Bible, in Massachusett - photo 1
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Bible, in Massachusett

Lot 15
25.05.2022 17:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 88 200
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 752741
Lot 15 | Bible, in Massachusett
Estimate value
$ 80 000 – 120 000
Bible, in MassachusettSamuel Green, 1685-80BIBLE, in Massachusett. Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God naneeswe Nukkone Testament kah wonk Wusku Testament. Translated by John Eliot. Cambridge [Massachusetts]: Samuel Green, 1685-80. The second edition of the first Bible printed in America. "The 'Eliot Indian Bible,' as it is generally known, resulted from a lengthy collaboration among the Puritan divine John Eliot and several Massachusett Indians who helped him create an orthography for their language, translate the Bible, and complete its printing. In 1650, Eliot wrote of a young Massachusett man, probably Job Nesutan, 'who can write, so that I can read his writing well, and he can read mine.' Over the next decade, Nesutan served as one of Eliot's chief translators. In 1654 he helped Eliot prepare a primer; later he worked on both the New and Old Testaments. When the Bible went to Samuel Green to be printed, a Massachusett apprentice, James Printer, helped set the type. Time and again, in New England and beyond, the publication of Indian language texts relied upon similar cooperation across cultural and linguistic borders" (Creating America). Eliot, funded by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England, embarked on this project in the belief that the Native peoples of New England would be more receptive to Christianity if it were presented in their own language. The Indian Bible was printed in the building that housed the Harvard Indian College, an institution which “provides a vital foundation for understanding the complex role of ‘praying Indians,’ or members of Indigenous mission communities, as scholars, scribes, scouts and political intermediaries before, during, and after King Philip’s War” (Brooks). Promising students were educated in English, Latin and Massachusett, with the aim of producing men who could help convert their fellow countrymen to Christianity. A bright Nipmuc student named Wawaus, later called James Printer, was “recruited by Eliot as a printer’s apprentice, [and] he would help to produce the first run of bilingual literature in the colonies, with readers in England and in his home country” (ibid.). Wawaus’s dual-fluency and skill in type-setting made the Indian Bible possible, assisted by the support of Wampanoag, Nipmuc, and Massachusett members of the college community, as well as English settlers like the printer Marmaduke Johnson. “Working two presses, twelve to thirteen hours a day, on the lower floor of the Indian College, printing one sheet at a time after setting out each piece of type by hand, Green, Printer, and Johnson were able to produce a full version of the Bible, which was distributed in wide-ranging networks of trade,” with the goal of printing enough copies for every Christian Indian family in New England (ibid.). The astonishingly prolific activities of the Harvard Press, according to Bernd Peyer, “initiated American publishing history.” Unfortunately, this collaborative and multi-lingual beginning of American literature and print history did not last long; not long after this second edition was printed, the mood for any sort of cultural accommodation to aid conversion waned, with Puritan leaders like Cotton Mather arguing that Native people should instead be "Anglicized." Creating America 85 (first edition); Evans 385; Field 495 (first edition, see note); Sabin 22156, 22157; Lisa Brooks, Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War (2015). Two parts in one, quarto (193 x 145mm). Massachusett-language general title, New Testament title, and metrical Psalms (2K3-2Y4) and Rules for Christian Living (2Z1) (lacking the 4 leaves of gathering S; some occasional spots and stains, leaf E2 in New Testament with closed tear into printed area). Contemporary sheep (rebacked and restored preserving some of the original leather). Custom box. Provenance: Andrew Gifford (1700-1784, Baptist minister and assistant librarian in the British Museum; bookplate on reverse of title).
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