John HajicekEarly Mormon printing · A bibliographical study
Palmyra · 1829 and 1830
The title page before the book
The title of the Book of Mormon survives in two early settings of type. One appears on a sheet filed for copyright in June 1829. The other opens the volume printed at Palmyra in 1830. The wording identifies the work in both. The type, the imprint, and the writing on the reverse identify which object is before us.
The copyright deposit. A separate sheet with a fold down its center. Library of Congress, Early Copyright Records Collection, item 2016660778. Select the image to examine the original scan.The published book. Title leaf of Library of Congress copy 1, image 6, item 49034953. The handwritten name beneath the title is visible in this copy. Select the image for the full scan.
Where the compositor ended a line
On the separate sheet, the words An Account occupy a centered line of their own. In the bound book, the compositor ran them into the line beginning An Account Written by the Hand of Mor-, then finished the name on the following line. The separate sheet sets the name Joseph Smith, Junior in blackletter near the foot. The Palmyra book sets it in capitals. Either feature permits comparison even in a photograph cropped above the bottom margin.
The evidence below the name
Both settings describe Joseph Smith, Junior as author and proprietor. A catalogue entry that records only that phrase leaves the two objects indistinguishable. Below it the bound book names Palmyra, identifies E. B. Grandin as the printer for the author, and gives the year 1830. The separate sheet ends after the credit and a short rule. Its date comes from evidence on the other side.
