EXPLANATORY NOTES Every edition down to 1824 which is represented in the Bible House Library appears in the following pages. After that date mere reprints are omitted, unless they present some feature of importance or interest. Thick square brackets indicate that the edition which they enclose is not represented in the Library. The date stands before each entry. Books which bear more than one date are catalogued under the latest, with cross-references at the other dates. The title in all early editions is given verbatim et literatim. Where no title was accessible, the contents of the book are indicated within round brackets. Any words in a 'Description' printed in italics stand for a literal transcript. In the line following the title are given the printer (or publisher), the place, and the date, unless these have been already supplied in the title. When they are not found in the book itself, but ascertained from other sources, they are enclosed within square brackets. When they are conjectural, a query-mark is added. The same line contains the size-mark, f°, 4o, 8°, etc., standing for folio, quarto, octavo, etc. These designations are often used inaccurately in early catalogues, where, for example, the octavo Tindale Testaments are generally styled 'duodecimos.' After 1800, for this size-mark are substituted the dimensions of the book in centimètres, measured on the outside of the copy described. This method is now adopted at the Cambridge University Library, in describing books printed after 1900. The letters B. L., after the size-mark, indicate that the book is printed in blackletter-English,' or 'Gothic' type. In the description, preliminary' leaves (or pages) mean all those which precede the actual text. A full register of signatures is given, together with the total number of leaves (including blank leaves) in the book. Unless the contrary is stated, A-Z indicates the normal signature-alphabet of 23 letters-A B C D E F G H I (or J) KLMNOPQRSTV (or U) X Y Z. The recto of a leaf is indicated by a, the verso by b. In later editions only such details are given as suffice for identification. After 1611 each edition, unless otherwise described, gives the text of King James' version. The mark¶ precedes the description of the copy or copies in the Bible House Library. Down to 1800, the inside measurements of these copies are given in millimètres. From 1535 to 1800 inclusive each Bible includes the Apocrypha, unless the contrary is stated (cf. note on p. 316). In the case of many seventeenth- and eighteenthcentury Bibles it is difficult to determine whether a copy wants the Apocrypha.' The words No Apocrypha' mean that the list of books omits them; but even then they are occasionally inserted. Very often the Apocrypha are included in the list of books but not required by the signatures'; in such a case, if the Library copy omits them, the words 'wants Apocrypha ?' are added. Sometimes the insertion of the Apocrypha interrupts the signatures.' The Metrical Psalms have not been catalogued as editions of Scripture. But the following pages show how often they occur bound up with copies of the Bible or New Testament. Unless the contrary is stated, Sternhold and Hopkins' version is meant. The letters [F. F.] signify that the copy belongs to the Fry Collection. The number which closes an entry is that assigned to the edition in this Catalogue for purposes of reference. EDITIONS REFERRED TO The following are the editions of the chief authorities cited: Anderson, C. The Annals of the English Bible. 2 vols. Arber, E. A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1554-1640. 5 vols. London. 1875-94. Cotton, H. Editions of the Bible and parts thereof in English, from the year MDV to Second edition. Oxford, 1852. MDCCCL Rhemes and Doway... Oxford. 1855. Dickson, R., and Edmond, J. P. Annals of Scottish Printing. Cambridge. 1890. Dobson, W. T. History of the Bassandyne Bible. Edinburgh . . 1887. Fry, F. A Description of the Great Bible also of the editions in large folio, of the Authorized Version London. 1865. The Bible by Coverdale... London. 1867. A Bibliographical Description of the editions of the New Testament, Herbert, W. Typographical Antiquities. begun by 3 vols. London. 1785-90. Horne, T. H. A Manual of Biblical Bibliography ... . Joseph Ames .. London. 1839. Kilburne, W. Dangerous Errors in Several late printed Bibles 1659. (See W. J. Loftie.) Lea Wilson. Bibles, Testaments, Psalms, and other books of the Holy Scriptures in English, in the Collection of Lea Wilson. London. 1845. Lee, J. Memorial for the Bible Societies in Scotland Additional Memorial... Edinburgh. 1826. Edinburgh. 1824. Lewis, J. A complete history of the several translations of the Holy Bible and New Testament into English ... Third edition. London. 1818. Loftie, W. J. A Century of Bibles, or the Authorised Version from 1611 to 1711, to which is added William Kilburne's Tract . . . 1659 . London. 1872. Lovett, R. The English Bible in the John Rylands Library. 1525 to 1640. Printed for private circulation. 1899. O'Callaghan, E. B. List of editions of the Holy Scriptures and parts thereof, printed in America previous to 1860... Albany. 1861. Orme, W. Bibliotheca Biblica.. Edinburgh. 1824. Scrivener, F. H. A. The Authorized Edition of the English Bible (1611), its subsequent reprints and modern representatives. Cambridge. 1884. Smith, W. E. A Study of the Great' She' Bible (1613 or 1611). Printed for private circulation. 1890. Stevens, H. The Bibles in the Caxton Exhibition . . . London. 1878. Westcott, B. F. A general view of the History of the English Bible. Second edition. London. 1872. Not least art thou, thou little Bethlehem And then in Latin to the Latin crowd, As good need was-thou hast come to talk our isle. Must learn to use the tongues of all the world. TENNYSON-Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham. HISTORICAL CATALOGUE OF PRINTED EDITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE PART I.