Current Archives Exhibits include:
Nahuatl: The Evolution of an Ancient Language - located outside of the Archives (Jenks 217)
Translating The Pilgrim's Progress - located in the Reference Room along blue wall when walking towards Bistro 255.
Translating The Pilgrim's Progress
Curated by Damon DiMauro
John Bunyan was born near Bedford, England in 1628. He was a tinker by trade. By his own account, he led a debauched life, having “but few equals… both for cursing, swearing, lying, and blaspheming the holy name of God.” In 1648, he married a God-fearing woman (whose name remains unknown). He was converted, though, through an encounter with a group of poor women whose “talk was about a new birth, and the work of God on their hearts.” Bunyan lived during one of the most turbulent periods in English history, in which Oliver Cromwell ousted the monarchy. Bunyan himself suffered religious persecution, spending twelve years in prison (1660–72) for preaching without government authorization.
During his confinement, Bunyan composed Part One of his classic allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress, about Christian’s journey with Hopeful to reach the Celestial City. They plod through perilous landscapes, wade through the Slough of Despond, labor up Hill Difficulty, and grope through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Christian encounters fellow travelers along the way, some of whom, like Obstinate, Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, Mistrust, and Talkative, try to lead him astray. He learns important spiritual lessons before arriving at Palace Beautiful. In Part Two, Christian’s wife, Christiana, and her companions are escorted by knight Great-heart to the Celestial City.
Part One of The Pilgrim’s Progress, published in 1678, had already been translated into several languages before Part Two appeared in 1684. Bunyan’s worldwide appeal lay in his ability to provide a language for the emotional experience of religion, with its stress on conversion, occasioned by an acute awareness of sin, and framed as a journey from earth to heaven. The book offered a pointed message of future bliss, but also presented a realistic image of this present life as a daily struggle. The Pilgrim’s Progress became a kind of Bible companion, a devotional aid that incapsulated the essential verities of the evangelical message in a user-friendly form.
The Pilgrim’s Progress has been translated into more languages than any book except the Bible. There have been 30 translations into European languages and countless others into non-European languages, including 80 in South and East Africa, 23 in South Asia, 11 in Oceana, 8 in the Middle East, 5 in China, and 3 in North America (Cree, Dakota, Eskimo). Translators came from diverse backgrounds and worked during different time periods. The needs on the ground also changed the shape and tenor of the book. There were thus many different “Bunyans.” Missionaries experimented and adapted with abridged versions, wall charts, magic lantern slides, pageants, plays, sermons, hymns, etc.
Bunyan has also been hailed as an untutored genius and The Pilgrim’s Progress as a monument of English literature. Benjamin Franklin, in noting that the work “has been more generally read than any other book except, perhaps, the Bible,” also reflected, “Honest John was the first that I know of who mixes narration and dialogue, a method of writing very engaging to the reader.”
Image: Portrait of John Bunyan by Thomas Sadler (1684)
Sarah Hall (1803–1845) was raised in Alstead, New Hampshire. She married George Boardman in 1827 and one week later they sailed to Burma to minister to the Karen people. When Boardman succumbed to illness in 1831, Sarah elected to remain on the mission field. In 1834, she wrote a letter of appreciation to Adoniram Judson. The two met and were married four days later. The couple had eight children, three of whom died young. A gifted linguist, Sarah Judson translated part of The Pilgrim’s Progress and other materials into the Burmese language. She also learned the language of the Peguan people of southern Burma and translated the New Testament into their language. Illness forced her to return to the United States in 1844, though she passed away en route at Saint Helena, where she was interred. No image of her is known to exist.
The college owns the first edition of Sarah B. Judson’s translation of the first part of John Bunyon’s Pilgrim’s Progress into Burmese. The work was intended for catechetical purposes and for use in “Sabbath schools.”
