Benjamin Franklin | God and Man and Franklin and Mather at Yale

Benjamin Franklin

Autograph document signed three times ("B. Franklin"), one page (158 x 198 mm) on a slip of laid paper, [Philadelphia, 1743], being a bill directed to "The Revd. Mr. Clapp … for Printing and Binding 500 of Dr. Mather's Soul-saving Gospel Truths"; cryptic contemporary note at lower margin, some minor fold separations. Matted. [accompanied by:] Increase Mather. Soul-saving Gospel Truths; delivered in several Sermons, Wherein is shewed: I. The Unreasonableness of those Excuses which Men make for their Delaying to come to the Lord Jesus Christ for Salvation. II. That for Men to despair of the Forgiveness of their Sins because they have been Great, is a great Evil. III. That every Man in the World is going into Eternity. Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin, 1743 (colophon, G12r: Boston, Printed 1701. Philadelphia, Reprinted, 1744). Pot 12mo (126 x 72 mm). Type-ornament head- and tailpieces; scattered staining, lower fore-edge corners worn. Contemporary calf; worn, rebacked with loss to head of spine, recornered. [and accompanied by:] Thomas Clap, compiler. [A Catalogue of the Library of Yale-College in New-Haven. New London: Timothy Green, 1743.] 8vo in half-sheets (145 x 92 mm). Type ornament headpieces; title-page in facsimile; lightly stained. Later marbled wrappers. Half red morocco slipcase gilt, chemise.

An intriguing triumvirate of articles illuminating Franklin’s early career as a highly successful job printer, not only of government forms and records, but also tracts and pamphlets of a theological nature. All of Franklin’s later endeavors were made possible by his initial success as a printer.

In the document offered here, written entirely in Franklin’s hand, the printer bills Thomas Clap, the sixth rector of Yale College—and the first to be called by the title, “president,” for bringing a new edition of Increase Mather’s sermons off the press: “The Revd. Mr. Clapp [sic] to B. Franklin For Printing and Binding 500 of Dr. Mather’s Soul-saving Gospel Truths (per Agreemt.) £100..0..0 Rh. Island Money———B. Franklin.” Franklin then instructs Clap, “Please to pay the above to my Brother Peter Franklin, and his Receipt shall discharge you from Your obliged humb. Servt. B. Franklin.”

Mather’s sermons had previously appeared in two Boston editions: the first sold, and presumably printed, by Eleazer Phillips, 1703 (ESTC W22326; Evans 1134) and the second printed by T. Green, for B. Eliot, in King-Street, 1712 (ESTC W19809; Evans 1569). (Despite Franklin’s colophon there was no 1701 printing of Soul-saving Gospel Truths). Franklin’s edition is essentially a page-by-page resetting of the 1703 edition and is very rare. No copies are recorded in Rare Book Hub since the Pennypacker sale in 1905, and ESTC seemingly locates only three complete copies.

Often embroiled in the religious controversies of his day, Clap had an ardent interest in books. He not only commissioned this edition of Increase Mather, but he served as Yale’s de facto librarian, compiling the first catalogue of Yale’s library in 1743. This work is almost as uncommon in the market as Franklin’s edition of Mather’s sermons, although a number of institutions have copies. In the Reese catalogue Christie’s stated that “The last copy of this book recorded at auction was in the Brinley sale,” but in fact a fine copy, signed by several Yale students, was sold at Scott & O’Shaughnessy, 18 February 1916, lot 26.

In his preface, or “Advertisement To the Students of Yale College,” Clap writes “I Have here with considerable Labours and Pains, prepared a Catalogue of the Books in the Library under proper Heads that so you may Readily know and find any Book, upon any particular Subject.” He then explains his system of pressmarks: “The First Number signifies the Teer, the Second the Box; and the Third the Number of the Book. …” Clap also advises that the students peruse the approximately 2600 books listed, “in some Measure according to the Order of this Catalogue. And in the First Year to Study principally the Tongues, Arithmetic and Algebra; the Second, Logic, Rhetoric and Geometry; the Third, Mathematics and Natural Philosophy; and the Fourth, Ethics and Divinity. … Above all have an Eye to the great End of all your Studies, which is to obtain the Clearest Conceptions of Divine Things and to lead you to a Saving Knowledge of God in his son Jesus Christ.” Increase Mather’s sermons, which Clap clearly believed was an essential text, is listed on page 36 of the catalogue under the ninth section, Sermons, of the fourth heading, Ethics and Divinity.

These three items trace Soul-saving Gospel Truths from commission through production and, finally, to its readers.

REFERENCES

Document: Miller 328 note; Mather: Miller 328; ESTC W19810; Evans 5249; Hildeburn 836; Campbell 279; Holmes 127c; Sabin 46748; Clap: ESTC W37694; Evans 5320; Trumbull 1715; Sabin 105894

PROVENANCE Document: Clap family archive — Christie’s New York, 9 December 1994, lot 35 (undesignated consignor). Clap: William S. Reese (booklabel on chemise; Christie’s New York, 2 June 2022, lot 386)