Quarterly Bulletin of The New-York Historical Society VOLUME XVIII (April, 1934-January, 1935) and Annual Report for 1934 The New-York Historical Society !935 THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY BULLETIN VOL. XVIII APRIL, 1934 No. 1 HON. JOHN ALSOP (1724-1794). Bequest of Mary Rhinelander King, 1909. NEW YORK: 170 CENTRAL PARK WEST PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY AND ISSUED TO MEMBERS THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 170 CENTRAL PARK WEST (Erected by the Society 1908) Wings to be erected on the 76th and 77th Street corners OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY For Three Years, ending January 8, 1935 PRESIDENT FOREIGN CORRESPONDING SECRETARY JOHN ABEEL WEEKES ARCHER MILTON HUNTINGTON FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT DOMESTIC CORRESPONDING SECRETART ROBERT E. DOWLING ERSKINE HEWITT SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT RECORDING SECRETARY ARTHUR H. MASTEN B. W. B. BROWN THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT TREASURER R. HORACE GALLATIN GEORGE A. ZABRISKIE FOURTH VICE-PRESIDENT LIBRARIAN WILLIAM D. MURPHY ALEXANDER J. WALL THE STUYVESANT FAMILY BIBLE BY MAJOR EDWARD VAN WINKLE Formerly Recording Secretary of the Holland Society of New York Family Bibles containing records and dates and signatures are always of interest to particular families; when the people recorded in them are of importance, they interest others as well, for their contributions to genealogy and history; and when the Bibles are rare editions, they become a study for bibliographers. The Stuy­ vesant Family Bible here pictured and described exemplifies to an unusual degree this three-fold interest. The writer, used to the frequent sights of our most ancient treasures, and trained by service to seek them, views this book as the most fascinating in history of ownership of any book yet found, connected with New Amsterdam. He acquired it in Summit, New Jersey, where, on Saturday, June 27, 1933, it was sold with the personal effects of William Oakley Raymond at public auction. During his re­ searches, since the Stuyvesant Bible came into his possession, the writer has corresponded about it with more than one hundred and fifty librarians and Bible collectors. This Stuyvesant Bible is known officially as the Leiden 1636—37 Bible. It is folio size, measuring ten by sixteen by five inches, and weighs approximately thirteen pounds. It shows unmistakable signs of long and severe use. Several pages in the front of the book are altogether or partly missing, including the title page; and several pages in the back of the volume are missing or torn. It is the first edition of the version authorized by the States General, which became the standard Bible of the Dutch Reformed Church, corresponding to Luther's version in Germany, and the King James Bible in England. Even the Remonstrants, the bitter theological opponents of the translators, after a careful official examination of the version, adopted it for their own use. The Synod of Dort (Dordrecht), in 1618-19, resolved to prepare a new Dutch version of the Scriptures from the original languages, and laid down the rules for the work.1 Six translators 1 N. Henlopins, Historie van de Nederlandsche Overzettenge des Bybels, 1777. 3 k, , V"**s?* ^i^- * ^Mte lllilliiM H w a; w >^fe if 1 I | o pF .til P O JO o >I o o M H K! STUYVESANT FAMILY BIBLE, PRINTED IN LEIDEN, 1636-37. Owned by Major Edward Van Winkle. QUARTERLYBULLETIN 0 were appointed: for the Old Testament, Jan Bogerman, President of the Synod and Pastor of Leeuwarden; Willem Baudart, Pastor of Zutphen; and Gerson Bucer, Pastor of Veere in Zeeland; for the New Testament, Jacob Roland, Assessor of the Synod and Pastor of Amsterdam; H. Faulelius, Pastor of Middleburg; and Peter Cornelii, Pastor of Enkhuysen. Faulelius and Cornelii died before the work began, and their places were filled by Anthony Waloeus, Divinity Professor at Leiden, and Festus Hommius, Secretary of the Synod and Pastor at Leiden. G. Bucer and J. Roland died during the progress of the work, and the former's place was filled by Anthony Thysius, a Leiden professor. This action of the Synod required the sanction of the States General, which granted funds for the special task and released the translators from their ordinary duties. Hence the translation of the Old Testament was begun in 1628, and that of the New Testament in 1630. The translators worked under a supervisory committee, one for each Testament chosen by each of the Prov­ inces to which the translation as it progressed was submitted for approval. The first draft was completed in 1632, and the final revision in 1635. The printing was done by Paulus Aertsz Van Ravensteyn for the widow and heirs of Hillebrant Jacobs of Wouw, Regular Printers for the States General. The