Image: Title page of Burmese Pilgrim's Progress (Vining PR 3330 .A73 1840w)
Image: Sample pages from Burmese edition of Pilgrim's Progress (Vining PR 3330 .A73 1840w)
Clergyman Thomas Vincent (1835-1907) was the grandson of a Scottish Hudson’s Bay Company fur trader and his Cree wife. He was a native speaker of the Cree language. His rendition of The Pilgrim’s Progress was part of a series of English-language religious texts translated into Cree syllabics—the Holy Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, and numerous collections of hymns. He worked for the Church of England in remote northern missions established to evangelize the Cree and Ojibwa in what was then called Rupertsland. Vincent was known for his stamina as well as for his uncompromising approach to native spiritual practices—he viewed the use of the drum as “the first step back to heathenism & conjuring.” Nevertheless, because of his indigenous roots, he often felt diminished by the discriminatory racial views of other churchmen. Vincent voyaged at his own expense to London to oversee the printing of The Pilgrim’s Progress.
The college owns the first edition of Thomas Vincent’s translation of John Bunyon’s Pilgrim’s Progress into Cree. Based on its title page alone, the material properties of the text bespeak limited resources. The cover is simple, the typeset of poor quality, the illustrations haphazardly placed. Unlike other Cree syllabic publications, Vincent follows the European convention of word separation, but with minor punctuation. What is most surprising about his translation is the absence of Christian’s name. Vincent refers to him through non-gendered Cree verbs. Moreover, there is no direct translation for “pilgrim” since the concept did not exist for the Cree at the time.
Image: Title page of Cree Pilgrim's Progress (Vining PM 989 .B8 1886)
The illustration on display here depicts the image of "Burden and Distress." The Pilgrim, soon-to-be called "Christian," is clothed in rags and begins a book, the Word of God, which awakens him to the realities of sin and judgement.
Image: Example page of Cree Pilgrim's Progress (Vining PM 989 .B8 1886)
The Rev. Stephen R. Riggs (1812-1883), missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, composed A Grammar and Dictionary of the Dakota Language (1852) as well as a Dakota New Testament (1871). His translation of Bunyan’s classic, Mahpiya ekta oicimani ya (literally, “Heaven journey to make”), was published by the American Tract Society in New York in 1858.
Initially, the Dakota had little interest in Rigg’s literacy efforts, much less his Mahpiya. It was only when scores of men, women, and children were imprisoned in Mankato, Minnesota following the US-Dakota War of 1862 that there was suddenly a pressing need for communication among the dispersed family members. The Dakota now implored Riggs for instruction in reading and writing. From Riggs’ western-colored lenses, he ascribed this urgent plea to the superiority of his religion. Riggs was indeed awestruck how the Dakota took to “book-education,” dubbing it “a revolution in letters.”
“The prison is one great school. Go in almost any time of day and you will see from ten to twenty groups or circles, reading. These circles average about ten persons and each one usually has its teacher. All over the prison too you will see men engaged in writing, some with slate and pencil and others with pen and paper.”
After the 400 copies of the spelling book which Riggs had “improvised and printed at St. Paul” were depleted, he offered his cache of Bunyan translations and at least 100 copies were distributed to the native prisoners.
Notwithstanding Rigg’s evangelization efforts, 303 Dakota men were sentenced to death. President Lincoln gave a reprieve to all but 38 who were said to have slain women and children. On December 26, 1862, the 38 Dakota prisoners were hanged on a scaffold specially constructed for their execution. To the end, some Dakota, such as a certain Hdainyanka, protested of the injustice: “I have not killed, wounded or injured a white man, or any white persons. I have not participated in the plunder of their property; and yet to-day I am set apart for execution, and must die in a few days…”
Image: Title page of Dakota Pilgrim's Progress (Vining PM 1024 .B78 R5 1857)
The pages on display here show the title written in Dakota with an illustration of the main character, Christian, on the left side and the life of Bunyan with a drawn portrait of Bunyon on the right side.
Image: Example pages of Dakota Pilgrim's Progress (Vining PM 1024 .B78 R5 1857)
This German-language edition of “Johann” Bunyan’s work was published in New York sometime in the 1800s. A first edition in German, Eines Christen Reise nach der seligen Ewigkeit, was printed in Amsterdam in 1703. A second with the same title was printed in London in 1751. Several other translations simply titled Die Pilgerreise were published in Germany in the nineteenth century (Hamburg 1833, 1865; Güns 1848; Barmen and Stuttgart, 1864; Bremen 1870). The New York version was probably based on one of these. Since it was also published by the American tract association, it was apparently destined for a Germanophone immigrant population.
