Biographies of one hundred Great masters of achievement in Literature, Fine Arts, Religion, Philosophy, Science, and Politics, and mini biographies of four thousand other masters from the earliest of times through 1912.

Excerpt from Editors Prefatory:

"Who are the great master minds that have contributed most to development of civilized life and institutions?

...there is no absolute metric (measurement) of greatness. ...consensus of judgement has singled out certain great individuals who the best informed minds now agree should be placed in the first rank among the greatest in history. ... final determination of the list by over a hundred of the best contemporary authorities - educators, authors, jurists, journalists, publicists, and other specialists ...assured an authoritative selection by a board of personal advisors of the highest order."

By Edward Gibbon (1737-1794); text edited by J.B. Bury (1861-1927), with notes by Mr. Gibbon. The Heritage Press, 1963.

Excerpt from "A Letter To The Reader" (by Phillip Guadella):

"Edward Gibbon is one of those few who hold as high a place in the history of literature as in the roll of great historians. ...

...The guiding idea or "moral" of his (Gibbon's) history is briefly stated in his epigram: "I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion."

"... Gibbon's forty-first chapter is still not only famous, but admired by jurists as a brief and brilliant exposition of the principles of Roman law."

The challenge and excitement of reading Gibbon's chronological description of the 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' cannot be over-estimated or exaggerated. Gibbon "...pursued it with the whole of his immense intellectual energy for close on twenty years ..."

The challenge and enlightenment it provides is comparable to the challenge and enlightenment provided by the books of the Old and the New Testaments of the Bible.

'Decline and Fall' is a monument to history of development of all of Western civilization.

At the peak of its greatness, the Roman Empire encompassed all of Western and Eastern Europe as we know it today.

Rome was bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, where it extended from the lowlands of Scotland in the north, taking in all of France and Germany southward to include North Africa previously developed by the Egyptian dynasties. It extended eastward to the shores of the Caspian Sea, encompassing the area south of the Caucasus Mountains, an area that included the Balkans, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Iran and Iraq.

Rome was at the peak of its conquests and greatness, after seven hundred years of development, at time of the birth of Christ. It took another one thousand four hundred and fifty three years for Rome to fall into total ruin and extinction. That final moment occurred with the fifty-three day Turkish-Islamic siege and capture of Constantinople (now Istanbul), to claim the life of the last of the Holy Roman Emperors, on the sixth day of April 1453.

A monument to literary excellence, Gibbon provided each of 2,442 pages of detail a title of its own.

A monument to historical accuracy, it functions as a supplement to history of development of Judaism and Christianity contained in the Books of the Bible.

Gibbon's "...first volume was put out in a first edition of 1,000 copies (February 1, 1776) ... It sold out in a fortnight and was reprinted twice in fourteen months. So 1776 made history for Mr. Gibbon as well as for King George III and his American subjects. Two more volumes followed in the year of Yorktown." (Scene of surrender of British Genereal Cornwallis to the American Revolutionary forces in 1781.)

The U.S. Constitution, its structure, and its enumeration of provisions for distribution and balance of the powers of government, vis-a-vis the rights and priveleges of the individual citizen, could not have been constructed without benefit of the intricate detail of the Roman experience described by Gibbon.

Translated by B. Jowett (1817-1893). Edited with Introduction by Louis Ropes Loomis. Published for the Classics Club by Walter J. Black, Inc., New York, 1942.

From the Introduction:

"...we have chosen five of the dialogues that have special interest for the general reader... . The Apology and the Crito are the earliest of these dialogues. They are part of Plato's (427?-327 B.C.) first memorial to his master, his account of Socrates' (470?-399 B.C.) words and bearing during his trial and imprisonment. The Phaedo and Symposium were probably written some years later. ... dramatic interest still centers around the personality of Socrates ... ideas expressed ... we are sure was Plato's own maturer thinking on the themes of death and the invisible world, human aspiration and love."

"In the Republic, the chief speaker is still Socrates ... the most comprehensive of the dialogues, in its views of the world above and below and its survey of human life in all its aspects, the life of the individual and of society."

The reader will never find Plato "...among the friends who meet and talk so happily or earnestly around the dinner table or in the prison cell." The reader will learn a little of Plato's mind "...as the creator of these immortal scenes at a time when the lights of his civilization seemed to be growing dim."

Edited with Introduction by Louis Ropes Loomis. Published for the Classics Club by Walter J. Black, Inc., New York, 1942.

From the Introduction:

"Everyone who knows anything about Plato knows that he had a pupil called Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), who in time became almost, if not quite, as famous a philosopher as his master. ... Aristotle in his turn had a pupil known as Alexander the Great, who, when hardly out of boyhood, became one of the world's most illustrious conquerors and empire builders."

"An extraordinary line of men that little Greek corner of the Earth could produce in the fourth century before Christ!"

