PEABODY DONATES 600 VOLUMES TO WIDENER

A bequest consisting of a collection of 600 volumes of Utopian literature has been received by the College Library from the Reverend F. G. Peabody '69, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, emeritus. The most important volumes of the collection are at present on display in the Treasure Room of the Library.

The gift of Professor Peabody is roughly comprised of two groups. The first deals preponderantly with Sir Thomas More's Utopia. There are sixty-four editions of the masterpiece including the first Latin edition printed in 1516 and many early foreign translations. In this group also are to be found examples of More's works, of his studies and incidental writings. "Epigramma" and "Apologye" are two of the more outstanding of these incidental works, while "Moriac Encomium" of Erasmus, and "Mirrour of Vertue" and "Exposito Fidelis" are ancient analyses of the man's character and work.

The second group contains all manner of Utopias, more than one hundred volumes altogether, ranging from Plato's "Republic" and St. Augustines "De Civitate Dei" to Bacon's "New Atlantis" and Hobbes "Leviathan."

Supplementing these two sections is a veritable compendium of historical and critical commentaries of Utopian literature, forming an introduction to the niceties of the collection. Professor Peabody has been emeritus for almost twenty years.