Religion & Spirituality

The first original printed work by a living author in Irish

An exceptionally rare Irish devotional: the first edition of the first original work by a living author in Irish. The few works printed in Irish appearing prior to this were the Bible, liturgy, or translations of the works of others. This is one of a small group of books from the first press to print and promote Irish writing in the vernacular. The press was an outgrowth of a concentration of scholars skilled in Irish and other languages at St. Anthony's, the Franciscan college at Louvain, which acquired the press in 1611. Active from 1614 to 1618, it issued five books. Though their primary purpose was to train priests for the Irish and Scottish missions, they also published literary works for a wider Irish audience. This was the last production before the press became inactive in Irish printing until 1641, by which date a new fount had been made.

Edward Clifford’s Bible, with inscription by Saint Damien of Molokai, the Apostle of the Lepers

The British artist Edward Clifford’s Bible with an inscription by Saint Damien of Molokai: a heavily worked and extraordinarily personal copy of Bagster’s English Polyglot Bible, transformed by the owner into a hybrid of devotional book, travel diary, sketch-album, and memorial volume, and inscribed by Damien at Kalawao on 20 December 1888, only months before his death.

Russo-American religious texts in Aleutian language

Exceptionally rare Russo-American religious texts published in the Aleutian language by Ivan, or Ioann, Veniaminov (1797-1879), the pioneering linguist, Russian orthodox priest and missionary to Alaska. In 1977 he was canonized as St. Innocent of Moscow and venerated as "Enlightener [Apostle] of Alaska and Siberia." Last seen in auction at Sotheby's in 1967. The Russian and Aleut (including some in the Atkan dialect) texts printed in Cyrillic characters.

Magnificent Old Believer anthology of the Afterlife

A splendidly illustrated Old Believer miscellany devoted to the Passion, exemplary sanctity, and the fate of the soul. This copy stands out for the scale and ambition of its pictorial programme, preserving 143 full-page miniatures in a rich contemporary Russian velvet binding.

The monumental Amsterdam Kehillot Moshe: the seventh Rabbinic Bible, the first produced entirely by Jews

One of the great achievements of early modern Jewish printing: an encyclopaedic Hebrew Bible bringing the biblical text, Targum, Masorah and some thirty-six exegetical works together upon the page, including sixteen commentaries never previously printed in a Rabbinic Bible, greatly expanding the traditional Mikra’ot Gedolot.

A founding text of Modern Indian Religious Reform

First edition, a landmark in the intellectual and religious history of modern India, The Precepts of Jesus represents Raja Rammohun Roy's bold attempt to separate the ethical teachings of Christ from the theological doctrines of Christianity. Rather than presenting the Gospels in their entirety, Roy compiled only those passages that embodied what he regarded as Christ's universal moral philosophy, deliberately omitting miracles, the Trinity, the Incarnation, and other supernatural elements. Conceived as a work of interreligious dialogue rather than conversion, the volume sought to demonstrate that the ethical teachings of Jesus possessed universal value independent of sectarian dogma. The title-page announced accompanying Sanskrit and Bengali translations, but these never appeared in the published edition. Roy is known for his efforts to abolish Sati practices and child marriage.

The first translation of the Avesta into a European language, a landmark in the European discovery of Zoroastrianism and a foundational work of modern Oriental studies

First edition, the first appearance in a European language of the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, a major document in the European encounter with Asian religions, the result of Anquetil-Duperron’s extraordinary expedition to India in search of the surviving religious literature of ancient Persia. Its publication transformed European knowledge of Zoroaster from a tradition dependent largely upon Greek, Roman and later secondary authorities into one based upon Zoroastrian texts and living Parsi traditions. This first translation of the Avesta into a European language marked an opening the sacred literature of Zoroastrianism to Western scholarship.

The rare first Arabic edition of the Imitation of Christ

The first edition of one of the most enduring works of Christian devotion in Arabic, produced by the press of the Catholic Church's Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. Probably the most widely read Christian work aside from the Bible itself, the translation of Thomas à Kempis's "On the Imitation of Christ" into Arabic represents a monument in the dialogue between the western and eastern Christian traditions that characterised the activities of the Catholic Church activities in the Middle East.

Jesuit news from their Mission in China

Early edition of this letter concerning the progress of the Jesuit Mission in China, sent by Father Francisco Piccolomini, the General of the Society of Jesus, to the Provincial of Aragon, Father F. Franco. Written from Rome in September 1650 and based on letters received from missionaries in Lisbon and via Dutch channels, it was intended to circulate encouraging news among Jesuit provinces.

