AKSON EUROPA CHEEK TAM PHASA THAI SAMRAB DEK PHU’NG HAT RIEN NANGSU(= Caractères européens tirés de prières, destinés aux enfants qui commencent juste à apprendre à lire et à écrire).

Extremely rare first edition of the first book ever printed by the Catholic press of Bangkok. That’s one of the earliest records of the expansion of printing in Thailand.

It seems difficult to precisely determine the date of the start of printing in Thailand. Gérald Duverdier, in “La transmission de l’imprimerie en Thaïlande”, an article published in 1980, remarks that the authors who wrote about that subject give varied dates: 1830, 1835, 1836, 1839, …

The present work is the earliest Thai book which is not exclusively religious. It was intended for Catholic priests to teach foreign children in Siam (it contains a basic introduction to the Thai language).

But this work is not only a children’s guide-book : ending chapters are used to teach a Thai Catholic Priest what to do during Mass.

Extremely rare work preserved in its original boards.

Not in OCLC, neither at the B.n.F.

Provenance: Séminaire des missions étrangères (red stamp on title).