Bible. NT. Matthew. Malay and Dutch.

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Description

Het Nieuwe Testament. Dat is: het Nieuwe verbont onses Heeren Jesu Christi: in Neder-duyts ende Malays... overgeset. Iang Testamentum Baharv. Enkhuizen: Jan Jacobsz Palensteyn, 1629-[1646], [8], 181pp., parallel Malay and Dutch text, illustration: woodcut device on title-page, woodcut initials, lacking 38-page appendix containing the Ten Commandments, Canticles etc.

Bible. NT. Gospels and Acts of the Apostles. Malay and Dutch. [De vier Heylighe Euangelien. Amsterdam: door Ordre van de E.E. Heeren Bewint-hebberen der Oost-Indische Compagnie, 1651], 3 parts (of 4), ff. 65-106, 122; 66, parallel Malay and Dutch text, illustration: woodcut initials, lacking all before f. 65 (Gospel of St Matthew) and part 4 (the Decalogue set to music), last page torn and repaired at corner with loss of a few letters

2 works in one volume, 4to (222 x 170mm.), binding: morocco gilt by Hatton, gilt edges, joints rubbed

Provenance

John Chamberlayne, bookplate on verso of title-page dated 1702

Literature

Darlow & Moule 6486 & 6488; Landwehr, VOC, 712

Catalogue Note

first edition of the gospel of st matthew in malay and perhaps the earliest example of the printing of the bible in a non-european language for evangelical purposes. The Gospel of St Matthew was published separately in 1629, the Gospels of SS Mark, Luke and John later in 1638 and 1646. Then in 1651 the Dutch East Indies Company published the first complete edition of the Gospels in Malay.

The Malay translation of the Gospels of SS Matthew and Mark was made by Albert Cornelis Ruyl, a Dutch East Indies Company trader, who published at his own expense in 1611 his own translation into low Malaysian of the Ten Commandments, the Creed and several Psalms. The translation of SS Luke and John was made by by Jan van Hasel, a director of the Company. In all four parts the Dutch text is printed in Black letter and the Malay text in Roman letter. According to Darlow & Moule, the Gospel of St Matthew was reprinted at Amsterdam in 1638 with the addition of the Gospel of St Mark, and the Gospels of SS Luke and John at Amsterdam in 1646. The first edition of the Gospel of St Matthew was not seen by Landwehr.

John Chamberlayne (1668/9-1723), translator and literary editor, published in 1685 The manner of making coffee, tea, and chocolate as it is used in most parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and America, with their vertues, and in 1686 a translation of Durante's Treasure of Health. His scientific interests led to his being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1702, and by 1712 he was a member of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.