JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
I wrote yesterday about found poetry in Simson’s Elements of the Conic Sections (1804)–there was much more. Some of the owners of this book used it pretty hard over the years (mostly in the early decades of the 19th century), and there are numerous examples of worked problems in the margins and in the folding engraved plates of illustrations of proofs.
They are beautiful works. But one of the other finds in this book is written out on the rear paste-down, which contains (on one sheet of paper) the entire 1806 class for the bachelor of arts degree at Princeton College for 1806. ( A little more information on these Princetonians is available at the General Catalogue, Princeton Universtiy–the list checks out to a man.)
It is interesting to consider that an entire attending class of what is today a very major institution could be easily listed on one 8×5-inch piece of paper.