States General gave the privilege to print the book on December 11, 1632-, and on June 10, 1637, approved the printing. In accord­ ance with the directions of the Synod, the Apocrypha were placed in a separate section at the end of the volume. At the time authority was given to print the Bible, by the National.Synod of the Reformed Church, the father of Governor Peter Stuyvesant was a member of that Synod, from Scherpen­ zeel.2 He was the Reverend Balthazar Johannes Stuyvesant, who had matriculated at the University of Franeker, on May 22, 1605, and had been ordained in 1609. It takes no imagination to realize that those responsible for authorizing the printing of this Bible would obtain one of the first printed copies; so, in all prob­ ability, this Stuyvesant Bible was one of the first to come off the 2 Alma R. Van Hoevenberg, "The Stuyvesants in the Netherlands and New Netherland," in The New York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin, X, 4, April, 1926. O THEN. EW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY press. The original subscription list would doubtless show the Reverend Balthazar Stuyvesant's name well up on the list. Such a list was in existence in 1777, at the University of Leiden, but Dr. J. E. Kroon, the present Librarian there, writes that they now have no subscription list for the first Bible after the Dordrecht Synod. The Bible was printed at Leiden, just three miles from the Stuyvesant home at Alphen on the Rhine. At the time it was in press, Peter Stuyvesant was in South America. He was ap­ pointed Director of the Islands of Curacao, Buenaire, Aruba, and their dependent islands, off the coast of Venezuela, under a com­ mission from the States General of the United Provinces, dated July 28, 1643, which is in the National Archives at the Hague. In an attack on the island of St. Martin, in 1644, he was shot in the leg, and invalided home for surgical treatment, and for the final amputation of the lower part of his right leg. It requires but little imagination to picture his homecoming. ' Upon his ar­ rival, physically disabled, at Alphen, on the Rhine, between Leiden and Gouda, he found that his mother had died, that his father had married again, and that he, too, had died. His stepmother had a younger sister, Judith De Vos Bayard, who took an interest in Peter, nursed him back to vigorous manhood, and gave him sufficient courage to ask her to be his wife. They were married, and set off together for New Amsterdam. In order to compare the Stuyvesant Bible with others printed at Leiden in 1636, a diligent search was made in the United States, in Great Britain, and on the continent of Europe. Thus far, only three other copies have been found. There is no copy of this: edition in the Library of Congress, none in the New York Public Library; none in the possession of the American Bible Society. One copy was located in the British Museum, London, through Dr. H. M. Lydenberg, Assistant Director of The New York Public Library. A second copy was located through Dr. J. E. Kroon, Bibliothecaris of the Library of Leiden University, in that Library. A third copy is owned by The New York Historical Society, one which formerly was in the possession of the Reverend Warmoldus Kuypers, and which was presented to the Society in 1882 by Mrs. Jane dePeyster Cooper. A comparison of the writer's Stuyvesant Bible with the Bible at the New York His- QUARTERLYBULLETIN 7 torical Society, and with some photographs of the Bibles in London and Leiden, shows that they are apparently of three different print­ ings, with differences in typography and in decorations. It is im­ possible as yet to make a complete bibliographical study of these differences, nor is that the purpose of this article. For the present, until the writer can take his Bible over to Europe, to compare it iuni'c^Cfl v~ -f$24 M W&*rw* ™y™^ive}-ej<?> m <tny? . FAMILY RECORDS WRITTEN IN THE STUYVESANT BIBLE BY GERARDUS STUYVESANT (1691-1777). with the Bibles there, suffice it to say that in all four Bibles the title pages are identical, and they have the same dates for the privilege, authorization, approval of translation, and license by the States General. The Kuypers Bible owned by The New York His­ torical Society, seems to agree with the British Museum copy in folio numbering and in the colophon: "Tot LEYDEN, Ghedruckt by Paulus Aertsz van Ravensteyn. do. Io. c. xxxvi." The Stuy­ vesant Bible agrees with these in the folio numbering, but on the 8 THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY last page of the Book of Revelations, instead of the above colo­ phon, there is a large and elaborate design of a cherub with an overflowing horn of plenty in each hand. On the corresponding page in the University of Leiden copy there is a small scroll design, with an open book and the printer's monogram.