About the New-York Weekly

The New-York Weekly Magazine or Miscellaneous Repository was published for slightly more than two years, from summer 1795 through summer 1797. The two complete years were also published as bound volumes; this e-text is Volume II, nos. 53-104. Volume III, renamed Sentimental & Literary Magazine, only lasted through no. 112.

There are no illustrations and no advertising. Each page was in two columns. The arrangement of each issue was:

Front Page, in slightly larger type:
masthead spanning the top of the page
didactic or philosophical essays

Inside pages:
prose essays (philosophical or educational)
fiction, ranging from from a single column to serialized novels

Page 7, second column (variable):
Marriages
Meteorological Observations, including monthly summary
short poem

Back Page, in slightly smaller type:
poetry
printer/publisher information spanning the bottom of the page

thumbnail of page 1

Errors and Inconsistencies

Because of the condition of the original, common mechanical errors such as n/u or f/ſ (f/long s) are noted only in exceptional cases.

Quotation marks in The Victim of Magical Delusion are shown as printed except when there is a mismatch between single and double quotes. Names in M‘ were generally printed with “opening” (right-facing) apostrophes; these are shown as printed.

In a few highly formulaic areas—the “Meteorological Observations” and “Marriages” items, and lines such as “Continued from page 163”—missing or invisible punctuation has been silently supplied.

Not Individually Noted:

historically appropriate spellings such as “chearful”, “controul”, “pourtray”, “stupified”, “villany”

forms like (in)conveniencies, indulgencies, precendency

inconsistent prefixes and suffixes such as
-ible, -able; in-, un-; -eous, -ious; -ent (-ence, -ency), -ant (-ance, -ancy)

misplaced or unexpected apostrophes such as
can’st, would’st, should’st, did’st; her’s and similar

variations such rn. and ra., clo. and cly. in the Meteorological Observations

inconsistent hyphenization of words such as
stair-case and staircase, blindfold and blind-fold

Variable Spellings:
ærial for aerial (and a few other æ for ae usages)
affect for effect (the verb)
alledge for allege
batchelor for bachelor
groupe for group
insiduous for insidious
male-content
murmer
ought for aught (“anything”)
pallet for palette
penegyric
placed for placid
spight for spite
terrestial for terrestrial (especially in later issues)
thermometor for thermometer

The plural form “criterions” is used consistently

The spelling “desart” is sometimes used geographically;
as a verb, or as a form of “deserve”, it is always spelled with “e”

Names:
Alchibiades/Alcibiades
Lovsinski/Lovzinski (form with -s- occurs in two issues)
Ottoman/Othman
Pharoah (only in the Music articles)

Usages:
“may be defined...” is consistently used without “...as”
“flew” is often used for “fled”