Superstitio Impugnata (Manuscript)

Small Octavo. Latin manuscript is written in poetic style by C.P.F. Kurrer who was a distinguished member of the famed Latin Society of Jena. 89p. OCLC notes that a 16-page edition was published in Tubingen by Fues in 1786. This much larger version of several thousand lines is entirely handwritten in Latin poetic style. As William Clark as noted in his Charismata and the Origin of Research Universities, p. 158ff., "The Latin Society of Jena (founded 1733) ..required members to submit written dissertations exhibiting eloquence and erudition." This was, of course, in contrast to the universities which like their English counterparts were still under the domain of the Aristotelian dominance through the Middle Ages and into the Early Modern period. These highly literate societies which existed outside the university system of rote memory became (as Clark noted) the predecessor of the modern university system with seminars and original research. The Societas Latina Jenensis according to the Scholarly Societies Project was actually founded in 1734. Manuscripta mediaevalia notes an autograph manuscript of 17 pages under his Latin name Carolus Philippus Friedricus Kurrer. Bound in old drab marbled paper-covered boards with rubbing and wear. Internally fresh and written in a beautiful script with added green and brown floral accents and rules. A variation of the manuscript is found in the Freiburg Universitatsbibliothek with a slightly different alignment of symbols and text. Previous ownership: Joanes Godofredus Guil. Ferber, 1799 on first free endpaper.