens if not hundreds of thousands perhaps...)
 
Doesn't make any sense. Why would a book about him be written in 1719 if his only claim to fame is supposedly being burned in 1749?
 
Originally posted by: senseamp
Doesn't make any sense. Why would a book about him be written in 1719 if his only claim to fame is supposedly being burned in 1749?
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I saw that too. But being that the whole story is murky and some question if it even happened the dates may be off. More likely though is that it wasn't actually written in 1719 but just ABOUT the year 1719 where the story starts.
 
What language is it? I know Greek and Latin (so I'd recognize those writings) but this doesn't look familiar at all.. Is it Yiddish or Hebrew or something?
 
Originally posted by: Vegitto
What language is it? I know Greek and Latin (so I'd recognize those writings) but this doesn't look familiar at all.. Is it Yiddish or Hebrew or something?
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It's Hebrew, with an older style script.
 
I have a high-res scan of the first page if anyone is interested.
It's 3.86 MB.
I don't want to scan more if it because I'm concerned that I'll damage the fragile binding when I lay it flat.
 
Originally posted by: ThePresence
Originally posted by: SVT Cobra
Awesome! How are you going to perserve it? 🙂
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No clue yet.
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Make some scans as a backup. I think probably the first priority should be preserving the information in the text, then find a way to preserve the document itself.
 
Originally posted by: Rock Hydra
Originally posted by: ThePresence
Originally posted by: SVT Cobra
Awesome! How are you going to perserve it? 🙂
Click to expand...

No clue yet.
Click to expand...

Make some scans as a backup. I think probably the first priority should be preserving the information in the text, then find a way to preserve the document itself.
Click to expand...

I scanned one page, but I don't want to scan all of it, because I'm afraid that laying it out flat on the scanner bed will damage the old binding.
 
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