A rare early Stations of the Cross in Cree Syllabics

Garin, André Marie. Chemin de la croix et autres prières à l’usage des sauvages des postes d’Albany, Savern, Martin’s Falls (Baie d’Hudson).

€ 28,000.00

Extremely rare first edition of a devotional handbook in the Cree language, printed entirely in Cree syllabics apart from preliminaries and captions. Prepared for the Hudson Bay posts of Albany, Savern [Severn], and Martin’s Falls, the work presents the fourteen Stations of the Cross, each accompanied by a hand coloured plate, followed by prayers and hymns.

Translated and arranged by the Oblate missionaries André Marie Garin and Jean Nicolas Laverlochère with the assistance of Madame Corcoran, a Cree convert and wife of a Hudson’s Bay Company chief factor.

The approbation is dated 5 February 1856; the printing, on a small Montreal press, showcases the newly standardized Cree syllabary devised by James Evans in 1840, here used for pastoral instruction among coastal and interior Cree communities.

Copies complete with all sixteen plates are notably difficult to find; this example preserves fresh, vividly coloured images and survives in a striking contemporary binding with its Cree lettered cover title.

A landmark in Native language printing and a compelling artefact of mid nineteenth century Catholic mission work in the Hudson Bay watershed.