12206: An 1807 TREASURE for my library

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

>From Bob Corbett

Today's mail brought me a very curious package, squat and fat.  I opened
it and couldn't figure out what it was.  Lovely spotten boards and
beautiful soft tan leather bindings.  No title on the spine.  It was
just hugely thick, 2 1/2 inches.  I opened it an realized I had
purchased it from a dealer some weeks ago.  I hurried to the
computer (rather than the book) to see what it was.

It is called:  THE ANNUEAL REGISTER OF A VIEW OF THE HISTORY, POLITICS,
AND LITERATURE FOR THE YEAR 1807.  Printed in London in 1809.

The ad from the dealer said that this was an 1807 YEARBOOK printed in
London and that it was just filled with all sorts of stuff on Europe, but
much too much to list, so he just mentioned TWO ITEMS, NO MORE.

1.  A long section on a debate in the British Parliament on the abolition
of slave trade.

2.  A Constitution of Hayti.

When I read this TODAY I was astonished.  I had absolutely MISSED the
second item, "A Constitution of Hayti."

I purchased it for the debate on abolition of the slave trade, thinking
Haiti would be a part of the debate.

I was just reeling with my good luck to get two items when I had purchased
it for only one.

Next I sat down with the book.  Well, my oh my, I about freaked out.
I didn't get TWO items.  I must have 22.  This book is a treasure house
and little by little it will appear on my web site.

I was right about the debate on the slave trade, there is a major
discussion of Hayti as a "case study" of what can go wrong if slavery is
not treated "humanely" and on and on.

The constitution turns out to be the 1807 Constitution of Christophe,
which I already have on my web site, but appended to it is a special
proclamation celebrating this constitution which wasn't with the other
version I have.  I'll scan that first.

Then there are many other things.  Several speeches by Christophe, a
couple of political analyses of the new Haytian state, a long piece about
what a good friend of England Christophe really is and so on.

Just many entries about Hayti.  I haven't even marked them all yet.

I read the dealer's note.  He purchased a huge library in London which had
been in storage for over 50 years.  He has MANY volumes of this year book.

I immediately wrote him and said please:  sight unseen, I'll buy them all.
I'm waiting to hear from him.  Oh my, I hope I end of with several dozen
"years," this one I have is simply awesome.  In sum its well over 1000
pages and 90% + is about Europe.  But there are quite a few entries on
Hayti/Saint Domingue and I'm sure there would be in other years as well,
Hayti was big news for many years there.

The book itself is extremely beautiful, but alas, I may have to end
up tearing the book itself up into its dozens and dozens of individual
essays and selling them to collectors of various European countries to
pay for these volumes if I do buy a bunch of them.  This one I have, were
it the only one, I'd leave whole simply because it is such a beautiful
book, but it was quite expensive and if I were to get 25 to 30 of them,
or even more, well, I'd be broke.  If I took this one apart and sold it
by the ARTICLE (keeping all the Haiti stuff, of course), I'd make enough
to by 1/2 dozen other volumes!!!  The stuff on France, Germany, Austria,
Italy and so on would be snapped up by collectors of material on those
countries.

I am reeling with this good fortune.  And I didn't have any IDEA what I
had purchased.  I purchased it strictly for the debate on the
abolition of the slave trade in England!!!!!!

Building a library is one hell of a good time.

Bob Corbett