First Establishment of the Faith in New France

$2,000 · Offered by Book Collector Inc

Author: Chrestien Le Clercq (1647-c1700) translated by John Dawson Gilmary Shea Year: 1881-1882 Publisher: John G Shea Place: New York Description: 2 volumes. 410+[1] pages with frontispiece and plates. 354 pages with frontispiece, folding maps, plates and index. Quarto (10 1/4" x 6 1/4") bound in half leather over marbled boards with gilt lettering to spine and head end pages gilt. (Field 903; Howes L-172; Lande 519) First edition into English, first published in French in 1691. According to the editor, Le Clerq's work is "of high value to American scholars, since, with Hennepin's Description of Louisiana, it gives the earliest printed account of the explorations of Robert Cavelier, written by Recollect missionaries who were his companions for a series of years, and wrote from actual observation" (preface). Rare according to online records, this copy is the only copy of the first edition in English sold at auction (the Priester copy, sold Bloomsbury, 2009). He was sent to the missions of the French colonial empire in Canada in 1673. On 11 October of that year, he was put in charge of the Micmac mission by Francois de Laval, the Bishop of Quebec. There he learned the language of that tribe and devoted himself to its evangelization. In 1676 he tried to persuade the Micmacs that it would be more advantageous to build houses in the French manner, which earned him a stunning rebuke from the Micmac Chief. Le Clercq, said that he had seen some Mi'kmaq children using charcoal to wri

• Binding: Hardcover

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