162 



BIBLIOGKAPHY OF THE 



Eliot (J.) — Continued. 



(25) Ellsworth Eliot, M.D., N'ew York. In 

 modern morocco binding, lacking one leaf in 

 Genesis from chap.vii. 12 to ix. 27 (A4), and four 

 leaves in the metrical psalms from ex. 3 to cxix. 

 102 (sig. Uu) , all of which have been supplied in 

 fac-simile. A number of leaves which were 

 stained, torn, or cut into, have been neatly re- 

 paired. On the recto of the leaf of contents are 

 the three following inscrii^tions, apparently in 

 the handwriting of as many different persons: 

 first, "Asaph his Book | Asaph his Bible Sent 

 to I Exp. Mayhew;" second, "Rec'^ from the 

 Eev'l Mr. Mayhew from Martha's Vineyard, 

 March 22. 171^;" and third, "att february the 

 14 year 174f oobible Zachary | hossveit gajhead 

 nohtorapeantog." Zachary Hossveit was an 

 Indian preacher atG-ayhead, on Martha's Vine- 

 yard. Two other bibles which may have been 

 in his possession are described under nos. 11 and 

 45 of this list. On the verso of the last leaf of 

 Revelation is written : "lam Zacry Zacry ad 

 Gay head. I have I sad my name ad March the 

 13. 17||," and below, "att february the 14 year 

 174f I oobible Zachary hossveit Gayhead | noh- 

 tompeantog." Manuscript notes in Indian 

 are also found on the verso of the new testa- 

 ment title, on the recto of the last leaf of Revela- 

 tion, and in many other places on the margins. 

 About the year 1885, while in half leather bind- 

 ing of the present century, and before the 

 missing leaves had been supplied, it came into 

 the possession of Henry Sotheran & Co., the 

 London booksellers, who offered it for sale to 

 several American dealers. After it had been 

 repaired and rebound, the -bible was sent to 

 Messrs. George A. Leavitt & Co., and sold in 

 the second portion of the "Trivulzio Collec- 

 tion," in New York, February, 1888 (no. 1163), 

 for $280, at which price it was bought in by the 

 auctioneers. It was then offered at private sale 

 for $350, and was finally catalogued with the 

 "Del Monte Library," and sold in 'New York, 

 June, 1888 (no. 560), for $230, to the present 

 owner, who is a lineal decendant, in the sixth 

 generation, of the "Apostle of the Indians." 



(26) Library of Glasgow University, Glas- 

 gow. No description has been obtained of this 

 copy. See Dr. John Smalls introduction to his 

 reprint of Eliot's Indian Primer (Edinburgh, 

 1877), p. xxviii, note. 



(27) Mr. C. F. Gunther, Chicago, 111. In 

 modern binding of purple morocco. At the top 

 of the first title, which is mounted, is the au- 

 tograph of an early owner, Josiah Cotton (born 

 1680, died 1756), for nearly forty years a preach- 

 er to the Indians in their own language, and the 

 author of a vocabulary of the Natick dialect. 

 He was a son of the Rev. John Cotton, of Bos- 

 ton, who aided Mr. Eliot in the revision of this 

 edition. The bible came afterwards into the 

 possession of the Rev. Thaddeus Mason Harris 

 <born 1768, died 1842), who was minister of the 

 first Unitarian church in Dorchester from 1793 

 to 1836. At the sale of his library in Boston, 

 January 26th, 1843(p. 11), itappearedas, "Eliot, 



Eliot (J.) — Continued. 



John. Indian Bible. 4to. Cambridge. 1685./' 

 and was purchased by Mr. Edward A. Crown- 

 iushield for $39. See the Proceedings of the 

 Massachusetts Historical Society for 1867-69, p. 

 427. Information concerning the Harris cata- 

 logue furnished by Mr. AVm. H. Tillinghast, in 

 letter of December 4th, 1889. After Mr. Crown- 

 inshield's death in 1859, the bible was cata- 

 logued to be sold by auction with his library in 

 Boston, in November, 1859 (no. 380), where it 

 was described as bound in morocco. The auc- 

 tion sale, however, did not take place in Boston, 

 as the entire collection was bought by Mr. 

 Henry Stevens, and taken by him to Lond(m, 

 where the rarest books where withdrawn, and 

 the remainder sold by auction, in July, 1860. 

 The bible was sold, probably at private sale, to 

 the earl of Crawford and Balcarres. In Pro- 

 thero's Memoir of Henry Bradshaw (London, 

 1888), p. 328, is the following anecdote of that 

 learned librarian of Cambridge, which seems to 

 relate to this copy of the bible : ' ' The readiness 

 and accuracy of his bibliographical knowledge 

 were astonishing. Many years ago, when he 

 was as yet only a beginner, he gave a remark- 

 able proof of this. It was in the year 1861. He 

 happened to be in Mr. Qaaritch's shop in Pic- 

 cadilly, when that well-known bookseller re- 

 ceived a request from the late Earl of Crawford 

 and Balcarres for a 'collation,' i. e. a biblio- 

 graphical description, of a very rare book, the 

 Virginian or Massachusetts Bible, a large folio 

 in two volumes, printed in Charles II's reign. 

 Not being able to lay his hand on any collation 

 of the book, Mr. Quaritch referred to Bradshaw, 

 who at once wrote down a complete collation of 

 the book from memory. It was sent t > Lord 

 Crawford the same evening, and proved to be 

 quite correct. Any one who knows what the 

 collation of such a book is, will be able to ap- 

 preciate the feat." The earl of Crawford died 

 in 1869. The jjresent earl, James Ludovic 

 Lindsay, succeeded to the title in the year 

 1880. At the sale of the first portion of his 

 library in London, June, 1887 (no. 493), the bible 

 was bought for 40L by Mr. Quaritch, who ad- 

 vertised it for sale in August, 1887 (375 Cata- 

 logue, no. 38489), for 60Z. It was finally pur- 

 chased by Mr. Gunther. 



(28) Library of Harvard University, Cam- 

 bridge, Mass. Presented to the library some 

 time before the year 1800. On one of the blank 

 leaves is a pencil copy of an inscription said to 

 be taken from the bible once owned by Profes- 

 sor Ebeling, as given below. See the Catalogue 

 of the Library of Harvard University (Cam- 

 bridge, 1830), vol. 1, p. 250. 



In 1818, Mr. Israel Thorndike, of Boston, 

 purchased the library of Dr. Christoph Daniel 

 Ebeling, the German historian, of Hamburg 

 (born 1741, died 1817), and presented it to Har- 

 vard University. This collect ion of book s con- 

 tained a copy of the Indian bible of 1685, which 

 appears to have been exchanged as a duplicate. 

 At a meeting of the corporation of Harvard 



