This 1838 catalogue of approximately 314 books and tracts in the depository of the ‘Australian Diocesan Committee of the Societies for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and for Promoting Christian Knowledge’ is most likely a continuation of previous catalogues relating to the NSW Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, a number of which are available in this archive. An Anglican mission organization established in England in 1698 and still in operation today, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) began work in Australia in the late eighteenth century, establishing the first library by sending 4,000 books out with the First Fleet in 1788.
This catalogue is alphabetically arranged under six sub-headings: Bibles, Testaments, Common Prayers, Homilies, Separate Homilies, and Books and Tracts. The price of the books in pounds, shillings, and pence is recorded on the right-hand side of the catalogue. Volume numbers and size are recorded for bibles, testaments, and prayer books. In addition to notable works in the SCPK catalogues, this collection includes the following works of interest: a limited number of imaginative works such as John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) and Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas (1759); ecclesiastical histories and biographies such as William Gilpin’s Lives of John Truman and Richard Atkins (1791) and Robert Southey’s Book of the Church (1824); histories such as William Robertson’s History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V (1769) and History of America (1777), and Sarah Clarke’s Scenes and Sketches from English History (1833); biographies and lives; school books and books for children such as the SCPK published Sister Mary’s Tales in Natural History (1838); and improving works such as Rev. W. Bingley’s Elements of Useful Knowledge (c. 1816-17).
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