Datasets:

marco-bazzani
/

historical-period

id stringlengths 5 8	book_id stringlengths 2 5	title stringlengths 5 500	author stringlengths 3 54	text stringlengths 3.6k 12.9k	year int32 1.7k 1.92k	period_bin stringclasses 3 values	openlibrary_work stringlengths 15 18	openlibrary_url stringlengths 38 41	date_source stringclasses 2 values	date_note stringclasses 76 values	date_implied_by_text bool 2 classes	date_leak stringclasses 3 values	leak_clues listlengths 0 4
31807_e0	31807	The Plague at Marseilles Consider'd	Richard Bradley	a trembling Voice, a cadaverous Face, a Coldness in all the extreme Parts, a low unequal Pulse, great Pains in the Stomach, Reachings to Vomit, and these are follow'd by Sleepiness, Deliriums, Convulsions, or Fluxes of Blood, the Forerunners of sudden Death. In the Bodies that are open'd, we find gangrenous Inflamm...	1,721	A	/works/OL24908261W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL24908261W	openlibrary		true	strong	[ "Marseilles Sept. 15. 1720 dated letter", "Plague of Marseilles 1720 as current event", "reference to 'late Plague at London' (1665) as past" ]
31807_e1	31807	The Plague at Marseilles Consider'd	Richard Bradley	those Months we have our chief Fruit Seasons, and when it happens that there has been a Blight in the Spring, or the Summer has not given our Fruit due Maturity, I suppose that the Habit of the Body is so disposed as to receive Infection more readily, than in Years that either afford us little, or else very Ripe ...	1,721	A	/works/OL24908261W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL24908261W	openlibrary		true	strong	[ "Letter dated 'Anno 1682'", "'In the Year 1712 a dreadful...Contagion'", "Philosophical Transactions No. 8", "F.R.S. references" ]
31807_e2	31807	The Plague at Marseilles Consider'd	Richard Bradley	, and preventing the Spreading of Pestilential Distempers. In 1665 it was observable, that in _Aldermanbury_, and other Places, where there were large Ware-Houses of Aromatick Druggs, the Infection did not reach; so that it seems where there is Quantity enough of such Woods or Gums, as yield a strong Smell, we h...	1,721	A	/works/OL24908261W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL24908261W	openlibrary		false	weak	[ "Dr. Bentley, Master of Trinity College Cambridge (living reference, d.1742)", "1665 plague as historical", "Mr. Nieuwentijt (Newyentyte) experiments", "'late Plague in London'" ]
53027_e0	53027	A Treatise on Tobacco Tea Coffee and Chocolate	Simon Pauli	_, for the Cure of Wounds. A few Years ago it was imported into _Spain_, rather for the Decoration of Gardens, than on Account of its medicinal Virtues: But it is now more celebrated for the latter, than used for the former. "This Plant is among the _Indians_ called _Picelt_; for the _Spaniards_ first calle...	1,746	A	/works/OL10585673W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL10585673W	openlibrary		false	weak	[ "tobacco described as recently imported into Spain for gardens", "no railways/telegraph/photography/motor-cars", "materia medica humoral framing" ]
53027_e1	53027	A Treatise on Tobacco Tea Coffee and Chocolate	Simon Pauli	exciting Laughter, which is represented as the Concomitant of _Venus:_" And he adds, that _Myrtle_ was supposed to be so grateful to this Goddess, that all who celebrated her Festivals, were adorned with Crowns of it. The same Author, from _Athenæus_ informs us, that the _Lesbians_ crowned themselves with Wreaths ...	1,746	A	/works/OL10585673W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL10585673W	openlibrary		false	none	[ "references only to classical/Renaissance botanists (Pliny, Athenaeus, Bauhine, Dodonaeus, Clusius, Dalechampius)", "tea/myrtle botanical discussion is period-ambiguous", "no datable events, technologies, or contemporary figures" ]
53027_e2	53027	A Treatise on Tobacco Tea Coffee and Chocolate	Simon Pauli	cold Substances, as is commonly believed. The Effeminacy and Impotence then produced by drinking _Coffee_, and smoaking _Tobacco_, are sufficiently obvious. And to these two, if I am not mistaken, good Judges will join _Tea_, because according to _Martinius_, the _Chinese_ by the last not only extinguish Thirst, ...	1,746	A	/works/OL10585673W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL10585673W	openlibrary		false	weak	[ "Coffee, Tea, Chocolate, Tobacco as debated novelties in Europe", "Tea described as still 'new' to Chinese and recently imported to Europe", "long-s and 18th-c. orthography (style, not content)", "printer T. OSBORNE imprint" ]
31053_e0	31053	The History of the Devil	Daniel Defoe	that we are bound never to speak of the_ Devil _but with an Air of Terror, as if we were always afraid of him._ _'Tis evident the_ Devil, _as subtle and as frightful as he is, has acted the ridiculous and foolish Part, as much as most of God's Creatures, and daily does so. And he cannot believe 'tis any Sin to e...	1,726	A	/works/OL45301W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL45301W	openlibrary		false	weak	[ "reference to Lord Rochester", "reference to Milton", "long-s and archaic typography (style, not content)" ]
