Pieter Burman journals

This collection is comprised of three journals containing notes on lectures delivered by Pieter Burman during his tenure at the University of Leiden, sometime between 1715 and 1740. It is not known precisely who took these notes. The notebooks themselves are believed to have been donated to Dickinson College by Rev. John Erskine not long after the college was founded, as the binding and content is consistent with numerous other works he donated.

Burman’s lectures follow the basic structure of Torsellino’s History, (i.e. the division of chapters and sections), but they expand on those divisions, adding further information and context. More specifically, the focus of the lectures appears to be on the language, history, and poetry of the United Provinces.

The lectures are recorded through three journals. The first journal, Volume 1, contains a prologue as well as Book I of Torsellino’s History, concerning biblical history divided according to important figures and patriarchs. The second journal, Volume 2, follows Torsellino’s Books V-VIII. The third journal, Volume 3, follows Torsellino’s Books IX-X.