Description

Pilgrim Press.- Dod (John) A plaine and familiar exposition of the tenne commandements. With a methodicall short catechisme, containing briefly all the principall grounds of Christian religion, title and woodcut ornament within woodcut typographic border (small tear/hole to the typographic border on the title-page), woodcut heads-pieces and decorative initials, upper corner of last f. repaired, lower margin of A3&4 stained, last 2 ff. stained, occasional spotting, recased in old vellum, small 4to, [Leiden], [William Brewster], 1617.

The origins of the Pilgrim Press. Rare first edition of one of the most influential primers of Puritan religious beliefs, printed by William Brewster, who three years later would lead a band of English religious 'separatists' to America on the Mayflower. Published during Brewster's Dutch exile, the work is important in the history of the Pilgrims prior to their emigration to America. Persecuted for their religious beliefs in England, the community took refuge at Leiden, where Brewster began printing books with Thomas Brewer in a workshop in Kosteeg in 1617. Among their first productions were English and Dutch editions of Dod and Cleaver's Exposition of the tenne commandements, a cornerstone of Puritan piety, which had first been printed in London in 1603. At the behest of the English government the press was disbanded and the type conviscated in 1619, just as the community was preparing to depart for America. Brewster was forced into hiding before joining the rest of the group aboard the Mayflower in 1620. They arrived at Plymouth in November, 1620. Brewster assumed the role of spiritual leader and acted as preacher for the colony until his death in 1644.

Copies of this work were taken to America by the Pilgrims, and the book was therefore among the first ones to arrive in the New World. William Brewster himself owned three copies (noted in Harris & Jones), and according to Briggs other copies are listed in the inventories of Samuel Fuller (the Pilgrims' physician and Deacon of the Plymouth church), Godbert Godbertson and Governor William Bradford.

The work is exceedingly rare at auction. Aside from this copy only we can trace only a Dutch translation, sold 22nd March, 1921 for $280.

Literature: STC 6973; R. Harris - S. K. Jones, The Pilgrim Press: A Bibliographical & Historical Memorial of the Books Printed at Leyden by the Pilgrim Fathers, Cambridge 1922 (reprint R. Breugelmans, Nieuwkoop 1987), no. 3; R. T. Briggs, "Books of the Pilgrims as Recorded in their Inventories and Preserved in Pilgrim Hall", Old-Time New England 61 (1970-71), pp. 41-46; R. Breugelmans, "The Pilgrim Press: A Press That Did Not Print (Leiden 1616/17 - 1619)", Quaerendo 39 (2009), pp. 34-44.

Description

Pilgrim Press.- Dod (John) A plaine and familiar exposition of the tenne commandements. With a methodicall short catechisme, containing briefly all the principall grounds of Christian religion, title and woodcut ornament within woodcut typographic border (small tear/hole to the typographic border on the title-page), woodcut heads-pieces and decorative initials, upper corner of last f. repaired, lower margin of A3&4 stained, last 2 ff. stained, occasional spotting, recased in old vellum, small 4to, [Leiden], [William Brewster], 1617.

The origins of the Pilgrim Press. Rare first edition of one of the most influential primers of Puritan religious beliefs, printed by William Brewster, who three years later would lead a band of English religious 'separatists' to America on the Mayflower. Published during Brewster's Dutch exile, the work is important in the history of the Pilgrims prior to their emigration to America. Persecuted for their religious beliefs in England, the community took refuge at Leiden, where Brewster began printing books with Thomas Brewer in a workshop in Kosteeg in 1617. Among their first productions were English and Dutch editions of Dod and Cleaver's Exposition of the tenne commandements, a cornerstone of Puritan piety, which had first been printed in London in 1603. At the behest of the English government the press was disbanded and the type conviscated in 1619, just as the community was preparing to depart for America. Brewster was forced into hiding before joining the rest of the group aboard the Mayflower in 1620. They arrived at Plymouth in November, 1620. Brewster assumed the role of spiritual leader and acted as preacher for the colony until his death in 1644.

Copies of this work were taken to America by the Pilgrims, and the book was therefore among the first ones to arrive in the New World. William Brewster himself owned three copies (noted in Harris & Jones), and according to Briggs other copies are listed in the inventories of Samuel Fuller (the Pilgrims' physician and Deacon of the Plymouth church), Godbert Godbertson and Governor William Bradford.

The work is exceedingly rare at auction. Aside from this copy only we can trace only a Dutch translation, sold 22nd March, 1921 for $280.

Literature: STC 6973; R. Harris - S. K. Jones, The Pilgrim Press: A Bibliographical & Historical Memorial of the Books Printed at Leyden by the Pilgrim Fathers, Cambridge 1922 (reprint R. Breugelmans, Nieuwkoop 1987), no. 3; R. T. Briggs, "Books of the Pilgrims as Recorded in their Inventories and Preserved in Pilgrim Hall", Old-Time New England 61 (1970-71), pp. 41-46; R. Breugelmans, "The Pilgrim Press: A Press That Did Not Print (Leiden 1616/17 - 1619)", Quaerendo 39 (2009), pp. 34-44.

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