THE FIRST MENNONITE HYMNAL COMPILED IN AMERICA (1803)

THE FIRST MENNONITE HYMNAL COMPILED IN AMERICA (1803)

(Mennonite Hymns and Music) DIE KLEINE GEISTLICHE HARFE DER KINIDER ZIONS, ODER AUSERLESENE GWEISTREICHE GESANGE,: ALLEN WAHREN HEILSBEGIERIGEN SAUGLINGEN DER WEISSHEIT, INSONDERHEIT ABER ALLEN CHRISTLICHEN GERMEINDEN DES HERRN ZUM DIENST UND GEBRAUCHE MIT FLEISS ZUSAMMEN GETRAGEN, UND IN GEGENWARTIGER FORM UND ORDNUNG GESTELIT; MIT EINEM DREYFACHEN REGISTER, NEBST EINER ZUGABE. / AUF VERORDNUNG DER MENNONISTEN GEMEINDEN. Gedruckt bey Michael Billmeyer: Germantaun, 1811. [4], 39 [1], 412, [20], 20, [2] pp. Illustrated with a woodcut of “David and his Harp”, signed “D”; printed music in the first section.

Second edition, originally printed by Billmeyer in 1803 and again in 1820. Very good copy of this standard song book, which contains 140 Psalms in the first section of the book, 475 songs and prayers in second section, and 20 songs in the third section of the book, each part fully indexed.

“This was the first Mennonite hymnal compiled in America [1803]. The Mennonites of the Franconia District published this hymnal one year before the Lancaster County District published Ein Unpartheyisches Gesang-Buch. It was probably a minor source of hymns for the first River Brethren hymnal. It went through seven editions, the last of which was 1904.”

Shaw & Shoemaker, American Imprints, 23165. Arndt, German Language Printing, II, 1812. Myron K. Sauder, A Handbook for a Collection of Spiritual Hymns, Lancaster, Pa., 2003, p. 209.

Contemporary brown mottled calf, metal clasps; joints rubbed; paper stock brown with age and some foxing; both binding and paper in very good condition.