Image: Title page of German Pilgrim's Progress (Vining PR 3330 .A5 1800)
Image: Example pages from German Pilgrim's Progress (Vining PR 3330 .A5 1800)
The Mang'anja are a Bantu people of central and southern Africa, found particularly around Chikwawa in the Shire River valley of southern Malawi. They speak a dialect of the Nyanja language, and constitute a branch of the Amaravi people. As of 1996 their population was estimated at 2,486,070.
Nineteenth-century newspaper accounts followed closely Dr. David Livingstone’s “Discoveries in Africa.” In 1859, he wrote: “Never saw so much cotton grown as among the Manganga of the Shire and Shirwa valley—all spin and weave it.” Livingstone noted that the Mang’anja chiefs were wont to sell their fellow tribesmen to slave traders. It was this situation that induced Livingstone to prevail upon the British community to introduce legitimate trade to replace slavery, as well as Christianity to foster stability.
Scottish missionaries of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian were the first to work in the region. In 1892, the Rev. David Clement Scott published A Cyclopaedic Dictionary of the Mang’anja Language Spoken in British Central Africa. In his preface, he noted:
We wholly believe that language is the poetic or creative attempt of a people to incarnate will and spirit in sound and word… it remains for the spirit bevisioned of a Christian civilisation, in the faith of the Son of man and the ministry of the Spirit, to interpret these voices for the salvation of the world.
Largely because of Rev. Scott’s efforts, the four gospels in Mang’anja were published in 1893. The indigenous edition of Bunyon’s The Pilgrim’s Progress on display here was published the following year. It is not known what role Scott had in its composition, although it can be assumed he had a hand. The entire New Testament was published two years later in 1896.
Image: Title page of Manganga Pilgrim's Progress (Vining PL 8593 .B8 1894)
Image: Example pages of Manganga Pilgrim's Progress (Vining PL 8593 .B8 1894)
As a devotional work producing a deep psychological impact and cutting across all class distinctions, The Pilgrim’s Progress took hold in the subcultures of gender and denomination. For Nonconformist women, Book Two, which narrates the journey of Christiana and her children, held particular sway. Some women formed study groups. Others read passages aloud to their children on a weekly basis. Still others dramatized parts of the story with their households. The book was also appropriated and adapted by different denominations. Baptists, for instance, laid claim to the dissenting Bunyan as a spiritual father and so put heavy emphasis on his work. As early as 1744, John Wesley edited a widely disseminated abridged version of The Pilgrim’s Progress in which he minimized Bunyan’s Puritan views of predestination and highlighted Wesleyan Arminianism.
Image: Title page of Methodist Pilgrim's Progress (Vining PR 3330 .A2 W3)
In Wesleyan grammar schools, The Pilgrim’s Progress was incorporated into the curriculum for fourth and fifth grades, along with Thomas Dilworth’s Arithmetic and Thomas à Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ. The following bookplate from the Methodist Episcopal Church of Wiscasset, Maine is from the edition on display here.
Image: Bookplate from the Methodist Episcopal Church of Wiscasset, Maine (Vining PR 3330 .A2 W3)
Image: Illustration of Christian and Hopeful Crossing the River from the Methodist Pilgrim's Progress. (Vining PR 3330 .A2 W3)
In 1878, missionary leaders in Teheran reported back to the American Presbyterian Board that the Rev. J. L. Potter intended to publish The Pilgrim's Progress in Persian. “Encouragement has been given to Mr. Potter to proceed with the work, but the final arrangements have not yet been made.” As it turned out, Potter completed the task in 1883, and Bunyan’s allegorical work was printed on the government press. Funds had been provided by “the subscriptions of missionaries” and “box collections.” The total number of pages printed was 471,000. In spite of “persecuting movements in Tabriz, Hamadan and elsewhere in Persia,” the missionaries marveled at the degree of liberty… accorded in the capital under the immediate direction of the Government.”
