THE TRIUMPHS OF THE REFORMED RELIGION IN AMERICA. THE LIFE OF THE RENOWNED JOHN ELIOT . . . A MEMORABLE EVANGELIST AMONG THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND. [with]. A BROADSIDE ADVERTISEMENT FOR BOSTON BOOKSELLER RICHARD WILKINS

Published by Printed by Benjamin Harris, and John Allen, for Joseph Brunning at the corner of the Prison-lane, Boston, 1691

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Seller: Phillip J. Pirages Rare Books (ABAA), McMinnville, OR, U.S.A.Phillip J. Pirages Rare Books (ABAA)

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AbeBooks seller since March 21, 2000

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Condition: Used

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Item description from seller

151 x 89 mm (5 7/8 x 3 1/2"). 4 p.l., 152 pp. [lacking the four leaves of quire S, containing pp. 129-36, good facsimiles of which accompany the volume]; A CONTEMPORANEOUS ADVERTISEMENT FOR THE BOOKSELLER WILKINS MOUNTED ONTO RECTO OF REAR FLYLEAF, PRESUMABLY AT THE TIME. Contemporary sprinkled sheep, flat spine. Housed in fine modern brown clamshell box, calf spine with black morocco label. Front flyleaf inscribed by an early owner with facsimile signatures of John Eliot and three others; second front flyleaf with ownership signature of Hannah Wainwright and a presentation inscription "To M. M. Dean, Presented by J. M. Moriarty, 1843," and with Dean's own gift inscription to the Newton Theological Institute, from which this copy was deaccessioned (see below). Mather: Howes M-398; Sabin 46561; Wing M-1163. Broadside: Bristol, "Supplement to Charles Evans' American Bibliography, B-127; Shipton & Mooney 39281; Wing W-2216A; ESTC W15418; not in Ford's "Broadsides, Ballads, &c. Printed in Massachusetts, 1639-1800." See Thomas, Isaiah, "History of Printing in American (1970), pp. 186-7. Boards with scratches and a couple patches of lost patina from insect activity, first three quires and final leaf with half-inch tears to gutter margin at tail, occasional minor stains and faint dampstaining, margins trimmed a bit close, affecting the very end of the text lines on p. 107, but a surprisingly well-preserved copy (apart from the missing leaves) of a fragile item in its original unsophisticated binding, and so rare and so interesting that condition doesn't much matter. To begin with, this is the first printing of Puritan minister Cotton Mather's biography of John Eliot (ca. 1604-90), who translated the Geneva Bible into the language of the Massachuset tribe, but our copy is distinguished by the presence of a broadside advertisement at the back, which is of the greatest interest to students of American cultural history as well as to book collectors. Created over the course of four years, beginning in 1660, "Eliot's Indian Bible," or the "Algonquian Bible," was the first complete Bible to be printed in America. Mather (1663-1728) describes Eliot's evangelism to the Indians, his acquisition of their language, and his painstaking translation of Scripture. The biography is interesting and valuable enough by itself (especially for its 17th century American imprint), but our copy contains an additional extremely rare piece of early American ephemera--a broadside that advertises the shop of Boston bookseller Richard Wilkins, where one might find "such a Variety of Books on all Subjects both Old & New, as is not to be found in any other part of America." In the chapter on "Booksellers of Boston" in Isaiah Thomas' "History of Printing in America," Wilkins is mentioned as having premises "Near the Town-House" in 1684. Thomas notes that Wilkins (ca. 1636-1704) had emigrated from Limerick in Ireland to escape religious persecution, and established the reputation of being a "person of good sense" and "a Pious man." Wilkins' advertisement describes his stock as: "Polemical & Practical Divinity; & Commentaries upon the Scriptures; together with useful Treatises in Grammer, School-Books, Chyrurgery, Merchandize, Husbandry, Astronomy, Geometry, Law, Military Affayrs, and other Subjects; all at such Reasonable Rates, as have not heretofore been afforded in these parts of the World." This seems to be the earliest broadside advertisement for a bookseller printed in the American colonies; OCLC finds other printed bookseller ads that appear in a book--usually on the final page or at the end of the front matter--but this is the only pre-1700 example we could find of an American-printed bookseller advertisement that stands alone. OCLC and LibHub locate just one copy of our broadside (at Harvard's Houghton Library); like ours, it is mounted on a blank page at the back (in this case, at the end of Mather's "Triumphs of the Reformed Religion"). The English Short T.…

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Bibliographic details

Title
THE TRIUMPHS OF THE REFORMED RELIGION IN AMERICA. THE LIFE OF THE RENOWNED JOHN ELIOT . . . A MEMORABLE EVANGELIST AMONG THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND. [with]. A BROADSIDE ADVERTISEMENT FOR BOSTON BOOKSELLER RICHARD WILKINS
Author
(AMERICAN IMPRINTS, EARLY). (ELIOT, JOHN). MATHER, COTTON
Publisher
Printed by Benjamin Harris, and John Allen, for Joseph Brunning at the corner of the Prison-lane, Boston
Publication year
1691
Edition
FIRST EDITION.
Dimensions
151 x 89 mm (5 7/8 x 3 1/2").
Seller catalogs
Americana

Phillip J. Pirages Rare Books (ABAA)

McMinnville, OR, U.S.A.

4-star seller

AbeBooks seller since March 21, 2000

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Phillip J. Pirages Rare Books (ABAA)

OR, U.S.A.