History of Special Collections @ Colby

  • INTRO
    • Goals
    • Student Scholars Wanted
    • Acknowledgments
    • Contact Us
  • CHRONOLOGY & CONTEXT
    • What Happened (early on)
      • The First Library & Edward Hall
      • The “Rare Book” Section (early 1930s)
    • Our Chronology (1935-1975)
    • Some Context
  • THE PEOPLE
    • Curators
      • Carl Jefferson Weber (Curator 1940-1958)
      • Richard Cary (Curator 1958-1975)
    • Librarians
      • N Orwin Rush (Librarian 1936-1945)
      • Gilmore Warner (Librarian 1945-1947)
      • James Humphry III (Librarian 1947-1957)
      • John R McKenna (Librarian 1957-1964)
      • Kenneth P Blake, Jr (Librarian 1964-1973)
      • Eileen M Curran (Acting Librarian, 1973-1976)
    • Other Colby People
      • Ernest C Marriner ’13
      • Frederick A Pottle ’17
      • Carroll A Wilson ’40 LLD
      • Franklin Winslow Johnson (President 1929-1942)
      • Julius Seelye Bixler (President 1942-1960)
      • Robert Edward Lee Strider II (President 1960-1979)
    • The Colby Library Associates
    • Highlighted Donors
  • HIGHLIGHTED COLLECTIONS
    • Rare Book Collections
      • Early Books
      • Thomas Hardy
      • Book Arts
      • The Rubáiyát
    • Personal Libraries
      • Library of Edwin Arlington Robinson
      • Library of Thomas Sergeant Perry
      • Library of Harold Trowbridge Pulsifer
      • Library of James Augustine Healy
      • Library of Ben Ames Williams
    • Manuscript Collections
    • “A Recent Accession”: The Colby Library Quarterly

The Rubáiyát

The Rubáiyát is the work of Omar Khayyám (1048-1131), translated into English and adapted by Edward FitzGerald (1809–1883). Khayyám was a Persian polymath, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, physician, and poet from Neyshapur, in modern day Iran. The author of treatises on mechanics, geography, and music, Khayyám was one of the major mathematicians and astronomers of the medieval period. He wrote the most important treatise on algebra in pre-modern times and proposed a heliocentric theory centuries before Copernicus. His significance as a philosopher and teacher and his few remaining philosophical works have not received the same attention as his scientific and poetic writings.

DulacRubaiyatPD
Edmund Dulac illustration from 1909 edition of the Rubaiyat. (fineartnouveau.com)

Edward FitzGerald made Khayyám the most famous poet of the East in the West through his celebrated (some would say “fanciful”) translation and adaptations of Khayyám’s rather small number of quatrains (rubaiyaas) in Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, which also led to his revival among Iranian readers. The many editions of the Rubáiyát feature exquisite bindings and illustrations. The collection was assembled by Curator Carl Weber to commemorate the centennial in 1959, as described in a March 1959 article in the Colby Library Quarterly.

IN THE CATALOG…

Our Rubáiyát Collection features more than two hundred editions. They are on view in our main reading room. Each volume is described in the Colby Libraries web catalog, with a RUBAIYAT prestamp before the call number.

Explore Common Threads – and Student Scholarship – in our Manuscript Collections

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