While Rev. Potter busied himself with translation, Mrs. Potter was not idle in ministry. She held “a weekly service in the Armenian quarter on the west side of the city.” “A monthly social gathering of the native women” was also held at her home “in hopes of more effectively reaching the women.”
Image: Title page from Persian Pilgrim's Progress (Vining PK 6448.1 .E9 B8 1883)
This illustration shows Pilgrim arriving at the "Wicket-Gate." This is the beginning of the novel, and the entryway to his journey towards the Celestial City.
Image: Example pages from Persian Pilgrim's Progress (Vining PK 6448.1 .E9 B8 1883)
Presbyterian missionaries reached the Punjab in northwestern India in 1834. The history of Bible translation in many countries has been intimately linked to the development of a national language and literature. This was also the case of Punjabi. A printing press was soon established in the Punjab, with a translation of Matthew’s Gospel published in 1840, followed by John’s Gospel in 1841, and the entire New Testament in 1868. The first edition of The Pilgrim’s Progress came out in 1880.
Missionaries also promoted literacy and encouraged local authors to write in their native prose. They published a comprehensive Grammar of the Punjabi Language in 1851 as well as a 438-page Vocabulary Book in 1854. A native scholar has studied the various works by Christian missionaries between 1811 and 1859 with special emphasis on the Punjabi text of The Pilgrim’s Progress:
From these examples we can conclude that the prose produced by Christian missionaries during the 19th century is according to the rules of grammar. To make the ideas more effective and clear, the right use of full stops was made… None of these publications carry the name of either the author or translator. From this we can guess that from the very beginning these works were produced by team work… In short, we can say that the prose of this period is the link between old Punjabi prose and the modern Punjabi prose and it is indeed a valuable contribution…
Image: Title page from Punjabi Pilgrim's Progress (Vining PR 3330 .A84 1902)
Image: Example page from Punjabi Pilgrim's Progress (Vining PR 3330 .A84 1902)
An early cataloguer at Gordon College deemed this translation of Bunyan’s classic to be in Sanskrit. It is more likely that it was in Urdu (the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan), although this has not been confirmed. The edition was indeed published in Lahore (Pakistan) by The Punjab Religious Book Society. The title page bears the stamp of the Rev. H. S. Nesbitt, who was an American missionary and amateur horticulturalist stationed in Zafarwal, India and later in Gujranwala, India. Nevertheless, the particulars surrounding the publication of this edition remain unknown.
Such is the case with scores of materials in the Vining Collection. New discoveries continue to be made. For instance, a short time ago, the first edition of the New Testament in Spanish (1543) by Francisco de Enzinas was found on the Archives shelves. In 1541, Enzinas had enrolled at the University of Wittenberg to study with Philip Melanchthon, and it was at his house that he finished his translation. Charles V later had Enzinas arrested and many of the copies of his New Testament were burned. Today, they are extremely rare, and Gordon College is privileged to own a copy. This underscores the work that still remains in investigating and cataloguing the Vining Collection, as, potentially, surprising discoveries await.
Image: Title page of unknown Pilgrim's Progress (Vining PR 3329 .H75)
Image: Example pages from the unknown Pilgrim's Progress. You can even see a handwritten note on the right page that notes this, incorrectly, as "Sanscrit." (Vining PR 3329 .H75)
The Pilgrim’s Progress has enjoyed its perennial success not only because of its compelling story, but also in some measure because of its illustrations. Early English editions were almost always illustrated. The most popular “pictures,” as they were termed, included The Pilgrim’s Dream, Christian Meeting Evangelist, Christian and the Worldly-Wiseman, The Burden Falling Off, Passing the Lions, and the Fight with Apollyon. Crudeness of style—especially in the many pirated editions—was so rampant as to constitute the norm. But acclaimed artists such as Romantic painter William Blake, who left twenty-nine watercolors, were also drawn to Bunyan’s classic allegory. It is no wonder as well that The Pilgrim’s Progress was one of the earliest illustrated books in America—the first appearing in 1740—as all the important early illustrators cut at least one set of engravings for the popular text.
The display below features Charles H. Bennett’s well-known illustrations for Bunyan’s classic, published in London in 1869.
