Book Description

Jesuit Relations and Other Americana in the Library of James F. Bell was first published in 1950. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.Librarians, scholars, and collectors of rare books will delight in this meticulously prepared catalogue of the James F. Bell collection of Americana. This collection of approximately 325 items was built around the early accounts of basic discoveries of America and particularly the French explorations into Canada and the Great Lakes and Mississippi Valley regions, the search for a Northwest Passage, the activities of the Hudson's Bay Company, the ill-fated Selkirk colony, and Minnesota history.Part I of the Catalogue is devoted to the Jesuit Relations collections, which includes 77 variants. This section was prepared by the late Mr. Walter, librarian emeritus of the University of Minnesota. Part II of the Catalogue, completed by Miss Doneghy, former cataloguer at the University of Minnesota library, after Mr. Walter's death, describes the remainder of the collection. Extensive bibliographical and historical notes are given in both sections.The book is beautifully illustrated with plates showing title pages and other examples of typography and illustrations from the books described. There is a foreword by Mr. Walter and a brief preface in which Mr. Bell expresses his philosophy on the collecting of rare editions.The arrangement of items in both sections of the catalogue is chronological by date of publication.