"Liber A of the Collegiate Church archives contains detailed 17th-century records of the Reformed Dutch Church of the City of New York, including correspondence, texts of legal documents, and lists of names of consistory members. Especially significant are records pertaining to the granting in 1696 of the royal charter of incorporation of the Church, and records relating to donations for, and construction of the church building on Garden Street. Nearly all of these pages were written out in the late 1600s, by Domine Henricus Selijns (1636-1701). Most of them are in Dutch, with a few portions (such as records of official governmental proclamations) in English. The historical records of Liber A are here presented with: a detailed historical introduction; a full and complete Dutch text, transcribed from the original manuscript, for the first time; a new English translation of the Dutch text, presented on facing pages; detailed explanatory notes about historical persons, and events; and an index of names of persons and places. The full Dutch texts have never before been published, and they should be of keen interest to readers in the United States and in the Netherlands, concerned with American colonial history--especially the history of New Netherland, and of New York--and the history of the Reformed Dutch Church in America, and its relations with the Reformed Church in the Netherlands."--Front and back flap of book jacket.