Description:
Cantabrigiæ, Nov-Anglorum (Cambridge, New England): Typis Richardi et Samuelis Draper (Richard and Thomas Draper, Printers), 1766.This large broadside, measuring approximately 17" x 21.5", announces the upcoming public defense of 127 academic theses by students who would be graduating from Harvard College in August of 1766. It has some minor edgewear and light soiling. There are storage folds with some splits reinforced on the reverse with what appears to be tissue and/or archival tape.
The 127 disputations announced within this broadside are grouped into eight categories: ethics, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, grammar, rhetoric, technology, and theology.
Broadsides, similar to this one, were issued from Harvard's first commencement in 1642 until 1810. The student defenses were based on the traditional European practice of public student disputations. These broadsides which had been constructed in conjunction with the faculty summarized the students' theses were designed to demonstrate mastery… Read More