The settings for “pictures” of The Pilgrim’s Progress have sometimes been criticized for their excessive Englishness. It appears that no energy was spared by Bunyan scholars in trying to identify sites in the Bedfordshire area—with its hedgerows, stiles, and characteristic church architecture—as models for the original. Nevertheless, indigenized illustrations also began to appear in foreign editions and spoke to the work’s universality. As one African missionary opined, the illustrations showed that the protagonist, Christian, was not simply “a mere Briton,” but was rather “a New Man in Christ.”
Title page of The Pilgrim's Progress Illustrated edition (Special Coll. PR 3330 .A1 1869)
The pages displayed heres show illustrations of "Vanity Fair," which symbolizes the world as a whole, especially its opposition to Christianity.
Image: Example pages from Pilgrim's Progress (Special Coll. PR 3330 .A1 1869)
Image: Illustration of Christian from Pilgrim's Progress (Special Coll. PR 3330 .A1 1869)
Image: Illustration of Mr. Worldly Wiseman from Pilgrim's Progress (Special Coll. PR 3330 .A1 1869)
Image: Illustration of Simple, Sloth, & Presumption from Pilgrim's Progress (Special Coll. PR 3330 .A1 1869)
Image: Illustration of Discontent from Pilgrim's Progress (Special Coll. PR 3330 .A1 1869)
Image: Illustration of Envy, Superstition, & Pickthank from Pilgrim's Progress (Special Coll. PR 3330 .A1 1869)
Image: Map showing "Bunyan's Country" which was Bedfordshire, England from Bunyan's Country by Albert J. Foster. (Special Coll. PR 3330 .A9 F7 1901)
This edition of Pilgrim's Progress includes a labeled, tri-fold diagram of the different locations visited during Christian's journey.
Image: Tri-fold diagram (Special Coll. PR 3330 .A1 1800)
This English version of Pilgrim's Progress shows just how popular Bunyan's work was. This copy is an ex-library book and attempts to fix it have been made in the past. You will notice tape on the binding. When the book is opened, sections of the book are starting to pull apart from the center binding.
Image: Cover and spine of Pilgrim's Progress (Special Coll. PR 3330 .A2 H6w)
Nahuatl:
The Evolution of an Ancient Language
Curated by Erin Richardson (Archives Intern - Spring 2024)
Nahuatl, or Mexicana, is the language of the Nahua people, and was the most broadly spoken language of the Aztec empire. There are roughly 1.5 million Mexican people who speak Nahuatl today. The Nahuatl language has a rich history, beginning in the 7th century and lasting until today.
The Aztecs had a rich oral tradition that transferred to a fully developed pictographic writing system. While very little of these pictographic texts remain due to the destruction of Aztec materials by the Spanish, the few that remain tell of historical, mythical, and cosmological events. With the arrival of the Spanish, the Nahuatl language began to adopt the Latin alphabet into its writing system. Nahuatl words written in the Latin alphabet were used alongside the pictorial writing.
In 1519, the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire lead by Hernán Cortés began and Nahuatl evolved again. Latin alphabetical text started to replace pictorial writing, and some Aztecs began to record orally kept literature, songs and poems. Along with the Spanish conquest came Franciscan and Dominican friars to speed along the Aztec’s forced assimilation to Spanish culture by converting them to Christianity.
By the end of the conquest in 1521, friars were beginning to write books on Nahuatl grammar, vocabulary, and religious material. By 1550, Nahuatl began to borrow Spanish nouns, and created new words to describe imported materials. Spanish also began to borrow words from Nahuatl. Avocado, chili, and chocolate are English words that have Nahuatl origin. Despite the Spanish’s attempted to squash out Aztec culture, the culture has persisted until today, and still maintains a strong presence in central Mexico. The Nahuatl language evolved during the conquest of the Aztec empire and continued to evolve during the colonization of Mexico. Now, it is spoken by 1.5 million people and is revered as a culturally rich language that is one of the most studied languages of the Americas.
This book, written by Francisco de Lorra Baquio, would have been used with the Manuel Toledano, or another liturgical work. It contains several prayers in Nahuatl, as well as prayers in Spanish and Latin.
