Volume 2 — BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA: VOL. II

IX

Our copy of Biard's letter (written in French) to his provincial, dated January 31, 1612, is from Carayon's Première Mission, pp. 44-76, noted under Bibliographical Data of Documents III.-VI., in our Volume I.

X

We follow the style and make-up of O'Callaghan's Reprint of Biard's Missio Canadensis, designated as "No. 1" in the Lenox Catalogue. According to Sommervogel's Bibliothèque de la Campagnie de Jésus (Paris, 1890), vol. i., p. 1439, this document was originally published in the Annuæ Litteræ Societatis Jesu, an. 1611 (Dillingen, n. d.), pp. 121-143. The British Museum has a copy of this volume of Annuæ Litteræ, described in its catalogue as published at "Dilingæ [1615?]." Sommervogel adds, regarding Missio Canadensis: "Was it not published separately? I find it thus indicated in the catalogue of Mr. Parison, no. 1786." According to a letter written by Father Carrère (June 17, 1890) to Father Jones, of Montreal, the original MS. of this letter was then in the archives of Roder, France.

In Carayon's Première Mission (pp. 77-105) there is given a French version of this letter.

It is internally evident that the letter was commenced January 22nd, and finished "vltimo die Januarÿ." In Father Martin's MS. (translated) copy, preserved in the Library of Parliament, at Ottawa, he wrote upon it the former date, and it is so calendared in the catalogue of that library. Carayon first applied to it the latter date. This of itself has led to some bibliographical confusion.

In Carayon's Bibliographie Historique de la Compagnie de Jésus (Paris, 1864), p. 178, a notice of the original publication is thus given: "P. Biard.—Epistola ad R. P. Præpositum generalem, e Portu Regali in Nova Francia, data ultimo die Januarii anni 1611, qua regionem illam describit, et Patrum Societatis Jesu in eam profectionem.—'Ea inserta est annuis litteris Soc. Jesus ejusdem anni Provinc. Franc. ad finem.' (Sotwell.)."

O'Callaghan obtained the originals of some of his reprints from the Annuæ Litteræ Societatis Jesu, of which there are incomplete files in the libraries of John Carter Brown; Harvard College; St. John's, College, Fordham, N. Y.; St. Francis Xavier, New York City; the Jesuit colleges at Woodstock, Md., and Georgetown, D. C.; and St. Mary's College, Montreal. The Brown Library has the richest collection.

See references to the O'Callaghan Reprint of Missio Canadensis, in Harrisse's Notes, no. 405; Lenox Catalogue, p. 18; Sabin, vol. xvi., p. 542; Brown Catalogue, vol. ii., no. 119; Winsor, p. 300; Henry C. Murphy Sale Catalogue (N. Y., 1884), no. 2960; O'Callaghan Sale Catalogue (N. Y., 1882), nos. 178, 1205, 1250.

Title-page. O'Callaghan's Reprint is closely imitated.

Collation of O'Callaghan Reprint. Title, 1 p.; reverse of title, with inscription: "Editio ad XXV exemplaria restricta. O'C.", 1 p.; Lectori, pp. iii-iv.; text, pp. 5-37; blank, 1 p.; Index, pp. 39-45; colophon (p. 46): "Albaniae Excvdebat Joel Munsellius | Mense Septembri Anno | CIↃ.IↃCCC.LXX.," 1 p.

XI

The copy of Lescarbot's Relation Dernière herein followed is in Harvard College Library, where it is bound in with the same author's Les Muses de la Nouvelle France (Paris, 1612). The Harvard copy is the only original of which the present editor has knowledge; it is not listed in Gagnon's Essai de Bibliographie Canadienne (Quebec, 1895), but reference to it will be found in Harrisse, no. 26; Sabin, no. 40178; and Winsor, p. 300. There is a reprint of it in Cimber (Lafaist) and Danjou's Archives Curieuses de l'Histoire de France, depuis Louis XI. jusqu'à Louis XVIII., first series, tome XV. (Paris, 1837), pp. 377-406, which, however, omits the list of names on pp. 21-24 of the original. The first series of this collection (15 vols.) was edited by L. Lafaist ("L. Cimber," pseud.) and F. Danjou, assistants in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; the second series (12 vols.), by Danjou alone, who, on the title of tome viii. of this series, is styled "Bibliothécaire de l'Arsenal." The 27 volumes were published at Paris between 1834 and 1840.

The orthography of the printed original of the Relation Dernière is an interesting mixture of old and new styles. It has many instances of modern spellings not found even in the Cramoisy Relation of 1632, which was printed twenty years later.

It will be noticed that the "Privilege" is that granted for the publication of Lescarbot's Histoire de la Nouvelle France (1608).

Title-page. The one given in the present volume is a photographic facsimile of the Harvard original.

Collation. Title, 1 p.; blank, reverse of title, 1 p.; text, pp. 3-39; privilege, reverse of p. 39, 1 p.—making a total of 40 pp.

XII

In our reissue of the Relatio Rerum Gestarum (1613-14), we follow the original text and its pagination, as given on pp. 562-605 of the Annuæ Litteræ Societatis Jesu, for 1612, printed at Lyons in 1618, which we found at the Riggs Memorial Library, Georgetown University, Washington, D. C. This forms the text of O'Callaghan's Reprint, which is arbitrarily designated in the Lenox Catalogue as "no. 6." See references in Sabin, no. 69245; Winsor, p. 300; Lenox, p. 19; and Brown Catalogue, no, 170, and p. 166. Sales are noted in Barlow (no. 1272), Murphy (no. 2960), and O'Callaghan (no. 1250), sale catalogues.

Title-page. We closely imitate that of the O'Callaghan Reprint.

Collation of Reprint. Title, 1 p.; reverse of title, with inscription: "Editio viginti quinque exemplaria. O'C," 1 p.; Tabula Rerum, pp. iii., iv.; text, pp. 1-66; colophon (p. 67): "Albaniae Excvdebat Joel Munsellius | Mense Martis Anno | CIↃ IↃCCC LXXI," 1 p.