31053_e1	31053	The History of the Devil	Daniel Defoe	it; and who, tho' after he had left _Zoar_, and was retir'd into a Cave to dwell, yet the subtle _Devil_ found him out, deluded his two Daughters, took an Advantage of the Fright they had been in about _Sodom_ and _Gomorrah_, made them believe the whole World was burnt too, as well as those Cities, and that in sh...	1,726	A	/works/OL45301W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL45301W	openlibrary		false	none	[]
31053_e2	31053	The History of the Devil	Daniel Defoe	'd; so that they carry'd him off, and he was committed to _Newgate_ or some other Prison as effectual. Nor could Satan with all his Skill unlock his Fetters, much less the Prison Doors; But he was try'd, convicted, and executed. The Fellow in his Extremity, _they say_, expostulated with the _Devil_ for his Barga...	1,726	A	/works/OL45301W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL45301W	openlibrary		false	weak	[ "'the Elector of Brandenburgh's (now the King of Prussia's) Dominions'" ]
53202_e0	53202	A Mechanical Account of Poisons in Several Essays	Richard Mead	in the following 〈Essays〉; in which I do not promise Methodical, and Finish’d Treatises, but only some short Hints of Natural History, and Rude Strokes of Reasoning; which, if put together, and rightly Improved, may perhaps serve to furnish out a more tolerable SPECIMEN of the DOCTRINE of POISONS, than has yet bee...	1,702	A	/works/OL5226891W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5226891W	openlibrary		false	weak	[ "Named contemporaries: Dr. Areskine, Dr. Pitcarne, Dr. Cheyne (New Theory of Fevers), Bellini", "Iatromathematical/mechanical medicine program", "Bellini and Pitcairne active late 17th-early 18th c." ]
53202_e1	53202	A Mechanical Account of Poisons in Several Essays	Richard Mead	lius Aurelianus_ be on his side) who thinks that the Βραχυπόται are ὑδροφόβοι, from the Bite of a Mad Dog; as well for other Reasons, as because _Plutarch_ (82) assures Us, that the _Hydrophobia_ and _Elephantiasis_ were both first taken Notice of in the time of _Asclepiades_ the Physician; who liv’d in the Days of...	1,702	A	/works/OL5226891W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5226891W	openlibrary		false	weak	[ "Citations of Acta Medica Hafniensia, Philosophical Transactions, works by P. Boccone and Mr. Ray (John Ray, late 17th c.)", "footnote/reference apparatus but no datable event pinning a bin" ]
53202_e2	53202	A Mechanical Account of Poisons in Several Essays	Richard Mead	regarded. This I shall do with respect to a great Abuse, committed in this kind about the City; and that is, In the chusing of stagnating impure _Well-Water_ for the _Brewing_ of _Beer_, and making other Drinks. Such a Fluid indeed has oftentimes a greater Force and Aptness to extract the Tincture out of _Malt_...	1,702	A	/works/OL5226891W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5226891W	openlibrary		false	weak	[ "Lister's Voyage to Paris (pub. 1698)", "references to Sanctorius, Van Helmont", "orthography aside, cited authors are all pre-1700" ]
24761_e0	24761	The Rivals	Richard Brinsley Sheridan	some of the defects before its appearance to the public--and in particular the uncommon length of the piece as represented the first night. It were an ill return for the most liberal and gentlemanly conduct on their side, to suffer any censure to rest where none was deserved. Hurry in writing has long been explod...	1,775	A	/works/OL1062545W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1062545W	openlibrary		true	strong	[ "editorial apparatus: 'As originally acted at COVENT GARDEN THEATRE in 1775'" ]
24761_e1	24761	The Rivals	Richard Brinsley Sheridan	now but for the worthless flower of beauty! ABSOLUTE It is but too true, indeed, ma'am;--yet I fear our ladies should share the blame--they think our admiration of beauty so great, that knowledge in them would be superfluous. Thus, like garden-trees, they seldom show fruit, till time has robbed them of the mor...	1,775	A	/works/OL1062545W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1062545W	openlibrary		false	none	[]
24761_e2	24761	The Rivals	Richard Brinsley Sheridan	ANTHONY ABSOLUTE, DAVID, Mrs. MALAPROP, LYDIA, and JULIA.] DAVID Knock 'em all down, sweet Sir Anthony; knock down my master in particular; and bind his hands over to their good behaviour! Sir ANTHONY Put up, Jack, put up, or I shall be in a frenzy--how came you in a duel, sir? ABSOLUTE Faith, sir, that ...	1,775	A	/works/OL1062545W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1062545W	openlibrary		false	none	[ "reference to serving 'his majesty'/king only indicates a monarchy, undatable across all bins", "no explicit dates, events, or technologies" ]
2160_e0	2160	The Expedition of Humphry Clinker	Tobias Smollett	the parish church. Thirdly, with respect to what passed at Mr Kendal's table, when the said Lismahago was so brutal in his reprehensions, I must inform you, my good Sir, that I was obliged to retire, not by fear arising from his minatory reproaches, which, as I said above, I value not of a rush; but from the s...	1,771	A	/works/OL32014217W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL32014217W	openlibrary		true	strong	[ "Smollett's Humphry Clinker title", "references to Sterne's Sentimental Travels (Shandy), Sharp, Baretti travel books", "epistolary contemporaries named as current" ]
