The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents Travels And Explorations Of The Jesuit Missionaries In New France 1610-1791 The Original French, Latin, And Italian Texts, With English Translations And Notes…

Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers Company, 1896-1901. First Thwaites Edition, Limited to 750 sets. This set bears rubberstamps "Unnumbered set, bound from waste sheets, for editorial use." “A monumental editorial achievement. Contains all reports, official and unofficial, made by members of this missionary order, on their activities in North America from 1601 to 1791. In all, 238 pieces are given in their original French, Latin and Italian texts, with English translations.” (Howes) Spanning the years 1632 to 1673 the relations were the regular reports sent back by the priests of the Canadian mission to their superiors in France. Not only do they record the progress of the missions in converting the Canadian aboriginals to Christianity, they are also an important source of historical information on the exploration of New France, the manners and customs of the natives, and the daily life of the French settlers. Thwaites was assisted in the compilation of the Relations by an impressive array of European and American scholars. In the introduction to his volume of Errata and Addenda, which was published in 1967, Joseph P.Donnelly highlighted some of the significant aspects of the work: “The identification of persons, even very obscure individuals, is an extremely valuable editorial contribution. The bibliographical information regarding the heuristics and provenance of material included in the series is of inestimable worth to the historian…An outstanding editorial feature…is the exhaustive two-volume index…”. This set belonged to Dr. Lorris Elijah Borden [1877-1963], a long-standing associate of the Arctic Institute. Borden was the last surviving member of the 1903-04 Canadian Arctic Expedition in the Neptune under Captain A.P.Low, in which he took part as medical officer. This expedition constituted the first significant step towards the assertion of Canadian authority in the eastern Arctic. During that time Borden studied the diseases afflicting the Inuit and gathered a collection of carvings and other artifacts that was gifted, together with his notes and diaries, to the Public Archives of Canada in 1964 by his widow. The artifacts are now housed in the Canadian Museum of Civilization. TPL 630. Howes J-106. 73 vols. 8vo. 137 (of 138) plates (maps, views, portraits, facsimiles incl. 3 multi-page facsimile letters; some folding): lacking the map of Huronia in Vol. XXXIV. 4 text illus. untrimmed in original cloth, t.e.g., others uncut (dampstaining to lower margins, covers & spines of Vols. IX, X & LVI. dampstain to lower spines & covers of a few other volumes, last volume spine faded, 1 plate torn in half & crudely repaired - no loss, some foxing throughout). bookplate of Dr. L.E.Borden (see below). elala5445