1843 KE KAUOHA HOU A KO KAKOU HAKU E OLA’I A JESU KRISTO HAWAIIAN NEW TESTAMENT

Description

1843 Hawaiian New Testament KE KAUOHA HOU A KO KAKOU HAKU E OLA’I A JESU KRISTO. Octavo 7 ½ x 4 ½ x 1 ¼”, D & M 5066. Printed on double columns with 48 lines of Roman font each.

Collation: New Testament title page (1), The table of contents (2), The New Testament (3- 501 misnumbered actually 411). COMPLETE.

Condition: Front flyleaf and pages 1-30 are stained, encompassing approximately one third of the page and fading out at page 31. Scattered foxing throughout in various degrees from none at all to moderate as common with books printed on woodpulp paper from this era. A dozen or so leaves are heavily browned. Leaves 193/194 & 203/204 have the blank footer margins cropped short not affecting the text. The paper is crisp with wide margins all around and with strong corners, straight edges and clean gutters. No loose,torn, ripped, missing pages, doodling, annotations or underlining.

Binding: The plain brown leather binding appears to be original and was professionally rebacked and preserved sometime ago. Both outer hinges are unsplit and are holding the covers very firmly. The rear inner hinge is cracked but also holding very firmly. The text block is square, firm and unshaken.

A Hawaiian language translation was completed by New England Christian missionaries including Reverends Hiram Bingham, Asa Thurston,Lorrin Andrews, and Sheldon Dibble from 1800-1850. The Gospels were translated in 1828 and the rest of the New Testament was translated in 1832. The Old Testament was translated in 1839 and the whole was revised in 1868.