Author: BRETON, Raymond.
Title: Petit catechisme ou sommaire des trois premieres parties de la doctrine chrestienne. Traduit du françois, en la langue des Caraibes Insulaires.Auxerre, Gilles Bouquet, 1664. 8vo. With a small woodcut on the title-page showing the Virgin and a woodcut of the Crucifixion on p. 16. Modern half maroon morocco, gold-tooled spine.
Description: 70 pp.The first edition of an abridged French catechism with a Carib translation printed in a parallel column, written to prepare priests for missions to the Caribbean. The author, father Raymond Breton (Baune 1609-Caen 1679), was a French Dominican missionary and a noted linguist. He sailed for the West Indies in 1635 and devoted nearly 20 years to missionary activities. After his return to France in 1654, he was appointed sub-prior of the monastery of Preaching Friars at Blainville. Here Breton wrote several linguistic works that are now among the rarest records of the 17th-century Carib language. With the bookplate of Joannes B. Stetson on front paste-down. A very good copy.l Dampierre, Antilles françaises, pp. 49-50, 83-5; Sabin 7742; for the author: NBG VII, cols. 344-345.

Keywords: [E5FB9A6D8BD3] AMERICAS|[E5FB9A6D8BD3] AMERICAS -> [8C1676C73B96] Middle America & Caribbean Islands|[6369B77AC038] LITERATURE & LINGUISTICS|[6369B77AC038] LITERATURE & LINGUISTICS -> [C60CF2EA3C85] Literature & Linguistics|[0953FE2C125A] RELIGION & DEVOT