Image: Example page from Manval Mexicano... (Vining PM 4068.4 .L55 1634)
Printed in 1599, this book, written by Friar Juan Bautista, was printed in the “Golden Age” of Nahuatl document production (1580-1610). During this time period, there was an increased output of Nahuatl printing as the Spanish began to administrate their rule over the Aztec people, and the Franciscan and Dominican churches began their (forced) conversion work. Confessionario is a Franciscan document that contains the Confessional in both Nahuatl and Spanish.
Image: Example pages from Confessionario (Vining PM 4068.4 .B42 1599)
Known as one of the rarest books in the world, Alonso de Molina’s Nahuatl-Spanish dictionary was the first dictionary published in the New World. Molina was a Franciscan friar who had spent most of his life in Mexico and learned Nahuatl at an early age. The Catholic church oversaw the publishing of grammatical and language material alongside religious materials.
Image: Example page of Vocabulario (Vining PM 4066 .M7)
Translated by George Folsom from Cortés’ original Spanish letters into English, these letters were sent by Cortés to emperor Charles V during his conquest of the Aztec empire. The pages on display are from letter two, where Cortés describes the Aztec capitol Tenochtitlan.
Image: Example page (p.118) from The despatches of Hernando Cortés (Vining F 1230 .C85)
Image: Example page (p.119) from The despatches of Hernando Cortés (Vining F 1230 .C85)
Tenochtitlan was founded by the Aztecs in 1325 on the islands of Lake Texcoco. The center of the city was devoted to Temples, with the rest of the city being divided into four sections. This map was designed after the Spanish conquest, during which most of the city was destroyed.
Image: Plan of Tenochtitlan from The Aztecs; their history, manners, and customs by Lucien Biart (Vining F 1219 .B57)
Containing five interlocking lakes, including Lake Texcoco, Anahuac was the center of the Aztec empire. The Anahuac region was where the Nahuatl language was most broadly spoken.
Image: Map of Anahuac from The Aztecs; their history, manners, and customs by Lucien Biart (Vining F 1219 .B57)
The summer of 2021 marked the 100th anniversary of the gift of the Vining Collection. It was bequeathed as a memorial to Edward Payson Vining (1847-1920), who himself had been, according to the institution’s 1921 catalogue, “sympathetic with the scholarly work and evangelical loyalty of Gordon College.” The collection consists of some 7,000 books, manuscripts, and letters, ranging from the 12th century to the early 20th century. It boasts over 900 Bibles in 140 languages. It is also rich in Shakespeareana, Early Americana, geography, travel literature, ethnology, and especially philology—with vast holdings in indigenous languages.
Vining had made his fortune as a “railroad man,” serving for many years as freight manager of the Union Pacific Railroad and later as general manager of the San Francisco street-railway system. His career took him far and wide, putting him literally on the map, for the town of Vining, Kansas was named in his honor. After his retirement in his early 50s, he devoted the remainder of his life to book collecting and research. Vining authored an eclectic array of scholarly studies and had working knowledge of some fifty languages. In his most ambitious foray into philology and ethnology—an 800-paged monograph titled An Inglorious Columbus (1885)—he contended that Buddhist monks from Afghanistan had first discovered America in the 5th Century. As a scholar, Vining is mainly remembered for his work on Shakespeare. He was a founding member of the New York Shakespeare Society and edited the Hamlet volume of the organization’s republication of the Bard’s collected works (1888). In The Mystery of Hamlet (1881), his most significant contribution to the field, Vining advanced the unorthodox theory that the dithering “prince” was in fact a woman who posed as a man to preserve the succession of the Danish throne. His hypothesis shaped Danish actress Asta Nielsen’s 1920 version of Hamlet for the silver screen and also earned him a fleeting mention in James Joyces’ Ulysses (Ch. IX). Vining was an autodidact and never attended college. He did, however, receive an honorary A.M. from Yale University in 1886 and was granted an LL.D. degree from William Jewell College in 1908. He was also a trustee at the University of Chicago (1886-88).
Gordon College is New England’s top Christian college, located on the North Shore of Boston in Wenham, MA.
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