2160_e1	2160	The Expedition of Humphry Clinker	Tobias Smollett	pushed her down, crying, 'Na, na, gude faith, charity begins at hame!' Without paying the least respect to the shrieks and intreaties of his female friends, he charged through the midst of the crowd, overturning every thing that opposed him; and actually fought his way to the bottom of the Stair-case--By this time...	1,771	A	/works/OL32014217W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL32014217W	openlibrary		false	weak	[ "black tye-periwig", "portmanteau/crutch/instinct discourse (Enlightenment idiom)", "bathing machines described as novel", "before the invention of gun-powder (ancient reference, pins nothing)" ]
2160_e2	2160	The Expedition of Humphry Clinker	Tobias Smollett	his lady gave her a diamond necklace of double that value. There was, besides, a mutual exchange of tokens among the individuals of the two families thus happily united. As George Dennison and his partner were judged improper objects of mirth, Jack Wilson had resolved to execute some jokes on Lismahago, and af...	1,771	A	/works/OL32014217W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL32014217W	openlibrary		false	none	[ "Sadler's Wells", "Bath/Gloucester domestic setting", "Dr Arbuthnot reference" ]
4084_e0	4084	The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle	Tobias Smollett	of exercising their own reason; and, in order to avoid the trouble of adjusting the bill, ordered the waiter to declare how much every individual must pay, without specifying the articles of the charge. This proportion generally amounted to two guineas per head for each dinner and supper; and frequently exceeded t...	1,751	A	/works/OL814713W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL814713W	audit_override	OL first_publish_year 1723 derives from a corrupted edition record (OL22489684M: dated '1723' yet labeled '5th ed., printed for T. Lowndes' — a bookseller active 1760s–1780s; clearly a typo for the 1773 Lowndes printing that also exists under this work). Smollett (b. 1721) was two years old in 1723; the novel was first...	false	weak	[ "monetary units in guineas and pounds", "hazard gambling, naval-era diction ('Nantz', patereroes)", "no railways/telegraph/photography or later technology" ]
4084_e1	4084	The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle	Tobias Smollett	, as well as the cause of his own confinement, began to discover signs of curiosity touching our hero's situation; and Pickle, thinking he could do no less for the satisfaction of a man who had treated him in such a hospitable manner, favoured him with a detail of the circumstances which produced his imprisonment;...	1,751	A	/works/OL814713W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL814713W	audit_override	OL first_publish_year 1723 derives from a corrupted edition record (OL22489684M: dated '1723' yet labeled '5th ed., printed for T. Lowndes' — a bookseller active 1760s–1780s; clearly a typo for the 1773 Lowndes printing that also exists under this work). Smollett (b. 1721) was two years old in 1723; the novel was first...	false	none	[ "debtors' prison setting, valets, guineas, man-of-war lieutenant with hanger — all period-general", "no explicit dates, named public figures, or datable events/technologies" ]
4084_e2	4084	The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle	Tobias Smollett	impression upon his brain and constitution. He fell at her feet in all the agony of impatience; and swore his life and intellects would actually be in jeopardy by her refusal; and, when she attempted to argue him out of his demand, began to rage with such extravagance, that Sophy was frightened into conviction; and...	1,751	A	/works/OL814713W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL814713W	audit_override	OL first_publish_year 1723 derives from a corrupted edition record (OL22489684M: dated '1723' yet labeled '5th ed., printed for T. Lowndes' — a bookseller active 1760s–1780s; clearly a typo for the 1773 Lowndes printing that also exists under this work). Smollett (b. 1721) was two years old in 1723; the novel was first...	false	none	[ "Doctors' Commons licence", "Marylebone gardens", "tavern/coach culture" ]
42234_e0	42234	The Storm	Daniel Defoe	after them, to the End of the World._ _This Observation I thought good to make by way of Preface, to let the World know, that when I go about a Work in which I must tell a great many Stories, which may in their own nature seem incredible, and in which I must expect a great part of Mankind will question the Sincer...	1,704	A	/works/OL15335422W	https://openlibrary.org/works/OL15335422W	openlibrary		false	weak	[ "long-s and orthography aside, references only to ancient/mythic history (Nimrod, Deucalion, Arthur) which pin nothing", "a great storm/tempest treated as a recent extraordinary event, but no datable named event or technology" ]

