1553, existed in any modern version, until lately. The Jews learned to read, though often not understanding the Hebrew, like Milton's daughters, as we are told.

The earliest great effort of the master-art-the primogenial fruit of the press-was the Latin Vulgate, which appeared between the years 1450 and 1455, and is distinguished as the Mazarine Bible. It was fitting, indeed, that the sacred volume should receive the first homage of the mighty invention, best calculated to diffuse its light, and impart its blessings. A more appropriate tribute could not be offered, nor does a nobler monument remain of the power that produced it. It has been the object of admiration to every writer who has described the book, from Naudé to Dr. Dibdin; and it was followed in quick succession by about two hundred editions of the same text, before Luther achieved his German version. The Latin was, and long continued to be, the medium of communication and instruction. Four-fifths of published books were necessarily in that tongue, which was intelligible to an equal proportion of readers, to whom, therefore, these two hundred impressions were equivalent in use, to the same number of vernacular editions.

On a previous occasion, however, it was demonstrated, as already observed, that no less than fifty versions, literal or historical, of the Bible, in the native idioms of Europe, had likewise preceded Luther's. But, in fact, they were more numerous, for several have been discovered since 1723, the date of Lelong's Bibliographia Sacra, or its continuation by Masch, in 1778-1790, the authorities chiefly relied on in the article to which we allude. "Are you aware

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that the Bohemians had published seven editions of the Scriptures before Luther began his great German Bible?" writes Mr. John Strang, in his travels. (Germany in 1831, vol. ii., p. 204.) Of German Bibles, it is also ascertained, that the library purchased in 1784 by the Duke of Wirtenberg, at Copenhagen, of the Rev. Mr. Lork, contained not less than twentythree editions prior to Luther's, and this number has since been increased by various acquisitions, amongst which was that of the laborious Panzer's collection. This bibliographer, in his " Annalen der Alten Deutschen Litteratur," (Nuremberg, 1788, and Supplement, 1802, in 4to.) reckoned eleven editions to which he could assign no distinct date, but which were not posterior to 1480, independently of others with specific dates; but our best authority, on the subject, is the work of Fred. Ad. Ebert, "Allgemeines Bibliographisches Lexicon," printed at Leipsic, in successive parts, (1821-1830, two vols. 4to.) The author is royal librarian at Dresden, where he has under his charge 260,000 volumes. (Essai Statistique sur les Bibliothèques, par M. Balbi, Vienne, 1835, 8vo.)

The royal library of Stuttgard possesses, beyond doubt, the most extensive assemblage of Bibles ever formed. The foundation was laid in the purchase, to which we have alluded, of Mr. Lork's collection, of which the catalogue was published in 1787 at Hamburg, under the title of "Bibliotheca Wurtenbergensium Ducis, olim Lorkiana, auctore J. G. Ch. Aldero." The biblical articles amounted to 5155, and those obtained, at the decease of Panzer, to 1645. The duke, grandfather of the reigning King of Wirtenberg, had, indeed, commenced the library in its general

departments, so early as 1768; and, in 1804, it consisted of above 100,000 volumes, which, in 1818, when visited by Dr. Dibdin, had increased to 130,000. Of these, 8,200 were Bibles, exclusive of duplicates ; and, in 1835, M. Balbi estimated the whole collection at 174,000 printed, and 1800 manuscript volumes, the Bibles constituting from 9,000 to 10,000, and still requiring about 3000 to complete the collection. (Dibdin's Tour, vol. iii., p. 21. See also, Versuch einer Beschreibrung, &c., by Fr. Gott. Hirsching, Erlang. 1786, and Balbi's Essai Statistique sur les Bibliothèques.) A version unheard of until late years, is the Spanish, or rather Catalonian, described by M. de la Serna Santander, (Dictionnaire Bibliogr. tom. ii., p. 197,) and printed, as the colophon states, at Valencia,-"A despeses de Alfonso Fernandez, commenzada en los mes de Febrer de l'any 1477, e acabada en los mes de Març de l'any 1478,"-thus, taking thirteen months to execute. The translator was Bonifacio Ferreiro; but we believe that, out of Spain, not a single copy exists.* We could indicate other recent discoveries of old translations in vulgar tongues, and some may, as yet, have escaped detection or notice.

