Flory Family Bible

Date of Bible

1731

Dimensions of Bible

7 Inches Tall

5.5 Inches Wide

9.5 Inches Thick

Researcher Name and Date

Maggie Rose, Librarian

Wayne County Public Library

Researched compiled between November, 2016 and February, 2017.

Cover

Flory Family Bible, Cover

Notes

Flory Family Bible's binding is loose, but intact. It is made from wood and covered with brown leather. The leather is cracked and won thin in some places. Evidence of straps to secure the Bible in the closed position remain in the form of small nails exposed from the lip of the cover.The text of the Bible is in French.

Title Page

None Present

Accompanying Paperwork Associated with Bible

Flory Family Bible, Accompanying Paperwork

Notes

Paperwork can be located inside the same acid free storage box in which the Flory Family Bible is kept. Information contained within the paperwork accompanied the Bible upon its arrival and receipt at the Wayne County Public Library.

Transcription

Text searchable transcription of the paperwork associated with the Flory Family bible.

To the Wayne County Public Library The “Flory" Bibles In the early 1970's I bought these two Bibles at an auction in Mount Eaton. The auction took place close to town, as I recall, at a house that was along Chestnut St.. or maybe its continuation, Rochester Rd.

Along with the Bibles, there was a psalter in very poor condition, no binding, torn pages. It was a psalter like those used in the seventeenth century in Reformed Churches in France and western Switzerland, and itself seemed to be from as far back as the seventeenth century. Unhappily, I have lost the psalter.

The larger Bible has three title pages, and must have had four originally, as the one for the historical books of the Old Testament is missing. The title pages for the Prophets, the Apocrypha and the New Testament show that the Bible was published in Bern at the press of Jean Bondeli, and of those, the ones for the Prophets and the New Testament give 1731 as the publishing date. On the New Testament title page we read, in French,

Le Nouveau Testament de Notre Seigneur Jesus-Christ, Selan la Version la plus communement ref ue dans les Eglises Reformees, Avec les Prefaces de chaque Livre, tirees de la Bible de Mr. Martin & quelques Prieres a lafin lmprime a Berne, par Ordonnances Souveraines par Jean Bondeli, MDCCXXX I Translation: The New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the most commonly accepted version in Reformed Churches, with prefaces for each Book, taken from the Mr. Martin's Bible, and a few prayers at the end. Printed in Bern by supreme edict, by Jean Bondeli, 1731

On the back of the title page for the Apocrypha is an hand written inscription: Papers and inscriptions in the 1731 Bible Inside the front cover, a note bearing the name Mrs. Caroline Boillat. "M. Mary Boorier [?], i take my pen in hand to write you a few lines i guess you don't now me but your mother nows me the last time she was here she seen me i lived with my ant emely flory i hant[?] there now more i went home this winter but i my mother was not very well and wee ar all well and cousin susana she is well and her mother and father are well and now you must rite as soon as you can and i would like to know if that grape vine growed that my father gav your mother the last time she was here and i guess i hant time to rite you any more this rime[?] and you must [w]rite as soon as you can and tell me if you are all well and you must come to see me as soon as you can and _ now good by [?] Miss [?] Bourier[?]"

[On back of sheet

remember me when this you see though [?????]

Caroline Boillat My ink is pale My pen is poor

The grass Is green the rose is red remember me when I am dead my ant is all well and they are all well and they send your

good by all

On the page facing the inside front cover, "Susan Susanne Sauvain" and written lightly underneath the name; "Je prie le bon dieu" ["I pray to God"]

Between pages 952 and 953 of the Psalms is a note in German written on 11 August 1872

On the back of the title page for the Apocrypha: "Guillaume Sauvain" e[s]t ne le 25 Janvier 1834" ["Guillaume Sauvain was born 25 January 1834"]

Between pages 234 and 235 of the Acts of the Apostles, a card bearing the name William Flory

The Title page of the 1816 New Testament

Le Nouveau Testament , c'est-a-dire, La Nouvelle Alliance de Notre Seigneur Jesus-Christ, revu et confere sur les Texte Grecs, par les Pasteurs et Professeurs de l'Eglise et de l'Academie de Geneve, a Lausanne, Chez Henri Vincent, Impr[imeur]. Libr[aire], M.DCCCXVI"

[Translation] The New Testament, that is, the New Covenant of Our Lord Jesus Christ, reviewed and made consistent with the Greek texts by the pastors and professeurs of the Church and the Academy of Geneva. [Printed in] Lausanne by Henri Vincent, Printer and Bookseller, 1816 Inscription in the 1816 New Testament "Frederic Louis Flory le 28 avril 1834"

The interest of these Bibles

Hundreds of French-speaking Swiss settled in the Mount Eaton area between 1825 and 1865. Almost all of them were alt, at least by family tradition, associated with the Reformed Church, which is rooted in Calvin's theology, liturgy and church polity. The Mount Eaton church had a French-speaking congregation and a separate German-speaking congregation

until about 1880. People from the Sauvain and Flory families were members of the French speaking congregation. The Sauvain immigrants, who came from the Moutier district of canton Bern, may have been among the best educated people at Mount Eaton. Eugene Sauvain, who married Julia Amiet, was from 1868 to 1872 the pastor of the Mount Eaton Reformed Church. Unlike the Sauvain name, Flory is still a well-known name in Wayne County, but so far I've been unable to learn much about the Flory family's origins in Switzerland.

David Wilkin 836 N. Bever St. Wooster. OH 31 March 2009

P.S. I am retired from the College of Wooster, having taught French there for thirty-five years.

Items Associated with Bible