Add MS 8247

CATECHISM FOR THE MALABAR CHRISTIANS; 1768. Latin transl. A catechism of Christian doctrine compiled for the Malabar Christians by Bishop Angelus Franciscus, a Carmelite missionary, who in 1701 was consecrated Vicar Apostolic of the Romo-Syrian Church in the Serra of Malabar and the district of Cochin, south-west India. Inc. ‘Quoniam pia Christi fidelium Congregatio’, expl. ‘Decedere de hoc mundo valeam. Amen’. The text is followed by an inscription in another hand, dated 19 November 1768, confirming that this text is a faithful Latin translation of the Malabar catechism compiled by Angelus Franciscus. This inscription is signed by Bishop ‘F. Florentius’, Vicar Apostolic in the Serra of Malabar (f. 144v). For further information on the history of the Malabar Church see L. W. Brown, The Indian Christians of St. Thomas (Cambridge, 1956). Pasted to a fly-leaf at the end of the MS. are notes in Italian on seven points arising from a comparison of the catechism with the ‘Compendio della Teologia Morale’, intended to remove discrepancies of opinion in the catechism and to ensure uniformity in the doctrine (f. 145). Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '176' in pencil in top left corner of front pastedown. Purchased from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, but not apparently part of lot 176.

Paper; ff. 145. 215 x 155mm. In a single hand (ff. 1-144). The text is enclosed within a rectangular border ruled in ink. In the upper right corner of the recto of every fourth folio, beginning on f. 1, is a sequence of arabic numbers (1-38); the upper left corners of the same folios have a sequence of characters, apparently in Malayalam, the language of the Malabar Christians. Late 18th cent. quarter binding of vellum over bare pasteboards.