Kurtze Nachricht von seiner Reise aus Ost-Indien nach Europa, insonderheit Dennemarck und Teutschland, wie auch von seiner noch am Ende dieses itzigen 1715ten Jahrs…andere Edition

by Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg

Halle: Waisenhaus, 1716

24 p. | 4to | A-C^4 | 233 x 189 mm

Second edition of this ruminating letter on the author’s missionary work in India, following the first of the year prior. Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg (1682-1719) and Heinrich Pluetschau (b. 1677) were the first Protestant missionaries to India, landing in Tranquebar on 9 July 1706. While Pluetschau’s task was to work with the Portuguese-speaking community, Ziegenbalg undertook the more difficult task of working in native Tamil. Through his work, he became a prolific producer of Tamil texts. “He had his translations, tracts and letters copied by hand on to palm leaves by up to 12 copyists and distributed them to interested Muslims and Hindus” (Hudson). In 1713, he installed a Tamil printing press brought from Halle. He conversed with his congregants regularly, and, “as a result of his studious efforts to understand whatever wisdom the Tamils had, Ziegenbalg ended up producing for Europe the most accurate studies of the ‘pagans’ in India since Rogerius,” though these reports were typically censored by the Pietist authorities in Halle, who did not wish to spread pagan thought across Europe (Hudson). ¶ Written from his return voyage to Europe, October 1714 to June 1715, the letter begins with a summary of the reasons for undertaking the mission in the first place. Ziegenbalg then reports and reflects broadly on his work in India, as well as his activity during the voyage itself, for which he brought with him a young native boy from his Tamil school, “whom I especially took with me,” he says, “because I always speak Malabarish and Portuguese with them, and thus kept these languages in constant skill” (p. 9; translated). At times, his meditation seems that of retiree reflecting on good work done, but also much left to do. “And so that one could continue with the Malabar printing,” he writes, “I have left behind so many revised books of holy writing…that Herr Gründler will get along well” (p. 5). He comments on the publication of Kurtze historische Nachricht aus den Berichten der könighl. Dänischen Missionarien in Ost-Indien (Stuttgart, 1715), as well as his experience sailing around the Cape of Good Hope and Barbary Coast. He recalls telling others about his experience with Hottentots, “how easily they were converted to Christ, and by what means to begin such work. I also called some of these Hottentots to study their language for the first time,” whom he found to be adroit students (p. 9). ¶ A scarce work offering insights on early western activity in India, including printing and book production, plus record of an early Protestant missionary interaction with Africans. It's worth noting that Ziegenbalg, and many early missionaries, "practiced medicine along with their theology" (Lindemann). ¶ WorldCat locates in North America no first editions and two of these second editions (Yale and University of Chicago).

CONDITION: Plain paper wrapper of the late 19th or early 20th century. Head-piece; decorative initial. Leaves are unopened, all deckle edges and wide margins preserved. ¶ Extremities of the wrapper worn and chipped; rear cover soiled, with a two-inch tear in the fore-edge.

REFERENCES: Gita Dharampal, “Frühe deutsche Indien-Berichte (1477-1750) Bibliographie,” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 134.2 (1984), p. 57 ¶ D. Dennis Hudson, “The First Protestant Mission to India,” Sociological Bulletin 42.1/2 (March-September 1993), p. 37-42; Daniel Jeyaraj, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg: The Father of Modern Protestant Mission (New Delhi: Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2006), p. 254; Mary Lindemann, Medicine and Society in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge University, 2010) p. 257

Item #155