May / June 2001 Vol. 33, no. 3

The Jesuit Relations at the National Library of Canada

Michel Brisebois, Rare Book Curator
Research and Information Services

Jean de Brébeuf, one of the authors of the Jesuit Relations.

While I received encouraging comments following the National Library of Canada's (NLC) recent acquisition of original editions of Jesuit Relations, I realized that these famous Relations are not well known to the general public or even to some librarians. In 1986 and 1991, Joyce Banks, who was the NLC's Rare Book Curator at the time, wrote two excellent feature articles¹ concerning the Relations, for the National Library News. Capitalizing on the interest created by our recent purchase, I plan to continue the discussion by considering, in much less detail than J. Banks, the history of these publications, summarizing their importance, and commenting on how they were printed and distributed. The second part of the article will be devoted to the interest created by the Relations, the evolution of the market for the publications and the impressive collection of Relations at the NLC.

The period in the history of New France that is of particular interest to us, which was covered in the Relations on a nearly annual basis, extends from 1632 to 1672. The Jesuits were in Acadia at the beginning of the 17th century and in New France before the Kirke brothers attacked Quebec. It wasn't until after the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye in 1632, which restored Acadia and Canada to France, that the Jesuits were able to return to New France to continue their apostolate mission among the Natives. It is not necessary at this point to re-create the history of the missions, but rather to summarize the role of these publications and the objectives that they set out to achieve.

The Jesuit Relations were annual reports from the mission superior for Canada to the Jesuit's procurator in Paris. The majority of the Relations have an "author", the mission superior, who was actually an editor. Each missionary responsible for a region, for example, the Huron Mission, was required to submit an activity report to the superior. The superior compiled the texts, summarizing them or citing them in their entirety. This compilation was completed in August and contained information relating to the entire year. In September, the manuscript was put on a ship and sent to France. The procurator, after making any required revisions or modifications, then had the text printed. Of course, some superiors and procurators contributed to the text of these Relations with more regularity than others. The following superiors were the most prolific authors: Paul Le Jeune (1633-1639), Barthélemy Vimont (1639-1645), Jérôme Lalemant (1645-1650 and again from 1659 to 1665), Paul Ragueneau (1650-1653), Joseph Le Mercier (1653-1656 and from 1665 to 1670), Jean de Quen (1656-1659) and finally, Claude Dablon (1670-1673). Of these authors, Father Le Jeune was probably the most significant, having written 15 Relations himself and contributed to all of these publications until 1662. He was not only the superior in Quebec; he also became the procurator for France. Father Lalemant, whose nephew was the martyr Gabriel Lalemant, greatly influenced several missionary authors. Father Le Mercier was another superior who wrote frequently.

Originally, the reports were written by Jesuits, for Jesuits. Why were they made public? In short, the Relations constituted a form of propaganda that was both political and missionary-based in nature. The adventures and hardships that the missionaries endured, as well as their successes, though moderate, among the Natives, earned them a great deal of publicity from religious authorities and the nobility. It is important to remember that each mission was responsible for the financial resources necessary to support the mission's activities. The Relations helped convince the pious nobility and the rich bourgeoisie to contribute to the effort by donating money or goods. Colonial powers also benefited from these tales, which sparked colonization fever amongst colonists and merchants, demonstrating to everyone how successful the French were at colonizing America. The Jesuits also benefited by encouraging young French people to join the priesthood. Among other things, they were responsible for the introduction of cloistered nuns to New France.

It is not surprising that these kinds of tales were very popular among readers from all levels of society. There were many reasons for their popularity. In general, the Relations are written in a clear and simple style, and were therefore accessible to many types of reader, from noblemen to merchants to peasants. Whether truly interested or simply curious, no one could resist the tales of the French missionaries who faced grave dangers among a people whose lifestyle and customs were completely foreign to them, and who told the tales with disarming simplicity. It was also a time when tales of real voyages were read alongside imaginary ones, and the same people read historical novels and pseudo-memoirs. Distinguishing between the different genres is, for the most part, an invention of 19th century critics; readers of the time were only concerned with the stories.

François Le Mercier’s Relation for 1668 and 1669.

Copies of the Relations are rare today, but their popularity and the numerous variations in their printings have led most historians to agree that a large number of print runs had been produced. However, I believe that we have exaggerated the significance of the variations, which, in actuality, consist mainly of typographical errors that took place during the printing process as a result of work that was performed quickly and carelessly. There were likely one or two printings of each edition, but I doubt that the total number printed exceeded a few thousand copies. It is important to remember that the print runs at that time were far from reaching the astronomical figures of those today.

