Jean Pierre Pellissier van Bethulie

"'n Volledige lewensbeskrywing van een van die eerste Franse Protestante sendelinge in Suid-Afrika wat 'n sendingstasie op Bethulie in 1833 gestig het; asook 'n weergawe van baie van die geskiedkundige, politieke en geestelike veranderinge wat in die suidelike Vrystaat tussen die jare 1826 en 1900 plaasgevind het"

This is an outstanding copy of this Pellissier magnum opus by a direct descendant of the missionary and himself born in Bethulie and later the Director of Education for the Orange Free State.

In his foreword the theologian and historian G B A Gerdener seems at first to regret that Pellissier's book is written more popularly than historically, but the praise begins when he writes that future mission historians will find this an essential source book. Gerdener tells us that Pellissier and his wife spent more than thirty years researching his sources both in South Africa and abroad. He ends with (translated): "This book will be bought and read from Bethulie to the furthest place where an Afrikaner lives."

The dustjacket is complete but rubbed, chipped and torn (see image). The red cloth-boards, gilt to the front and spine, are as-new, as is the binding. The top page-edge is tinted yellow. The plain endpapers are unmarked. There is a cancelled library stamp on the title-page, but it is clear that this copy has been hardly read. The contents - 697 pp of prelims, text, appendixes, bibliography and indexes + colour frontispiece portrait of Pellissier + 34 other pp of b/w plates + all three maps and plans in the back pocket - are equally good, unmarked and undiscoloured, preserving the value of what was outstanding production 58 years ago by an unnamed printer and binder.