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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Penn Connection

This morning I attended a meeting of historians held at the Muddy Creek Library. I don't go to all of their meetings but I always learn something when I do go. Today was no exception.
I also saw some things that would have been worth the trip in themselves. One of them was a recent acquisition. This little German New Testament was printed in 1584 by Christopher Froschauer.
 
 
The left side of the paper beside it is a transcription and translation of the inscription inside the book. The handwriting on the right side tells how and when the library acquired the book.
 
 
The inscription is written in Latin and reads:
Ex dono Affinis
charissimi Guli: Penn
tenet Joh: Penington
Anno 1685
 
Translation:
From a gift of brother-in-law
my most beloved William Penn
holds [to] John Penington
in the year 1685
 
How the English William Penn got this little book is not known but it may have been given to him when he visited some Mennonites in Germany who highly prized the Froschauer Bible. How it found it's way to Lancaster County is another story which also is not fully known.


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