[India - Mission]. Müller, Johann Sebastian (John Miller). Herr Aaron National Land-Prediger unter den Heidnischen Malabaren in Ost-Indien.

Nuremberg, bei J. Trautner, ca. 1740.

Engraving in original hand-colour. 16 x 13 cm (sheet dimensions: 30 x 21 cm). Matted.

 500.00

A rare engraving showing the Indian priest Aaron, the first converted native preacher of Malabar, dressed in white cloth and presenting to the viewer two pages from the Acts of the Apostles in Tamil. The Tamil Bible translation was famously published in 1713 by the Saxon missionary Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg, who had been posted to the Danish colony of East India (Malabar) in the early 18th century. A nearly half-page letterpress text below the engraving elaborates on the conversion and life of Aaron, who was born ca. 1699, baptised in 1718, and ordained in 1733.

The engraver and botanist J. S. Müller (1715 - ca. 1792), known as John Miller in Britain, was born in Nuremberg, where he trained under Johann Christoph Weigel. He came to England in 1744 with his brother Tobias - an engraver of architecture - and remained there the rest of his life, producing several important botanical works and apparently also forging several oil paintings for London's appreciative art market.

Traces of folds; insignificant duststains to margins.

Stock Code: BN#54078 Tags: , ,