Smith Julia Translator (11 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Brand New. 40 pages. Spanish language. 9.84x0.32x9.84 inches. In Stock.

Hardcover. Condition: Brand New. 40 pages. Spanish language. 9.84x0.32x9.84 inches. In Stock.

Hardcover. Condition: Brand New. 304 pages. 9.25x6.25x1.25 inches. In Stock.

Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 224 pages. German language. 7.05x0.79x10.94 inches. In Stock.

paperback. Condition: New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title!

Hardcover. Condition: Brand New. 208 pages. 9.01x6.00x9.00 inches. In Stock.

Hardcover. Condition: Brand New. 450 pages. 9.25x6.25x1.75 inches. In Stock.

4to. (9 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches). [2], 892 pp. (Old Testament); 276 pp. (New Testament). Original publisher?s brown pebble-grain cloth, blind stamped boards, spine and upper cover lettered in gilt First edition of the first complete English Bible translated by a woman, a touchstone of American printing, feminism, and religious scholarship in the original publisher's binding. Born in Glastonbury, Connecticut in 1792, Julia Evelina Smith taught herself Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and French while earning a living as a schoolteacher and, later, as an outspoken abolitionist and suffragist. In 1843 she began to test the English Bible against the originals and soon resolved, as she writes in her preface, "to put the same English word for the same Hebrew or Greek word, everywhere.It may seem presumptuous for an ordinary woman with no particular advantages of education to translate and publish alone, the most wonderful book that has ever appeared in the world.It took me about seven years to accomplish the five translations." Working verse by verse, Smith produced five complete drafts, twice from Greek, twice from Hebrew, once from Latin, finishing in 1855. When commercial publishers declined to issue so unconventional a text, she underwrote the project herself, consigning it to Hartford's American Publishing Company in the nation's centennial year. The resulting volume is the first complete English Bible translated by a woman and remains the only one executed single-handedly without editorial committee or co-translator. Smith's method is uncompromisingly literal: Hebrew tense shifts and Greek word order are preserved even when the English prose becomes rugged. The translation therefore offers modern readers an unfiltered view of the underlying languages and stands in pointed contrast to the smoother, interpretive revisions then underway in Britain and America. Earlier centuries had seen only partial female forays into Scripture such as Anne Locke's 1560 sonnet-cycle on Psalm 51 and the Countess of Pembroke's masterly completion of the Sidney Psalter after her brother's death, but none covered the full canon. Smith's 1876 Bible stands today as both a landmark of American print culture and a quiet declaration of intellectual equality. Simms, The Bible in America, pp. 149-50; Stanton, The Woman's Bible, p. 151; Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.

Small 4to (10 x 7"), original brown cloth, gilt title at spine and upper cover, speckled edges. Title leaf, [1]892 pp. (Old Test.), [1]276 pp. (New Test.). CONDITION: A very good, bright copy, some light discoloration along the fore-edge of the rear cover, but otherwise nearly flawless. A remarkably well-preserved example of the first edition of the first translation of the entire Bible by a woman. Julia Evelina Smith (17921886), a suffragist and abolitionist from Glastonbury, Connecticut, translated the Bible in the 1850s in an overt attempt to aid the cause of women's rights by demonstrating what a woman might accomplish. However, she did not publish her work for another twenty years. In her preface, Smith notes: "It may seem presumptuous for an ordinary woman with no particular advantages of education to translate and publish alone, the most wonderful book that has ever appeared in the world, and thought to be the most difficult to translate. I had studied Latin and Greek at school, and began by translating the Greek New Testament, and then the Septuagint. I soon gave my attention to the Hebrew, and studied it thoroughly, and wrote it out word for word, giving no ideas of my own, but endeavoring to put the same English word for the same Hebrew or Greek word, everywhere. It took me about seven years to accomplish the five translations, at least." In her radical and controversial work, The Woman's Bible, Elizabeth Cady Stanton noted of Smith's translation that copies "will be a rarity in the next century and will be much sought after by bibliomaniacs, to say of nothing of scholars who will want it for its real value." A lovely copy of this landmark Bible. REFERENCES: Simms, The Bible in America, pp. 14950; Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. The Woman's Bible, p. 151.

First edition of the first complete translation of the Bible into English done by a woman, Julia E. Smith (1792-1886), of Glastonbury Connecticut. One of 1,000 copies printed. Quarto, bound in full modern calf with morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers. In near fine condition. An invaluable Bible for its period which remains a rare translation. In her preface to the present volume, Smith states: "It may seem presumptuous for an ordinary woman with no particular advantages of education to translate and publish alone, the most wonderful book that has ever appeared in the world, and thought to be the most difficult to translate. It has occupied the time and attention of the wisest and most learned of all ages, believing, as the world has believed, that such only could give the correct rendering of the language in which the Bible was written. It may seem presumptuous for an ordinary woman with no particular advantages of education to translate and publish alone, the most wonderful book that has ever appeared in the world, and thought to be the most difficult to translate. It has occupied the time and attention of the wisest and most learned of all ages, believing, as the world has believed, that such only could give the correct rendering of the language in which the Bible was written." Smith began her translation in 1847 and finished it in 1855. In 1876, at 84 years of age, some 21 years after completing her work, she finally sought publication. The publication costs ($4,000) were personally funded by Julia and her sister Abby Smith. The 1,000 copies printed were offered for $2.50 each, but her household auction in 1884 sold about 50 remaining copies. The translation was one of only a few contemporary English translations out of the original languages available to English readers until the publication of the Revised Version in 1881â"1894. This makes it an invaluable Bible for its period. The translation also appears to have been banned in its history, likely due to the translator being a woman, and it remains a rare translation.

Hardcover. Condition: Brand New. 450 pages. 9.25x6.25x1.75 inches. In Stock. This item is printed on demand.