Common Prayer | Ojibway

$4,995.00

Church of England; Frederick Augustus O’Meara, [1814-1888] (Trans.); Richardson (R. D.) & Co.

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Church of England; Frederick Augustus O’Meara, [1814-1888] (Trans.); Richardson (R. D.) & Co. Common Prayer. Ojibway | Shahguhnahshe ahnuhmeähwine muzzeneëgun. Ojibwag A azhëuhnekenootah-Beëgahdag. / (Being the Order for Morning and Evening Prayer, the Litany, the Holy Communion and the Catechism. A few portions, seldom used, are omitted.). Winnipeg, Manitoba: Robert D. Richardson & Co.; [Church of England], 1889. First printing. pp. 56. Slim 8vo., measuring 18 cm tall. Original period black cloth boards with gilt lettering to the front board. Lightest rubbing to the covers, publisher’s red foredge. Ink inscription dated in “Winnipeg” to the front pastedown. Peel states that this edition was “extracted from the rather larger O’Meara translation bearing the identical title, first published in 1846, then again in 1853, [1882?], and 1906 [by the S.P.C.K., Society for Promotion of Christian Knowledge]. This version is notable for its place of publication [Winnipeg].”. Lightest rubbing to the extremities, exceptionally well preserved. Contents bright, clean and unmarked with tight, sound binding; near fine.

A unique, early and exceedingly scarce religious tract in Ojibwa[y]; with the exception of the title page the text is printed entirely in syllabics. OCLC #461604584. Only four known copies of this title with WorldCat indicating the presence of only three copies amongst Canadian institutional holdings. Peel 1812. Karen Evans in, ‘Masinahikan’, notes the presence of one copy amongst the holdings at the Archives and Libraries of the Anglican Church of Canada. See Evans, ‘Masinahikan’, p. 209., No. 588. Frederick Augustus O’Meara (1814-1888) was an Irish-English clergyman and translator who played a pioneering role translating and publishing works in Ojibwa[y]. Led to missionary work following his studies at Trinity College in Dublin he arrived in Toronto, Canada on 29 March, 1838. In 1841 he was sent as chaplain to Manitowaning (Manitoulin) to replace Charles Crosbie Brough; he stayed and laboured here for more than 18 years and it was here that saw the greatest output from his formidable linguistic talents. The same year that saw the publication of this book two of his reports, both under the title, ‘A mission to the Ottahwahs and Ojibwas, on Lake Huron’, were published. One describes the foundation of the mission, with references to the pioneering visit of Captain Thomas Gummersall Anderson and the Reverend Adam Elliot in 1835, and the other tells of his own labours in 1845–46. An important consequence of his time in Manitowaning were the resulting translations into Ojibwa of a number of religious tracts including: a devotional work, The faith and duty of a Christian, 1844; The Book of Common Prayer, 1846; The Four Gospels, 1850; The New Testament, 1854; and the Psalms, 1856. Near Fine. Hardcover. (#274) $4,995.00