Ka Palapala Hemolele a Iehova ko kakou akua o ke Kauoha kahiko a me ke Kauoha hou i unuhiia mailoko mai o na olelo kahiko Paiia no ko Amerika poe hoolaha Baibala

Oahu & Honolulu: Na na misionari i pai, 1843. First octavo edition, and the first one-volume edition of the Bible in Hawaiian. 8vo, pp. 1451, [1]; original full Hawaiian sheep, black morocco label lettered in gilt on spine; vertical crease in spine, small chips at spine ends, the whole moderately scuffed, old Bowdoin accession label at base of spine, upper joint cracked at the top. Contained in a new brown cloth clamshell box. Ex-Athenian Society of Bowdoin College, with the Society's bookplate, a college "withdrawn" stamp on the front pastedown, and the Soiciety's oval stamp in the upper corner of the title page. According to the bookplate the Bible (truncated) was presented to the college by Bowdoin alum Rev. Daniel Dole. Dole and his wife arrived in Honolulu as missionaries in 1841. Dole was principal of the Punahou School for the children of missionaries there, and after the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, Dole's son Sanford became president of the Republic of Hawaii, and the first governor of the Territory of Hawaii. Sanford's cousin James developed the pineapple industry in Hawaii and the family wielded enormous influence in Hawaiian politics. According to Forbes, this is the first edition of the first complete Bible in Hawaiian, with the Old and New Testaments together in a single volume. There was an earlier printing of the New Testament only in three 12mo volumes in 1838, followed by the Old Testament two years later. "The text is generally printed in double columns divided by a vertical rule. The Books of Job ... Psalms, Proverbs, the Song of Solomon, much of Isaiah, and Jeremiah are in single-column numbered verse form. The New Testament, beginning on page (1130) has is own title page, Ke Kauoha hou a ko kakou haku e ola i Iesu Kristo..." Both Testaments have separate imprints, as issued, the Old Testament bearing the Oahu Mission Press imprint while the title of the New Testament bears a Honolulu imprint. The verso of the Old Testament title contains the imprint "Ka Lua O Ke Pai Ana" ("the second printing"), which refers to the 12mo printing of the entire Old Testament in 1840. OCLC locates only 9 copies: N.Y. Public, Huntington, Yale, Smithsonian, Harvard, American Philosophical Society, Brigham Young, the National Library of South Africa, and the Bibliotheque nationale). To these we can add the AAS, Hawaiian Historical, the Bishop Museum Library, the National Library of Australia, Punahou School; University of Hawaii, the Mitchell Library in Australia, and the Alexander Turnbull Library in New Zealand. Copies have appeared at auction infrequently, seven in all (according to BookHub), and four of them sold 1918 or earlier. The other three were sold in 2018, 1983, and 1982. Its relative scarcity may be explained by the fact that only 10,000 copies were printed, but three years after publication 9,000 copies were still on hand. In Forbes's words it did "not appear to be a best-seller." Darlow and Moule 5066; Forbes 1416; Judd 265. (Inventory #: 61372)