The first illustrated accounts of Sabbatai Zevi, the false messiah of 1666, an extraordinarily rare collection of four contemporary broadsides

A remarkable survival, four (of a potential five) engraved illustrated broadsides narrating the events surrounding Sabbatai Zevi, dubbed the False Messiah, of which no copy resides in North America.

Rare Ostrog edition with Saint Basil woodcut

"Rare" (Sopikov): the first Slavonic edition of Basil’s treatise, printed at Ostrog by Mstislavets, and a striking Ostrog production with the fine full-page woodcut portrait showing Saint Basil writing. This copy remains especially attractive for its contemporary Russian binding and generous margins.

Exceptionally rare first edition of the Acta Consistorii, the official account of the Tensho Embassy

First edition of the official account of Pope Gregory XIII’s reception of the first Japanese embassy to Europe, the so-called Tenshō Embassy, extremely rare. It includes copies of three letters, dated January 1582, addressed to the Pope from the converted rulers of Bungo, Arima and Omura, which were presented by the Japanese envoys at the public audience; the “Oratio” delivered on their behalf by Gaspar Gonsalves; and Antonio Boccapaduli’s response in the name of the Pope. Later editions were published in 1585 (Padua, Milan, and Germany).

A rare first-hand record of the Christian communities of Shandong, documenting a seven-month Franciscan visitation through some thirty-five Chinese settlements

Very rare account of a remarkable seven-month missionary journey through Shandong province in China, undertaken in 1756–57 by the Spanish Franciscan Fray Mathias de Santa Teresa. Travelling on foot between some thirty-five Christian communities scattered across a mission extending approximately 130 leguas, Mathias records the names of the settlements, distances between them, dates of his visits, and the confessions, communions and baptisms administered at each.

Rare 1227 Kofuku-ji Daihannya-kyo printing

Rare survival from the completed 1227 Kofuku-ji printing of the Daihannya-kyo, the monumental Mahaprajnaparamita sutra, here preserving Books 1 and 100 in their original handscroll format, with the distinction of documented temple provenance.

The first edition of Auvergne’s de Fide et Legibus, in its contemporary binding

The first printed edition of one of the most distinctive works of William of Auvergne (c. 1180–1249), bishop of Paris and an important figure in the reception of Arabic and Aristotelian philosophy in 13th century Latin Christendom. De fide et legibus forms part of his ambitious Magisterium divinale et sapientiale, a sustained attempt to explain Christian doctrine while engaging with the philosophical and religious traditions available to his age.

The first book printed at Toledo, the first account of a heretical examination, a predecessor to Luther’s Reformation

The first book printed at Toledo, the first full account of a heretical examination. The Confutatorium errorum is Juan Vázquez's first known book and the earliest publication to identify him by name as a printer. It is also a foundational production of the Toledo press, one of only three printing presses active in the city during the 15th century. Printing arrived in Toledo only in the early 1480s, when Vázquez established his workshop, initially producing indulgence forms authorized by Pope Sixtus IV to finance the final campaigns against the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada. As with virtually all early incunables printed in Toledo, surviving copies are rare.

Perhaps the earliest substantial rendering of the Bible printed in Mexico

First edition of an extraordinary rarity of Mexican printing: a mnemonic rendering of virtually the entire Bible, an intriguing candidate for one of the earliest substantial attempts to put the contents of the Bible into print in New Spain. The word reduces every chapter of Scripture to a few carefully chosen Latin words and presenting its principal subject in conspicuously larger type. Although not a Bible in the conventional sense, Castillo’s Ars biblica reproduces the substance of the biblical text book by book, from Genesis through the Old Testament and into the Gospels and New Testament. Printed in Mexico in 1675 for the instruction of students.

Important Mexican incunable, the first dictionary of any Amerindian language

Second, greatly enlarged, edition, the first with the dictionary of Nahuatl into Spanish, of the first dictionary of any Amerindian language to be published in America, “This second and enlarged edition is so scarce that forty years ago Lord Kingsborough paid 50 guineas for it” (Sabin). Molina’s magnum opus is considered the first published systematic approach to an indigenous language.

A foundational monument of Jewish printing: Tractate Yoma from Daniel Bomberg’s first complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud, the edition that standardized the layout and foliation of the Talmudic page for subsequent generations of Jewish study

First edition of Yoma from the first complete printed Babylonian Talmud, one of the most consequential achievements in the history of the Jewish book. Bomberg’s Venice Talmud established both the characteristic architecture of the Talmudic page and the foliation that remain fundamental to the study, teaching and citation of the Talmud five centuries later.