Illustrated books -- Bibliography; Illustration of books; Printing -- History
His next extant piece of work is an almanac for 1650, his next the third
edition (the second, as noted above, had been printed at London in 1647)
of the Bay Psalter, "printed by Samuel Green at Cambridge in
New-England, 1651." This was followed in 1652 by Richard Mather's _The
Summe of Certain Sermons upon Genes_. 15. 6, a treatise on
Justification by Faith, and then Green seems to have begun to busy
himself with work for the Corporation in England for the Propagation of
the Gospel amongst the Indians in New England, or Corporation for the
Indians, as it is easier to call it. A second press was sent over to
enable this work to be undertaken, and a Primer by John Eliot ("the
Apostle to the Indians") was printed in 1654, and the Books of Genesis
and Matthew the next year, all three in the Indian language, all three
now known only from records. The same destruction has befallen an Indian
version of some of the Psalms mentioned as having been printed in 1658,
but of another Indian book of the same year, Abraham Peirson's _Some
helps for the Indians, shewing them how to improve their natural reason
to know the true God, and the true Christian Religion_, two issues have
been preserved, one in the New York Public Library, the other at the
British Museum. Another edition, dated the next year, is also at the
Museum, though it has escaped the notice of Mr. Evans, the author of the
latest "American Bibliography." By this time the Corporation for the
Indians had sent over a skilled printer, Marmaduke Johnson, to aid Green
in his work. Unfortunately, despite the fact that he had left a wife in
England, Johnson flirted with Green's daughter, and this conduct,
reprehensible anywhere, in New England brought down on him fines of L20
and a sentence of deportation, which, however, was not carried out.
Johnson's initials appears in conjunction with Green's in _A Brief
Catechism containing the doctrine of Godlines_, by John Norton, teacher
of the Church at Boston, published in 1660, and the two men's names in
full are in the Indian New Testament of 1661 and the complete Bible of
1663. Of the New Testament it is conjectured that a thousand, or perhaps
fifteen hundred copies, were printed, of which five hundred were bound
separately, and forty of these sent to England. How many copies were
printed of the Old Testament is not known, but of the complete Bible
some forty copies are still extant in no fewer than eight variant states
produced by the presence or absence of the Indian and English
titlepages, the dedication, etc., while of the New Testament about half
as many copies may be known.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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