Legacy Library: Benjamin Franklin

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Philosophical transactions, giving some account of the present undertakings, studies, and labours, of the ingenious, in many considerable parts for the world by Royal Society (Great Britain)

Principles of trade fredom and protection are its best support : industry, the only means to render manufactures cheap : of coins, exchange, and bountys, particularly the bounty on corn by George Whatley

Kaina kai palaia Things new and old, or, A store-house of similies, sentences, allegories, apophthegms, adagies, apologues, divine, morall, politicall, &c. : with their severall applications by John Spencer

Observations sur la saignée du pied, et sur la purgation au commencement de la petite verole, des fievres malignes & des grandes maladies. Preuves de decadence dans la pratique de medecine, confirmées par de justes raisons de doute contre l'inoculation by Philippe Hecquet

An essay on the powers and mechanism of nature; intended, by a deeper analysis of physical principles, to extend, improve, and more firmly establish, the grand superstructure of the Newtonian system by Robert Young

Pompes sans cuirs : descriptions, propriétés & figures gravées en taille-douce, des nouvelles pompes sans cuirs, de l'invention de M. Darles de Liniere, ecuyer, qui les a primitivement présentées pour le service de la Marine, & successivement appropriées pour les incendies & tous autres usages by Darles de Linière

A description of new chart of history, containing a view of the principal revolutions of empire that have taken place in the world by Joseph Priestley

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Member: BenjaminFranklin

CollectionsYour library (3,747)

Reviews23 reviews

TagsPolitics and Government (273), Great Britain (238), Parliament (156), United States (147), History (125), Poetry (113), Church of England (88), Sermons (87), Medicine (82), Electricity (76) — see all tags

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GroupsBenjamin Franklin's LT Catalog, Legacy Libraries, Libraries of Early America

About meBenjamin Franklin (17 January 1706 – 17 April 1790), Pennsylvania printer, author, inventor, ambassador, scientist, statesman, abolitionist. Signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, a founder of the Library Company of Philadelphia and of the first fire department in Pennsylvania, among many other accomplishments.

About my libraryFranklin's extensive library is documented in Edwin Wolf 2nd and Kevin J. Hayes, The Library of Benjamin Franklin. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society and Library Company of Philadelphia, 2006 (available digitally here and for sale at the APS webpage) and used to create this LT catalog with the permission of the author and the publishers (American Philosophical Society, Library Company of Philadelphia).

A complete introduction to Franklin's library, including information on the travels taken by the books following Franklin's death, is in Wolf and Hayes, pp. 3-56.

Wolf and Hayes have created extensive annotations for the titles in Franklin's library; those are included in the Comments field for each record in Franklin's LT catalog. Elements generally provided include the catalog number, format, binding, signatures and marginalia (including Franklin's own shelfmarks), detailed provenance information, and the current location of Franklin's copy, if known. A list of the institutional abbreviations used in the book is available here. Further abbreviations, usually for sources, are in Wolf and Hayes, pp. 875-880.

Where the present location of Franklin's copy is known, the catalog number (Wolf and Hayes _) will be followed by an asterisk in parentheses. Where the edition or work is unclear, the catalog number will be followed by a question mark in parentheses.

Reviews: Franklin's reviews have been taken from the Wolf and Hayes annotations, and are usually drawn from either Franklin's correspondence or his Autobiography.

Tags: Wolf and Hayes provide subject-based tag information for most titles, which are included here with minor adjustments as necessary. Where no tags were included, similar tags were added.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Please contact Libraries of Early America coordinator Jeremy Dibbell.