In farther evidence of the solicitude of the Catholics to promote, rather than repress, the knowledge of the Scriptures, we refer to their strenuous exertions to disseminate the original texts, before the Protestants could claim an equal merit. So early as 1503,

The work of Gab. Diosdado Raym, "De primâ Typographia Hispanica Ætate," Romæ 1793, 4to.; and, "Typographia Española," by F. Mendez, Madrid, 1796, 4to. may be usefully consulted on early Spanish printing, a subject not incurious, though comparatively neglected.

Cardinal Ximenes made preparations for publishing the magnificent Complutensian Polyglot, exhibiting the FIRST Christian edition of the Old Testament in Hebrew, (previously the work of Jews,) with the Chaldee paraphrase of the Pentateuch, and the FIRST IMPRESSIONS of the Septuagint and New Testament in Greek. The Old Testament was finished on the 10th July 1517, having been preceded by the New on the 10th January 1514—“ In hâc præclarissimâ Complutensi Universitate." To a Catholic university, therefore, and to a Spanish city, (Alcalâ de Henares,) is the Christian world indebted for this union of obligations:

"Prima via salutis,

Quod minime reris, Graiâ pandetur ab urbe."
Virg. Æn. vi. 97.

In attributing the precedence of date to this Polyglot, we do not forget that the Septuagint was printed at the Aldine press at Venice in 1518,* and that the New Testament was edited by Erasmus at Basil in 1516, while we know that this Polyglot did not appear until 1520, or 1522, after the Cardinal's death; but, as it was first printed, we assign it the priority, and, at all events, the whole of these primary editions emanated from Catholics. The Polyglot by Ximenes, and the New Testament by Erasmus, were inscribed to Leo X.

* The elder Aldus died in 1515; but during the non-age of his sons, the establishment was conducted by their grandfather, Andrea Torresano, or Asulanus, whose daughter Aldus had married in 1500, and who printed this Septuagint.- (Renouard Annales des Alde, Paris, 1825.) An imperfect copy of the New Testament, by Erasmus, (1516) on vellum, sold at Sir Mark Sykes' sale for £140.

Mr. Pettigrew, in his catalogue of the library of the Duke of Sussex, cites a letter from Dr. Adam Clarke, on the merits of this great work, in which that learned person says "I conclude that the Hebrew, Septuagint, Vulgate, Chaldean as far as it goes, and the original of the New Testament, are, as they stand in the Complutensian Polyglot, equal, in critical value, to manuscripts of these texts and versions of the tenth or twelfth centuries, or even higher." Lelong (Bibloth. Sacra, page 11,) makes them even coeval with the seventh or eighth centuries. On receiving from the printer the concluding volume, the Cardinal exclaimed “Grates tibi ago, summe Christe, quod rem magnopere a me curatam ad optatum finem perduxeris;" and, addressing those around him, added, "Nihil est, amici, de quo magis gratulari mihi debeatis, quam de hâc bibliorum editione, quæ una sacros religionis nostræ fontes, tempore perquam necessario, aperit." Six hundred copies, at the price of two and a half crowns of gold, constituted the edition, with three on vellum, one of which, bought in 1789, at the Pinelli sale, as elsewhere mentioned, by Count McCarthy of Toulouse, for £483. In our estimation, and under every combination of the elements of value, they constitute we repeat, the most precious of existing books. See pages 231-2 of this volume, for their subsequent destination.*

*See Seb. Seemilerius, "de Bibliis Complutensibus Polyglottis, Ingold. 1785, 4to." One of the ablest coadjutors of the Cardinal, was Stunica (Jacobus Lopez,) a doctor of the University, whom Ximenes despatched to Rome in search of manuscripts, &c., of which journey he has left a rare volume"Itinerarium, dum Compluto Romam profiscisceretur," in 4to. His altercations with Erasmus exposed him to the shafts of ridicule, not only of Erasmus, but of Ulrich Von Hütten, who assigned him a prominent place in the