1851 MORMON - JOSEPH SMITH. First Ever Foreign Language Book of Mormon. Translated at Nauvoo.

THE MORMON MISSION'S OFFICIAL COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST NON-ENGLISH BOOK OF MORMON EVER PUBLISHED; WITH REVISION NOTES! 

A superb artifact. WorldCat records just 4 copies in US institutions. 

At a general conference in 1845, President Brigham Young appointed Apostle Erastus Snow and Elder Peter Olsen Hansen to work on this Danish translation of the Book of Mormon, which would open up the text to non-English readers. Hansen was a native Dane and was to do the actual translation, while Snow was to guide Hansen and be responsible for the publication. The initial translation and preparations were effected at Nauvoo and finalized once they were in Europe. Aided by an unnamed female Danish convert, the translation was finally completed in 1851 and printed in an edition of just 3000 copies.

It remained the sole Scandinavian translation for nearly 3 decades. "Given the mutual comprehensibility of the Scandinavian languages in their written form, it served the entire Nordic region until the publication of a Swedish translation in 1878" (Allen and Ostman, p.536). ‘Mormons in the Nordic Region’, The Palgrave Handbook of Global Mormonism (2020).

The present copy is inscribed on the ffep Skandinaviens Stjerne Kontor, i.e. Office of the Star of Scandinavia. The Star of Scandinavia was the official LDS periodical established in Copenhagen in October 1851 by Erastus Snow, at the same time as the first edition of the Book of Mormon was published and from the same press. This copy retained as the official mission and press copy of the first edition. 

Additionally, the text itself contains numerical notes and corrections throughout. These are of two varieties. The first correct book titles headings. The second add sequential numerical divisions to the text which begin again [with #1] at each new combined title. It seems the organization of the translation into somewhat larger books with concrete chapters was being proposed. Given that this was the official mission copy, it seems likely it was a working text used to propose changes to later editions. It is not clear whether these new divisions were written before or after Orson Pratt's 1879 new divisions of the text, though it seems these suggestions differ from Pratt's, and therefore we would suppose pre-date it.

Significantly, many of the proposed divisions take place in the middle of established paragraphs. One would suspect the new divisions would impact interpretation. 

The text contains an original preface by Erastus Snow. It should be noted that the "many" European editions he refers to in the preface are only those printed in England, in English. The 1851 Danish edition is the first non-English translation of the Book of Mormon ever issued. The preface is translated as follows:

Preface the Danish Edition,

This very interesting and important work is now offered to the Danish public, after many editions of it have been published in Europe and America.

The publisher has spared no pains to make it a clear and faithful copy, while the simple style of the original has been carefully preserved. It has been carefully revised by an American and two Danes, who are well acquainted with both languages, so that few errors have escaped notice.

The work is, as appears from the title page, a short but coherent and sacred history of America in ancient times, from its first population after the flood. It contains the description of the government of God with regard to two mighty tribes that successively inhabited the mainland, especially with regard to the second tribe, which was a branch of the house of Israel.

It was written by the Prophet Mormon, about four hundred years after the birth of Christ. They boldly endured years of persecution and finally sealed it with their blood.

The publisher, who is fully personally acquainted with these events, takes this opportunity to provide a brief explanation, in order to prevent honest souls from being misled by loose rumors.

Kjobenhavn, in May 1851.
Erastus Snow.

[Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, Nauvoo]. Mormons Bog. A Report, Written by the Hand of Mormon on Plates, after the Plates of Nelphi. Translated Into English from the Original Text by Joseph Smith the Younger. Copenhagen. Published by Erastus Snow at F. E. Bording's Printing Press. 1851. First Edition. 

Good + example in original half calf with deterioration at hinges as shown. This could be easily professionally and sensitively consolidated or rebacked. Small period sepia ink spots at bottom of the preface sheet, and on text at pages 45-50, 161, and 324. None impede legibility of the text.