[Rarebooks] FS: Mennonite Bible history, illustrated, 1816

[powersrarebooks at comcast.net]

I can offer: 



[Schabaelje, Jan Philipsz, ca. 1585-1656].   Dialogues between a Pilgrim, Adam, Noah, and Simon Cleophas containing the History of the Bible and of the Jews Till the Final Destruction of the Temple.   Leeds: Printed & Published by Davies & Booth, no date [ca. 1814].   With a fine engraved title-page and three other engraved plates.   8vo, contemporary full calf, black lettering label on the spine.   vi, 337, 30, 11 pp.   The title-page is browned, with a short closed tear in the right margin; closed tears in both of the leaves of the Table of Contents; two of the engravings have family records written on the recto which is just showing through the image on the verso (and there are family notes, and a note on the binding cost, on the endleaves as well); some overall browning and staining to the text; the binding a bit rubbed, upper hinge weakend; a good copy of a scarce edition. 



A retelling of familiar Bible stories and history through a dialogue between a Pilgrim and, successively, Adam, Noah, and Simon Cleophas, as eyewitnesses to the events they relate.   The text has a somewhat intricate history, as noted in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online: “In 1635 Schabaelje published at Alkmaar a devotional book, ' Lusthof des Gemoets inhoudende verscheyden geestelijcke Oeffeningen met noch twee Collatien der wandelende Ziele met Adam en Noach' (The Mind's Garden of Pleasure, Containing Various Spiritual Exercises with Two Dialogues of the Wandering Soul  with Adam and Noah). This book has gone through more than 50 Dutch editions and has been the most widely read Mennonite book, also very popular among non-Mennonites. The second and following editions were augmented by a dialogue with Simon Cleophas. The last part of this book was separately published in a German translation, entitled ' Die Wandlende Seele, das ist: Gespraech der Wandlenden Seelen mit Adam, Noah und Cleophas, verfasset die Geschichten von der Erschaffung der Welt an biss zu und nach der Zerstoerung Jerusalems .' This translation was made by B.B.B., who was very probably Bernhard (?) Benedict Brechbuhl (Brechbill; 1665-1720), who was among the Swiss refugees who came to Holland in 1710 and later immigrated to America. The German translation was edited in Europe at least 13 times, chiefly at Basel and Frankfurt-Leipzig.” 



The Encyclopedia makes no mention of English (non-American) editions, but there appears to have been a flowering of provincial editions published in the U.K. right at this time, as COPAC also lists another Leeds edition (with 10 engravings and slightly different pagination) and others published in Nottingham, Manchester, and Halifax, all in the second decade of the nineteenth century; all appear to be quite scarce.   For this Leeds edition (with 4 plates), OCLC records only Emory University in the U.S., and Cambridge and the British Library in the U.K.   The BL notes that this edition was published in twelve parts (as attested by the stab holes at the gutter in this copy), which could account for its scarcity. 



At the end, paginated separately but integral to the text, are “The Anchorites Annotation, On the back of the scroll, or manuscript, of the Christian Economy, found in the Island of Patmos,” and “A New Historical Catechism, Containing Answers to Several Questions in Ancient History, &c.” 


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$275 plus shipping 


Greg Powers 
Powers Rare Books 
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Manchester NH  03104 
603-624-9707 
powersrarebooks at comcast.net