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Historical English Prose, 1700–1920

1,665 excerpts (~2,048 tokens each) from 580 public-domain English books, each labeled with the first-publication year of its English text and a verifiable OpenLibrary source for that date. Intended for studying period attribution of English prose.

Fields

field	type	description
`id`	string	`<book_id>_e<k>`: the book id plus an excerpt index. Each book contributes up to 3 excerpts.
`book_id`	string	Project Gutenberg ebook id.
`title`	string	Book title, from Gutenberg metadata.
`author`	string	Author name and life dates, from Gutenberg metadata.
`text`	string	The excerpt: roughly 2,048 tokens of body text. Front and back matter were excluded by a sampling margin.
`year`	int	First publication year of this English text.
`period_bin`	string	`A` = 1700–1780, `B` = 1780–1860, `C` = 1860–1920. Derived from `year`.
`openlibrary_work`	string	OpenLibrary work key the book was resolved to.
`openlibrary_url`	string	URL for that record.
`date_source`	string	`openlibrary` if the record's year was confirmed by audit; `audit_override` if the audit corrected it.
`date_note`	string	For overrides only: a paragraph explaining the correction and the evidence behind it. Empty otherwise.
`date_implied_by_text`	bool	True if the excerpt contains explicit dating evidence — printed dates, editorial apparatus, or datable events described as current that are sufficient to determine `period_bin`
`date_leak`	string	Graded form of the flag: `strong`, `weak`, or `none`. `weak` means the content narrows the period without pinning it.
`leak_clues`	list[string]	The specific clues the leak judge cited.

How the dataset was built

Sampling. Books were drawn from the PG19 corpus (Project Gutenberg texts) with catalog years in 1700–1920. From each book, three ~2,048-token excerpts were sampled at evenly spaced positions, with a margin excluding front and back matter.
Identity resolution. Each book was matched to an OpenLibrary work record using Gutenberg metadata, the book's own frontmatter, and OpenLibrary search; matches were made by a language-model agent per book and are linked in openlibrary_url.
Date verification. The OpenLibrary year was independently audited one book at a time by language-model agents with web access, which checked the book's own frontmatter, library catalogs, scholarly sources, and digitized editions. This process corrected 98 dates (recorded as date_source = audit_override with the reasoning in date_note); the most common error classes in OpenLibrary years were modern-reprint years, placeholder dates on undated reprints, and — for translations — conflation of the original-language edition with the English translation.
Date-leakage annotation. Every excerpt was graded by a language-model judge for whether the text contains explicit and direct dating evidence such as explicit years, editorial apparatus, datable events, technologies, or named contemporaries.

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