Houghton MS Am 1369

• Major author

• Primary compiler

• Major author

Regular, and for the majority of the volume twice for each item—once at the beginning and again at the end, with the addition of place (Harvard Uni) and date of composition. 

Post-bound. The writing goes into the gutter on the first page.

Visible string holding the pages together, ie. the binding is quite loose. 

Paper covers.

Single.

Seemingly missing the first page, or the first couple pages. No remnants of a tear-out, but the page begins, “and Thus having copulated our plebian[sic] Endeavours…” and it seems odd to begin with a lower-case “a.” Also, this short passage is followed by a couple footnotes (“*—together with our Domesticks” and “+ Grammatic quam non Intelligant populi”) that don’t connect to anything in the above (or below) text.

p. 1 scribbles between items, not sure what they say.

All items pp. 1–23 end with some variation of, “Harvard College 175—,” sometimes underlined, often in a box or circle, sometimes decorative, sometimes simple.

Items p. 23–27 end, “Finis.”

Frequent lines between items, eg. p. 15.

Some attempts at decorative lines, eg. p. 25, but always very casual.

No opening or concluding gesture.

Items from pp. 1–23 seemingly revolve around Church’s Harvard cohort. pp. 24–28 are not connected to Harvard, and end with a different concluding gesture, demonstrating a turn away from the manuscript’s character up to that point.

Yes, one poem, "An Answer to Satire on Samuel Quincy."

Signed.

Later owner wrote in pencil on p. 24: "This Book was the property and in the Autograph of Dr. Benjamin Church the Rector to his Country [?]" 

Frequent ruled lines (though not perfectly straight), seemingly added by the compiler. 

Regular margin rule on the left side of the page (for both the recto and verso), seemingly added by the compiler. 

First page and last page are crowded, all other pages are more comfortably full.