Braght's Pennsylvania Dutch Mennonite Book

BRAGHT, Tieleman Janszoon Van.
Der Blutige Schau-Platz oder Martyrer Spiegel der Tauffs Gesinten oder Wehrlosen-Christen
Published by Ephrata, Pennsylvania: Drucks und Verlags der Bruederschafft, 1748-1749.
Two volumes in one, folio (14 x 8 1/2 inches): two title-pages (browned and spotted throughout). With the rare engraved frontispiece of the army of martyrs marching to Heaven (laid down at publication, browned and frayed at edges). Contemporary calf over bevelled oak boards, brass corner-pieces and bosses, brass catches (lacking clasps, spine in six compartments with raised bands, later black morocco lettering-pieces (rebacked at an early date, worn). PROVENANCE: with a lengthy gift inscription on the front free endpaper: "As a Mark of Affection and Esteem this Book is Presented to Catharine Clemmer By me John S. Clemmer June 24, 1857" First edition published in America, originally published in Dutch in 1660, and translated in Pennsylvania by Peter Miller. It was the largest book printed by the Ephrata Brethren and the largest book printed in America before 1800. "The Ephrata Brethren were three years engaged upon its printing and binding ... The edition consisted of twelve hundred copies ... The engraved frontispiece, representing the army of martyrs marching to Heaven, which was probably executed in Holland, is generally missing, as the design was offensive to the Mennonites" (Evans). Founded by Johann Conrad Beissel (1692-1768), the community of Seventh Day Baptists at Ephrata was one of the best-known religious communities of its time. "[T]hey constructed communal dwellings for single women and men. Married couples lived in cabins on the fringe of the settlement. All were to remain celibate upon entering the community, consistent with Beissel's assertion that sexual intercourse was debilitating spiritually and physically. Ephrata's economy was communal, prosperous, and increasingly commercial, a result of the members' industriousness in agriculture; milling of grain, linseed oil, and wood; manufacture of textiles and paper; and printing of books. The buildings necessary to these activities were constructed adjacent to the dwellings. When prosperity threatened to undermine the members' spirituality, in 1745 Beissel reduced the economy practically to a subsistence level, exiling Israel and Samuel Eckerling, brothers who were the community's leading economic promoters. Beissel's primary emphasis was on spiritual development, not financial profit. He promised the Skippack Mennonites that the Ephrata printery would publish their Martyr-Spiegel (Martyrs' Mirror) without requiring them to purchase a minimum number of copies. Appearing in 1748, with more than 1,500 pages, it was the largest book printed in America before 1800. The printery also turned out the Turtle-Taube (Turtle Dove), which contained more than 400 of the community's hymns, most of which Beissel wrote. He is said to have written more than 4,000 lines of poetry, almost all of it religious, some of it set to music that he composed" (John B. Frantz for ADNB). Tieleman Jansz van Braght, was a Dutch Mennonite elder, born in Dordrecht, where he became a preacher in 1648. A conservative defender of Mennonite principles, he published a number of religious texts, the most famous of which is this the Martyrs' Mirror, which was first published in 1660. REFERENCES: Arndt 96; Evans 6256; Hildeburn 1050.