[Rarebooks] fa: ZIEGENBALG - 34 CONFERENCES w/ MALABARIAN BRAMANS or HEATHEN PRIESTS - 1719 (Danish Missionaries in India)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Ending Sunday, April 19, along with a number of other 18th-19th  
century British titles...

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/arch_in_la

Cheers,
Ardwight Chamberlain

[Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg & Johann Ernst Gründler:] Thirty four  
Conferences between the Danish missionaries and the Malabarian Bramans  
(or Heathen Priests) in the East Indies, Concerning the Truth of the  
Christian Religion: Together with some Letters written by the Heathens  
to the said Missionaries. Translated out of High Dutch by Mr.  
Philipps. London: Printed for H. Clements in St. Paul’s Church-Yard,  
W. Fleetwood in Westminster-Hall near the Parliament-Stairs, and J.  
Stephens in Butcher-Row, 1719. FIRST EDITION. Small 8vo (21 x 13cm),  
modern calf over marbled boards, spine decorated in git and blind,  
gilt-stamped morocco spine label; [8] + xxii + [2] + 352 pp. (pp. 214  
and 319 misnumbered 241 and 219, as in ESTC); with the half-title.  
ESTC T130511.

Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg was the first Protestant missionary in India,  
arriving in the small Danish colony of Tranquebar, in Malabar, on the  
southeast coast, in 1706. Despite opposition from local Hindu and  
Danish authorities, he set up a printing press and began preaching the  
Gospel and baptizing Indian converts. With Johann Ernst Gründler, he  
traveled extensively throughout the region, establishing contacts with  
the Brahmins, giving rise to these thirty-four "conferences" or  
theological conversations. In spite of being put off by the indigenous  
peoples' "idolatry" and "heathenish" practices, Ziegenbalg became  
fascinated with the Tamil culture and fluent in the language,  
translating the New Testament into Tamil and publishing a Tamil  
grammar. He is reputed to have published the first book in English in  
Asia, a guide to English by Thomas Dyche, in 1716. He died in  
Tranquebar in 1719, the year in which the present English translation  
was published. ESTC locates no original High Dutch version.