4to (176 x 240 mm). (12), 590, (2), 218 (instead of 221), 25-36, (2) pp.; several maps. A heavily annotated and illustrated copy, with 92 watercolour sketches and numerous photographs and other inserted material pasted in. Bound in original black pebbled cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt, binding rubbed and worn, especially at the backstrip, consistent with extensive travel and use; preserved in a conservation solander box with leather label. Internally much used and extensively augmented throughout with inserted, mounted, and annotated material. 11 leaves have been excised from the index at the end.

The blank leaf after the title bears Damien’s ink inscription: "I was sick and Ye visited me / J Damien De Veuster / Kalavao Molokai Dec. 20th 1888". Throughout the volume Clifford added a remarkable assemblage of material, including 92 original watercolour sketches, photographs, clippings, autograph letters, manuscript notes, and diary entries, with subjects ranging across California, New Mexico, Kansas, Great Britain, Ireland, and, most importantly, Hawaii and Molokai.

The Hawaiian material is especially rich, with 17 views of Hawaii and Molokai and several dated sketches executed during Clifford’s stay in the islands in 1888-89, including Molokai, Oahu, Manoa Valley, Kilauea, Makawao, and Honolulu. The volume also preserves inscriptions by Phillips Brooks, John Greenleaf Whittier, D. L. Moody, Juan B. Cabrera, Basil Wilberforce, Wilson Carlile, and other notable ecclesiastical and literary figures of the later 19th century.

Clifford, a deeply religious Victorian artist associated with Burne-Jones and the Church Army, travelled to India, Kashmir, and finally Hawaii in search of first-hand knowledge about leprosy and its treatment. His visit to Father Damien at the Molokai settlement made him (in 1889) the first biographer of the missionary, whose life and death had already become a defining international emblem of Christian charity and the care of the afflicted.

The diary entered by Clifford on the terminal blanks gives the present Bible an additional autobiographical dimension, recording appointments and journeys from 1867 onward, and specifically tracing his departure for America in October 1888, his arrival in Hawaii in December, and the months of renewed contact with Damien during the latter’s final illness. The volume thus survives as a unique documentary witness to Clifford’s encounter with Damien, and to the wider religious, artistic, and philanthropic networks through which that encounter was transmitted.

Damien’s inscription in this Bible was itself well known and was reproduced in editions connected with Robert Louis Stevenson’s celebrated defence of the priest. In its accumulated sketches, autographs, and travel notes, the presentcopy preserves not merely a reader’s use of a Bible, but the making of a Victorian testimonial object around one of the most revered missionary figures of the 19th century.

A detailed list of illustrations and inserted material is available on request.

Provenance
1) Edward Clifford (1844-1907), owner, annotator, illustrator, and compiler of the present volume.
2) Clive Farahar, UK manuscript dealer.
3) European private collection.

OCLC 27316406. Not in Darlow/Moule.