Book Back, Bit Overdue Checked Out In 1764, During Harvard Fire

A book about the history of England has been returned to Harvard University - 233 years after it was checked out.

No one knows where the thick, leather-covered “Complete History of England with the Lives of All the Kings and Queens Thereof, Volume 3,” has been. It was one of only a few books that survived a fire at the university in 1764, thanks to an unknown borrower who failed to return it.

“It’s remarkable that it’s come back,” said Roger Stoddard, curator of rare books in the Harvard College Library.

It was one of 404 books that escaped a fire in Harvard Hall when the building burned to the ground during the college’s winter vacation on Jan. 25, 1764, destroying the rest of the 5,000-volume collection.

About 250 books that were being kept in storage were spared. Another 144 were out on loan, including one from the original bequest of John Harvard, after whom the university was named.

That book, “The Christian Warfare Against the Devil World and Flesh,” by John Downame, was returned by an undergraduate who was profusely thanked and then expelled for having borrowed it without permission.

About 80 of the 144 missing volumes were eventually returned, and the other 10 thought lost.

The university replaced the “History of England” with a later edition. But when a Harvard history professor was shown an ancient copy by a rare book dealer, he immediately recognized the flyleaf stamp that identified the book in Latin as the property of Harvard University.

The professor, Mark Kishlansky, called the calfskin-covered antique “an exquisite old book.”

It was purchased for the university by an anonymous donor for a price officials won’t disclose.