Psalms, Hebrew & English

[Hebraice] Sefer Tehilim. The Book of Psalmes With the New English Translation, Published by John Leusden, Professor of the Hebrew tongue in the University of Utrecht. Utrecht: John van de Water, 1688



12mo (5 1/8 x 2 7/8 in.; 130 x 97 mm). Imposed in the Hebrew manner, with Hebrew and English on facing pages. Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on spine; spine soiled.

Wing B-2744A; Sabin 66451; Alden-Landis 688/21

[Hebraice] Sefer Tehilim. The Book of Psalmes With the New English Translation, Published by John Leusden, Professor of the Hebrew tongue in the University of Utrecht. Utrecht: John van de Water, 1688 12mo (5 1/8 x 2 7/8 in.; 130 x 97 mm). Imposed in the Hebrew manner, with Hebrew and English on facing pages. Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on spine; spine soiled.
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Dedicated to John Eliot "the apostle of the Indians," the "twenty four [native] American ministers," and intended for use by Increase Mather in the "College or Illustrious school at Boston," now called Harvard.

The dedication reads: "To the very reverend and pious John Eliot. The indefatigable and faithfull minister ... and Venerable Apostle of the Indians in America; who hath translated into, and published in, the American tongue, by an Antlaean Labour, the Bible and several English practical Tractats, together with Catechisms; being the first who preached the word of God to the Americans in the Indian tongue, and gathered a Church of Indian Converts, and administrat[ed] the Holy Supper to them."

The following leaf adds the dedication to the "twenty four American ministers" in New England, "lately Gentiles, but now converted to the Christian Religion ... and publishing the Word of God and the Gospel of Christ in the American tongue ... in great fervour, among the Americans in twenty four American Churches. ..." In the preface Jan Leusden (1624–1699), who composed the translation and financed it's publication, recounts the activities of Eliot and his Indian ministers in New England based on information he received in a letter from Increase Mather.

A clean, crisp copy, in its first binding.