"...pupils do not always follow respectfully along the paths marked out for them by their teachers. Aristotle set up a school at Athens to rival and for long periods outshine Plato's."

"Alexander's empire spelled the downfall of the small independent city-state that to Aristotle was the only possible form of civilized political community."

Alexander's "... empire was a vast conglomerate of races and kingdoms that stretched from Greece away eastward until it reached the mythical region of India, beyond the rising sun. In it, the free Greek cities, to which Aristotle pinned his hopes for human progress, lost their pride and their liberties, never fully to get them back."

The Old Testament - Douay Version.

The New Testament - Confraternity Edition:
A Revision of the Challoner-Rheims Version Edited by Catholic Scholars under patronage of the Episcopal Committee of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine.

Published by Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1949-1950.

The term 'Catholic' is from the Greek katholikos that means, 'universal'.

The Latin Vulgate:

Various books of the Old and the New Testament were written by many different authors, over many centuries, in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.

The 'Latin Vulgate' was the first and original gathering of the various books of the Old and the New Testament, written in different languages, into a singular language.

Latin was the common language of the Roman Empire. The term vulgar is from the Latin. vulgatus, which means 'common or usual'; accordingly, Latin was chosen as the 'language' for translation from different languages into one language.

From Collier's Encyclopedia: "Variations and corruptions in existing translations caused Pope Damasus (c.304-384) to commission St. Jerome (c.340-420) to prepare an authoritative Latin text of the Gospels from the best Greek manuscripts. This task was completed in 383. Later, in his monastic retirement at Bethlehem, St. Jerome translated the Old Testament from the Hebrew and Aramaic."

Bernard Palicki
Huntsville, AL
June 25, 1999

6. Banking and Monetary Statistics:

The following books of statistical data were published by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Banking System:

a. Banking and Monetary Statistics - 1914-1941 (November 1943)

Statement of description by, E.A. Golderen(?) Seiser(Signature not clear) as follows:

"It was stated in a recent technical report to the President that statistics are both a by-product and an instrument of administration. The figures in this volume are for the most part a by-product of bank supervision and credit administration, especially during the thirty years since establishment of the Federal Reserve System. Banking figures for the past and the present are a treasure trove for the student of financial history and, together with their estimated projections into the future, they are the rock on which credit policy must rest.

These serried ranks of organized statistics on banking and finance, even though they may inspire awe, should also inspire confidence. They are an augery that credit policy can be based in the future, as in the past, on fact rather than fancy."

b. Banking and Monetary Statistics - 1941-1970 (September 1976)

From the Preface:

The first volume was published "...to make available -in one place and on a uniform basis- major series relating to banking, monetary, and other financial developments. ... While most of the statistics in this volume cover the period beginning with 1941, a few series are shown for longer periods. All of the series end with December 1970. ... In combination, the two volumes present a wealth of banking and financial statistics covering a period of more than 60 years."

(Approved December 23, 1913), As Amended Through 1971, With an Appendix containing provisions of certain other Acts of Congress that affect the Federal Reserve System. Compiled under the direction of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in its Legal Division. December 1971.

Section XI of the Appendix contains the Bretton Woods Agreement Act, as of July 31, 1945 (59 Stat. 512) - Sec. 2. "The President is hereby authorized to accept membership of the United States in the International Monetary Fund (hereinafter referred to as the "Fund"), and in the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (hereinafter referred to as the "Bank"), provided by the Articles of Agreement of the Bank as set forth in the Final Act of the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference dated July 22, 1944, and deposited in the archives of the Department of State. [U.S.C., title 22, sec. 286]

Published by the Board of Governors, Washington D.C., Sixth Edition, September 1974
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 39-26719

From the Preface:
Presents "... concise, up-dated account of the responsibilities and operating techniques of the System in the areas of monetary policy, banking and financial regulation, and international finance. ... also includes some description of economic relationships, market structure, and the theoretical underpinnings of central banking ... to provide ... a better understanding of the role of the Federal Reserve in the Nation's economic and financial system."

By Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay

First printing, Copyright 1961 by the American Library of World Literature, Inc. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 61-10757

Introduction, table of contents and index of ideas by Clinton Rossiter

"The authors and supporters of the Constitution of 1787 foresaw that clear-cut vote against it in the State ratifying conventions would destroy at birth the young nation's most important experiment in popular government. A particular point of concern was the growing State of New York, whose governor, George Clinton, was a formidable opponent of the proposed charter.

Alexander Hamilton, in an energetic effort to win over his home State, began a series of essays explaining and defending the Constitution. These were published in New York City newspapers under the pseudonym 'Publius'.

Hamilton was aided by contributions from two other advocates of a new and energetic national government, James Madison and John Jay. The efforts of these three men resulted in The Federalist Papers - an authoritative analysis of the Constitution of the United States and an enduring classic of political philosophy that takes its place in history beside the Constitution itself."

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