Contributed by Nicole Merzweiler.
For the past few months, I have been working on digitizing the Professor Robert H. Wozniak Collection of Books on the History of Psychology. Professor Wozniak donated a large set of mainly foreign language psychology books which have not yet been added to The University of Akron Library catalog. My job has been to scan the title pages and table of contents and upload them to our content management system so they can become accessible even though they are not cataloged.
Of the approximately 500 books in the collection, I am only about halfway through, but I have already noticed a few interesting things. The majority of the foreign language books are from Germany and France, but there are also a few English, Italian and Latin books. Generally, German and French books can be differentiated by the covers and binding. Many of the French books have soft paper covers with type on them. Les Obsessions et la Psychasthénie by Pierre Janet is one example.
Also, the placement of the table of contents typically varies; most are in the front of the book, except for books from France which are the last pages in the book.
Most German books in the collection are plain hardcover, but have ornate script inside. My favorite so far is Versuch einer Darstellung des animalischen Magnetismus als heilmittel by Carl Kluge which discusses animal magnetism as a healing medium. Although the type used in German books can be hard to read at times, I still enjoy it and I also find the illustrations fascinating.
I have found so many interesting books in the collection, but there is one book that stands out the most for its age and topic, Pneumatologia siva Docrina de Spiritibus Creatis by Frid. Gentzken.
It was published in 1715, making it the oldest book in the collection so far, and one of only two that is in Latin. The book discusses the study of the Holy Spirit, and human interaction with it, which is not a topic I have seen in any of the other books.
As mentioned in a previous post, the entries in CONTENTdm are open for comments and translations. If you are interested in helping with this please check out the collection!