Although popular, important and rare, the Relations are not particularly nice-looking books. These small books are similar in appearance to the devotional works and other inexpensive books produced at the time. Despite being published by the great printer Sébastien Cramoisy, they were, like other publications produced during the same time period, badly printed and full of misprints and pagination errors. They are not illustrated, and only one of the Relations contains a map. If the Relations that were first published in France in the 17th century are the only ones taken into account, then 41 different Relations were printed (that of Father Bressani was published in Italy), and if we count the different editions  -  not the variants, but the true editions  -  the total climbs to 53. Sébastien Cramoisy published all of the Relations except one, first on his own and later in collaboration with his brother and grandson. Cramoisy was the King’s printer, a bookseller and friend to Richelieu, and was very close to the Jesuits and to the colonization of New France. He habitually printed works that were written by the Jesuits.

Today, the texts of these Jesuit fathers constitute the most significant printed source for studying this period of the 17th century in New France. These missionaries, well-read and intelligent men, were not only priests, but were also shrewd observers, valuable chroniclers, competent negotiators and brave explorers. Their works provide us with first-hand testimony concerning historical events, such as the founding of Montreal, simple and moving descriptions of the landscape, geography, and, what remains extremely useful today, the lifestyle, customs and language of aboriginal peoples.

Considering that they were so popular and useful, why were Jesuit Relations no longer published after 1673? Without going into detail, it seems as though the primary reason was that Rome banned the publication of reports detailing missionary activities, unless they had been given prior authorization. In Gallican France, the authorization from Rome was enough to prevent it from being published. Today, some book historians claim that there were also purely commercial factors involved in the decision to cease publication of Jesuit Relations. At the time of the last Relation of New France, readers’ interest in America had substantially diminished and was replaced by a growing curiosity about the East.

Although there have always been collectors interested in Relations, it seems that it wasn't until the middle of the 19th century that their popularity began to grow in Canada. In a statement made to the New York Historical Society in 1847, former patriot E.B. O’Callaghan gave a brief but very useful summary of each Relation and even presented, with the help of his friend Jacques Viger, a table indicating the number of copies of Relations included in the largest American and Canadian collections.² This interest resulted in a reprint of the 17th-century Relations in Quebec, in 1858, a number of years after the collection belonging to the Legislative Assembly of Quebec had been destroyed in a fire.³ The magnificent publication by Reuben Gold Thwaites, containing the original French text with an English translation, in addition to texts discovered later, shows the importance placed on the Relations.⁴

Considering that most large public collections stemmed from private collections, of what interest were the Relations to the bibliophiles of that time? First of all, it must be said that, although they were published in France, these small modest books without engravings were of little interest to French collectors who favoured lavishly illustrated books that were beautifully bound and printed. In fact, this was not a bad thing. The vellum bindings, which are often still found intact, were not popular with 19th-century French collectors, who would have gladly replaced them with modern morocco. The Relations were, and continue to be, collected primarily by American and Canadian bibliophiles. The missionaries of the time did not have to deal with the boundaries of our southern neighbours and their frequent journeys into regions that make up part of the present day United States is of interest to collectors of Americana. Furthermore, texts pertaining to the lifestyle of aboriginal peoples were of even more interest to American historians studying the First Nations. Dating from the O’Callaghan census, among the most notable collectors were John Carter Brown, A. Gallatin, O.H. Marshall, Henry C. Murphy of the United States and John Fraser, F. Griffin and Father Plante of Canada. Later, all of the great collectors of Americana and Canadiana, such as John Lenox and S.L.M. Barlow, would include the Relations in their collections. The prices increased steadily. In his Essai de bibliographie canadienne, Philéas Gagnon commented on their rarity and emphasized that they were selling for $50 to $200.

François Le Mercier’s Relation for 1668 and 1669.

Henry Stevens, the great book dealer, in his Rare Americana: A Catalogue, published in London around 1925, describes 14 Relations with prices varying between 35£ and 55£. The Montreal bibliophile Victor Morin had decided to sell some of his most precious books in New York in 1931, but the economic crisis was in full swing and this undertaking proved to be financially disastrous. Even in an instable economic climate such as this, he managed to sell 11 Jesuit Relations, some of them for nearly $300. It was at that time that the most significant bibliographer of the Relations began to study hundreds of copies and detected slight variations in them. His bibliography, which was published after his death, continues to be a basic reference for these publications.⁵ The other bibliography that is commonly used is that of the James F. Bell⁶ Collection. Many of the large private collections of Relations can be found in Canadian libraries: the Philéas Gagnon Collection and the Witton Collection at the Montreal Public Library, the Lawrence Lande Collection at McGill University, the Javitch Collection at the University of Alberta, etc. All of Canada’s large libraries have good collections of Relations, including the Library of Parliament, the Bibliothèque nationale de Québec and the Metropolitan Toronto Library, to name a few. The most complete collection is that of the Séminaire du Québec, which has all of the Relations except for the first one (of which no copy exists in Canada). The John Carter Brown Library in Providence, Rhode Island, houses the only complete collection.