-ENGLISH 1525. FACSIMILE. (The New Testament.) [Peter Quentell: Cologne. 1525.] 4°. B. L. Photo-lithographed from the unique copy, now in the Grenville Collection, British Museum; edited with an elaborate preface by E. Arber (London, 1871). Nothing but this fragment survives of the earliest, though-so far as is knownunfinished, edition of the New Testament in English. Translated by William Tindale. Tindale, otherwise Hychyns, born c. 1490, studied at Oxford, and afterwards at Cambridge. By 1523 he had resolved that, if God should spare his life, before many years he would cause plough-boys to know the Scripture. Discountenanced in London, he crossed to Hamburg, and completed his translation on the Continent, using William Roye as an amanuensis. At Antwerp in 1535 he was betrayed to his enemies, and imprisoned in the Castle of Vilvorde, where he died a martyr in October, 1536. According to Johann Dobneck (Cochleus), in his De Actis et Scriptis Martini Lutheri (1549 ed., p. 132 f.), 3,000 copies of the first ten sheets (A-K) of this book had been secretly printed (probably by Peter Quentell) at Cologne, when the editors were obliged to flee to Worms, and there begin work afresh. Possibly the remaining sheets were then printed, and the whole book issued about the same time as the octavo edition from Schoeffer's press. DESCRIPTION of the Grenville fragment. [Titleleaf, A 1, wanting,] The . prologge-7 ff., The bokes conteyned in the newe Testament-1 p., on verso a full-page woodcut, representing St. Matthew; text, ff. 2 (not numbered) to xxiiij, ending abruptly in the middle of Matthew chap. xxii. (H 4 b). With marginal notes and references. Signatures: A-H'; 8 sheets, wanting 1 leaf; 31 ff. Another copy. VOL. I. 1. B [Peter Schoeffer: Worms. 1525.] 8°. B. L. A lithographic reproduction of the Bristol copy of this Testament; with an Introduction etc. by Francis Fry. (Printed for the Editor, Bristol, 1862.) The first edition of Tindale's New Testament definitely known to have been completed; printed, in all probability, by Peter Schoeffer at Worms in 1525. Fry's No. 1. Of the original issue of 3,000 copies, only two are known to survive. One, a beautiful illuminated copy, preserved in the Baptist College Library, Bristol, apparently wants only the titleleaf. The other, in St. Paul's Cathedral Library, has 71 leaves missing. DESCRIPTION of the Bristol copy. [Titleleaf, A 1, wanting,] text, ff. j (A ij) to cccliij (Tt 1) a; To the Reder. Geve diligence Reder . -3 pp., The errours comitted in the prentynge-3 pp., 1 p. blank. ... Signatures: A-Z3 AA® BB3, Aa-Ss Tt'; 348 ff. A full page contains 33 lines. No prologues, marginal notes, references, or chapter-contents. Outside the text, the volume contains nothing except a short epilogue To the Reder, and a list of errata. Small woodcuts, representing the different Evangelists and Apostles, appear at the beginning of the Gospels, the following Epistles-Romans, 1 Peter, 1 John, Hebrews, James and Jude, and Revelation; and another cut (the Day of Pentecost) before Acts. [The title may have been similar to that dated 1532, found in a copy of a New Testament of 1536 (Mole' edition). A facsimile of this title (formerly in the possession of Dr. Angus), made from a tracing supplied by Francis Fry, is given at p. 352 in Demaus' William Tyndale (revised edition). It runs: The Newe Testament in Engly[she] translated | after the [Greek con]tay | ninge these bokes | (list of books, ending with) The Epistles taken out of the olde Testament. | Anno. 1532.] ... 2. THE TRANSLATION. A careful examination of Tindale's version of the New Testament shows that he translated directly from the Greek, using as collateral helps the Vulgate, Erasmus' Latin version (printed alongside his Greek text), and Luther's German New Testament of 1522. The Wycliffite versions seem to have exercised no considerable influence on Tindale or succeeding translators (cf. Westcott, History, p. 334 etc.). As regards himself Tindale's words are explicit: . . . I had no man to counterfet, nether was holpe with englysshe of eny that had interpreted the same, or soche lyke thige i the scripture beforetyme. . . . (To the Reder, octavo edition, 1525). Echoes of the fourteenth-century version in Tindale's work are apparently due to the fact that certain of Wycliffe's phrases had passed into current speech. The variations from the quarto edition which occur in the text of the octavo are so slight that they may be ascribed to the printer. The octavo Testament contains no marginal notes. Those in the quarto show that Tindale, while adapting some of Luther's notes and transferring others bodily, wrote many himself expressly to accompany his own version. These marginal notes soon came to be described by his opponents as 'pestilent glosses.' As regards the diction of Tindale's translation, it is remarkable to what an extent this first printed English New Testament fixed the phraseology of all its successors. Even in the Revised Version of 1881 it has been calculated that at least 80 per cent. of the words stand precisely as they stood in Tindale's Testament of 1525. Dr. Westcott thus sums up Tindale's achievement: 'He established a standard of Biblical translation which others followed. It is even of less moment that by far the greater part of his translation remains intact in our present Bibles, than that his spirit animates the whole. He toiled faithfully himself, and where he failed he left to those who should come after the secret of success. The achievement was not for one but for many; but he fixed the type according to which the later labourers worked. His influence decided that our Bible should be popular and not literary, speaking in a simple dialect, and that so by its simplicity it should be endowed with permanence.' |