Sep 28, 2017 - Sale 2455

Sale 2455 - Lot 48

Price Realized: $ 5,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
(BIBLE IN ENGLISH.) The first published translation of the Bible by a woman, with her father's Greek New Testament and a related pamphlet. 3 items, various sizes and conditions, scent of tobacco. Vp, vd
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Additional Details

Julia Evelina Smith (1792-1886) was a suffragist and scholar in Glastonbury, CT. She undertook her translation of the Bible from the Latin, Greek and Hebrew from 1847 to 1855, but she was well into her eighties when she took the final steps toward publication. Her lively introduction explains that she made a literal word-for-word translation, placing accuracy above literary embellishments, including the use of present tense: "It seems that the original Hebrew had no regard to time, and that the Bible speaks for all ages." Smith and her four sisters have been inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame. Their father Zephaniah Hollister Smith (1758-1836) was a minister and state legislator who played an important role in the education of the sisters. Offered here are an original 1876 printing of her translation, a 1756 Greek Bible which belonged to her father (and may have been relied upon for the translation), and her 1877 pamphlet touching on women's rights--all consigned by the descendant of an old Glastonbury family.
1) [Smith, Julia E.; translator.] The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments, Translated Literally from the Original Tongues. [2], 892, 276 pages. Large 8vo, publisher's cloth gilt, minimal wear; minimal wear to contents; inscribed on flyleaf by "J.R.L. and M.R.L." to the mother of the consignor in 1973. Hills 1918.
2) The copy of a Greek New Testament which Smith may have used for her translation: Tes Kaines Diathekes Hapanta, Novum Testamentum. Frontispiece plate. 384 pages. 12mo, contemporary calf, worn; minor dampstaining and foxing; inscribed by Julia's father the Rev. Zephaniah Hollister Smith (1758-1836) and others on the front endpapers and page [372], 1774-79. London: J. & R. Tonson, 1756. Later edition of Darlow & Moule, 4730.
3) Pamphlet by Smith titled "Abby Smith and Her Cows, with a Report of the Law Case." Frontispiece engraving. 94 pages. 8vo, printed wrappers, chipped and lacking rear wrapper; faint dampstaining; 1973 inscription to the consignor from "J.R.L. and M.R.L." on front wrapper. Hartford, 1877. Smith and her sister Abby Hadassah Smith sued the town of Glastonbury, CT when it attempted to levy a tax directed at single and widowed women. Adding some interest is a full-page advertisement for Julia Smith's Bible translation on the inner wrapper.
with--an issue of American Heritage, June 1957, featuring an article on the Smith sisters. Provenance: property of John R. Lambert (1895-1979) and wife Martha Tryon Lambert (1892-1979), who acquired the former Smith house in Glastonbury, CT; gift to the consignor and his mother in 1973, per inscriptions on two of the books.