Volume 5 — BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA: VOL. V

XX

In reprinting Le Jeune's Brief Relation (1632), commonly classed as the first Relation of the regular series, we follow the original Cramoisy in Lenox Library. This is the copy marked "GB" in Winsor's list; it was formerly in the Bancroft collection, which was absorbed by the Lenox, being considered the chief jewel therein. Other copies are known to be in Brown Library, Providence; British Museum; and Bibliothèque Nationale and Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Paris. Winsor mentions a copy in the Murphy collection, but it was not included in the sale catalogue; the Kalbfleisch collection mentioned by Winsor had a copy, but that library is now dispersed.

Extracts from this Relation, for which "privilege" was issued Nov., 1632, appear in Mercure François, vol. xviii., pp. 56-72; the date of the "privilege" for this volume of Mercure is March, 1633. The Relation given in the Quebec Reprint (1858), is after the copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale.

Further references are in Sabin, vol. x., no. 39946, and vol. xvi., under caption "Relations;" Carayon, no. 1260; Winsor, p. 301; Brown, vol. ii., no. 381; Lenox, p. 4; and Harrisse, no. 49. Harrisse, in describing the title-page, misspells Barthelemy Iacquinot, "Bartelemy Iacquinet,"—an error in which Lenox and Sabin follow him; the Brown Catalogue gives the name correctly, and has a facsimile of the page.

Title-page. We present a photographic facsimile of the original at Lenox.

Collation. Title, 1 p.; blank, 1 p.; text, pp. 3-68; privilege, dated Nov., 1632, 1 unnumbered p.; blank, 1 p.

XXI

In our reissue of Le Jeune's Relation of 1633 (No. 2 of the Cramoisy series), we follow the original in the Brown Library, at Providence, R. I. Harvard College Library possesses a copy which is evidently, in the main, from the same setting of type as the Brown copy, but with variations. It is apparently the Harvard copy which is described in Harrisse's Notes, no. 55, although, in the catalogues of these respective libraries, each example is entered as "H. 55." We shall for convenience designate them as "Brown H. 55," and "Harvard H. 55," respectively.

A word-for-word collation of these two examples of H. 55 convinces us that the original issue of the press is the one at Brown, making this, so far as we are aware, a unique copy. As the working of the edition progressed, some occasion arose for changing the phraseology of the text upon pp. 225, 226 (i.e., 125, 126, correct pagination) in signature H, these two pages being in part reset. The following sentences, which appear on p. 225 (i.e., 125) of the Brown copy, were expunged from the sheet, and do not appear in the Harvard and other examples of this Relation:

pour toute sa Prouince, & pour tous ceux qui cooperent au salut de tant de pauures ames esgarées: Vne petite gouttelette de ce diuin calice nous enrichira tous: & puis que mes prieres sont trop foibles pour obtenir vn si grand bien, ie supplie V. R. d'interposer les siennes, & celles encore de tant d'ames sainctes qui sont dessous sa charge: Mais passons outre.

There was also expunged from pp. 225, 226 (i.e., 125, 126) the following paragraph, which appears only in the Brown copy:

Ie remerciay le mieux qu'il me fut possible Mõsieur de Champlain de la charité qu'il auoit exercée enuers nos Peres qui a esté tres-grande, cõme me témoignoit le Pere Brebeuf.

To occupy the space, the following fifteen lines were substituted on pp. 225, 226 (i.e., 125, 126), and these appear in the Harvard and later issues of the document, but not in the Brown copy:

Il me vient quelquefois en pensée, que ce Grand Homme, qui par son admirable sagesse, & non-pareille conduite ez affaires s'est tant acquis de renommée sur la terre, se prepare vne couronne de gloire tres- esclatante dans le Ciel, pour le soing qu'il tesmoigne auoir en la conuersion de tant d'ames que l'infidelité perd en ces pays sauuages: I'en prie tous les iours affectueusement pour luy, & nostre compagnie ayant par son moyen occasion de glorifier Dieu en cette si noble entreprise, luy en aura vne obligation eternelle.

While form H was off the press, and the above alteration of text taking place, certain types appear to have dropped out or been moved in other pages of the same form, making a half-dozen verbal errors on pp. 115, 119. The form, with the text thus altered, was again sent to press, and apparently Harvard H. 55 is the result. Another peculiarity in the Harvard copy is,—and this is noted by Harrisse,—that the letter P in the word "Par," on the title-page, has been partially dropped: the Brown copy is perfect, in this respect.

In due course, a second issue of the Relation became necessary,—but in what year it is now impossible to say; for, after the custom of Cramoisy, the dates of the original title-page and Privilege were reproduced in the new edition, which is the one known to bibliographers as "H. 56," having been described by Harrisse in his Notes, no. 56. This edition—we describe the example in Lenox Library—was printed from an entire resetting of type, the altered text of Harvard H. 55 having been selected for "copy," although the orthography was occasionally modernized. Harrisse, in giving the title-page of H. 56, accidentally omits two line-ending indicators; with these exceptions, his description applies to the copy of H. 56 in Lenox. But he errs in saying that H. 56 does not differ from H. 55 (he describes the Harvard copy), save in the arrangement of the title with its repetition of "de," in the substitution of a ram's head for a cupid in the vignette of p. 1, and a few errors in pagination. The differences are more numerous: in page-numberings, are many discrepancies; in the contents of lines, on several of the pages of each, there is considerable variance,—although both continue to end their pages uniformly, save that H. 56 is on p. 57 a line short; there are also frequent variations in spelling and capitalization.

An abridgment of the Relation appears in Mercure François, vol. xix., pp. 771-802. The Privilege for this volume, which covers events in 1633, bears date March, 1636.

The Quebec reprint (1858) follows H. 56.

See further references in Carayon, no. 1261; Sabin, vol. x., nos. 39,947, 39,948. and vol. xvi., p. 536 (this bibliographer strictly follows Harrisse); Brown Catalogue, vol ii., nos. 118, 417; Pilling's Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages (Washington, 1891), p. 307; O'Callaghan Sale Catalogue, no. 1212 (wherein the description follows Lenox H. 56); Barlow's Rough List (N. Y., 1885), no. 338, p. 77; Barlow Sale Catalogue, no. 1273 (the copy therein mentioned sold for $120); Græsse, tome iv., livr. i., p. 154; Murphy Sale Catalogue, no. 1344; O'Callaghan's Bibliography (1850), p. 36; Sommervogel, tome iv., p. 795, no. 2; Winsor, p. 301 (the Bancroft copy referred to is now in Lenox); and Dodd, Mead & Co.'s Trade Catalogue (April, 1896), wherein a copy, with "the date cut from title," is priced at $200.

Examples of the Relation of 1633 may be found in the following libraries: Harvard (H. 55), Brown (H. 55 and 56), Lenox (H. 56, two copies), and British Museum (ed. not specified).

Title-page. Given in photographic facsimile, from the copy of H. 55, in Brown Library, Providence.

Collation of Brown H. 55. Title, 1 p.; blank at back of title, 1 p.; text, pp. 3-216; Privilege, in small type, on p. 216.