Google Books bizarrerie [was: "United States", 1719 and probably 1695 -- the U.S.A.?]

[Joel S. Berson]

For some sardonic humor, I give you bizarrerie from Google Books.

GBooks had told me Rene Le Bossu's "Monsieur Bossu's treatise of the
epick poem ...", 1719 edition, contained the phrase "liberty and
equality", but gave me only a snippet view.  I later used ECCO to
search the 1719 edition and EEBO to search the 1695 edition.  The
phrase is not present.

My puzzlement having increased, I went back to GBooks and searched
for bossu + "liberty and equality".  In the hit headed "Monsieur
Bossu's treatise of the epick poem: Preface of the ..." I selected
"Preview available" and clicked on "More editions".  There are -- 22
of them (actually 13), with various dates of publication.

For amusement, click on the first few hits.  And don't be mislead by
the GBook-provided "cover" page of the seventh in the list (the
"1904" edition whose thumbnail looks like reddish lettering on a dark
background) -- scroll down past the several blank pages, and be
amused that it is actually "A Book of American Prose Humor ...".

Those who are more alert than I was about the "1719" snippet edition
will already have seen that the (nearly-readable) thumbnail cover
images do not look anything like they have the title "Monsieur
Bossu's treatise [etc.]".

Bookplates show that all 13 came from the Library of Princeton University.

(Further puzzlement comes if one does *not* select "Preview
available" when looking for "More editions".  GBooks claims 37
results.  On the second page, the fourth item is dated
"1909".  Clicking on it yields not a single book but a list of "Books
1 - 10 of about 24 editions"!  The first of which is "Beowulf, Issue
2".  (I didn't know it was a serial -- perhaps a cliff-hanger?)  Many
of the rest of these 37 are the same list of 1-10 of 24 (why am I
reminded of "Star Trek: Voyager"?); others repeat single books
already encountered, including "Beowulf".)

Joel






At 3/23/2014 03:23 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>Discovered while GBooking "liberty and equality".  (Which I see now
>can also be found in Locke, Pufendorf, Spinoza, Milton, and Polybius
>the Megalopolitan, all before 1730, although some in translation.)
>
>"It is the fashion to call the United States the land of liberty and
>equality."
>
>Rene Le Bossu, _Monsieur Bossu's treatise of the epick poem ..._,
>1719.  The title and date are genuine, and there is an edition from
>1695.  In quotes, and so presumably quoting someone else.  This is a
>snippet, and I can't tell what the context is, who is quoted, or the
>page number.
>
>Is "United States" the United States of America?  Calling it/them
>"the land of liberty and equality" would seem to suggest so.  But
>there was no U.S.A. in 1719, let alone 1695 (which is even before
>William III of Orange ensured the liberty of the Protestant English
>people, safeguarding the Protestant colonies).
>
>Or is "United States" the Dutch Republic (the "United Provinces") of
>1581 to 1795?
>
>I'll have to go to the library for ECCO and EEBO to investigate this question.
>
>Joel
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org