After the famous Streeter sale, at the end of the 1960s, the market for the Relations appears to have stabilized and prices did not begin to gradually climb until the end of the 1980s. Prices then stabilized once again. It wasn’t until the Siebert sale, which will be addressed later in this article, that a further change in prices occurred. The last ten years have been a transitional period during which many great collectors have passed away and a new generation of bibliophiles has emerged, a group who are younger, very enthusiastic and very rich. Libraries are finding it increasingly difficult to compete with these international buyers, who seem to possess limitless financial resources and insatiable appetites. New collectors do not have as much patience as their predecessors. They want it all right away, and money is no object.

The National Library of Canada has an enviable collection with 35 of the 41 Relations (the NLC has two copies of Bressani's) and 38 of the 53 editions. If the different variants are also taken into account, the total increases to 48 copies, to which 12 duplicates must be added. Last year, the NLC acquired six new Relations; two were purchased from a Canadian book dealer and four at an auction. One of the Relations acquired from the book dealer was the very rare third Relation by Paul Le Jeune, which was published in 1635. It was purchased thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the National Library of Canada. There is a story relating to those that were acquired at auction. In May 1999, Sotheby’s New York organized an important auction of Americana and Canadiana. It was the collection of Frank T. Siebert, who had collected books on culture and Native languages for 50 years. Of the 25 Relations for sale, four were not part of the NLC’s collection. Unfortunately, the competition was fierce and we were not able to acquire them. All of these Relations were sold to Joseph A. Freilich, another American collector. In January of this year, Mr. Freilich put his collection of scientific books which included the 25 Jesuit Relations purchased at the Siebert sale, up for sale. This time, the NLC succeeded in purchasing the four Relations, which were added to the Rare Book Collection.

Upon examination of the 60 Relations that comprise the NLC's collection, it is evident that many of them came from well-known private collections. Fourteen copies were obtained from the purchase of Daviault's library. Six copies came from the library of Lawrence Lande, a distinguished bibliophile from Montreal. Two copies contain the bookplate of the American historian George Bancroft. These likely came from the library of Victor Morin, who owned several books from the Bancroft Library. Nine copies have a very prestigious origin: initially they were part of the collection of bibliographer James C. McCoy, and then they became part of James F. Bell’s collection (see above). However, the two copies with the most extraordinary origin are those which, according to the manuscript notes on the title pages, belonged to the library of the Collège des Jésuites in Quebec City: the 31st Relation (for the years 1661/1662 by Father Lalemant) and the 37th (for the years 1667/1668 by Father Le Mercier). This library, which was the first in Canada, was founded in 1632 by Jesuit missionaries and was dispersed at the end of the 18th century: several volumes ended up in religious institutions, others were sold to individuals. Antonio Drolet has created a partial list of the Collège library’s collection. His list includes 13 Relations that are currently located in the libraries of various religious institutions.⁷ It is a thrill to hold these particular copies in your hands; books that were written in New France, printed in Paris and then returned to New France near the end of the 17th century or the beginning of the 18th century, and that were read by many generations of Jesuits and their students.

In closing, it is important to emphasize that even though the Relations that are lacking from our collection will be difficult to find, the NLC hopes to eventually add to this national treasure.

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Notes

¹ Joyce Banks, "Ad majorem Dei gloriam: The Jesuit Relations," National Library News, October 1986, vol. 18, no. 10, p. 9-11; Joyce Banks, "Jesuit Relations Held by the National Library of Canada: 1990 Update," National Library News, May 1991, vol. 23, no. 5, p. 11.

² E.B. O’Callaghan. Jesuit Relations of discoveries and other occurrences in Canada and the northern and western states of the Union, 1632-1672. New York: Press of the Historical Society, 1847. 22 p.

³ Relations des jésuites: contenant ce qui s’est passé de plus remarquables dans les missions des pères de la Compagnie de Jésus dans la Nouvelle-France. Quebec: A. Côté, 1858. 3 vols.

⁴ Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed. The Jesuit relations and allied documents: travels and exploration of the Jesuit missionaries in New France, 1610-1791: the original French, Latin, and Italian texts, with English translations and notes. Cleveland: Burrows Bros. Co., 1896-1901. 73 vols.

⁵ James C. McCoy. Jesuit relations of Canada, 1632-1673: a bibliography. Paris: A. Rau, 1937. xv, 310 p.

⁶ Frank K. Walter and Virginia Doneghy. Jesuit Relations, and other Americana in the Library of James F. Bell: a catalogue. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1950, xii, 419 p.

⁷ Antonio Drolet. "La Bibliothèque du Collège des jésuites," in Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française, March 1961, vol.14, no. 4, p. 487-544.