that my arrangement of the Bibles in Class C of the Catalogue was fairly up to the mark. The issue of it herewith presented, though somewhat polished and improved since August, will, I trust, corroborate this statement. This admitted, the arrangement of the Bibles in the cribs under glass and locks was of far less consequence. I never intended to assume or monopolize this part of the arrangement, having enough on my hands already, but working volunteers were scarcer than talking ones, and so, notwithstanding only half the space required could be had, I sorted out the folios and placed them open under glass on the north side of the gallery, in the order of their dates of printing, beginning at the far end with 1450 and coming down to the left of the entrance with the 1611 English Bible, the first edition of our present version. This was a simple arrangement such as even the uninitiated might grasp, but unfortunately the pressing want of room, the great value of the books, and the absence of safe lock-ups elsewhere in the galleries, compelled me to distribute the quartos, octavos, and smaller books among the folios, regardless of date and every other consideration except size. Every crevice was filled. The duplicates and extra volumes were placed in the cases unopened, no other safe place presenting itself. Well, some painfully orderly eyes could not stand this mixture, while others found consolation in the Catalogue. Each book being distinct and fully described, the rest was left to the general intelligence of the visitors. It seemed to appear to most of them to be a matter of little importance whether the 'bugge Bible' was on the right or left hand of the 'wicked Bible,' or whether printed before or after. At first I consented only to arrange the Bible titles for the catalogue and prepare them for the printer, but later on, however, when I saw that many gentlemen whose names had been placed high up on the several Committees were doing but little; and when my friend Mr Blades had bravely taken upon his own shoulders the work of the Executive at their request, I willingly placed my spare shoulder thereto and volunteered, as far as my abilities extended, to help him through. For nearly a month I did what a slow and busy man could do in twelve or fifteen hours a day and night, building up and furnishing the department of Bibles alone, and looking after nothing else. I do not ask or expect any special credit for what I then did prior to the opening of the Exhibition, and for a month subsequently, the hardest labour I ever undertook or underwent, but it is fair that I should, if possible, parry false criticism wherever I find it, and decline to receive as gospel the unjust and inconsiderate censure of the Saturday Review, for not performing the many other labours ignorantly and wrongfully assigned to me by it. My catalogue of the Bibles will, I trust, be taken as evidence of no little honest and voluntary work; and that my summer leisure was not wholly thrown away. In making, correcting and working up the Catalogue of Bibles and parts of Bibles I endeavoured to render it a book of permanent reference, as far as it goes, and one that would be useful after the Exhibition was over. I decided, after some hesitation, to use part of the materials I had been collecting for a larger work for more than a quarter of a century, with opportunities that have fallen to the lot of few bibliographers. Some of these materials I worked up into an elaborate Introduction presenting a comprehensive view of the history of the printed Bible, in all languages and countries, from 1450 to 1535; and in numerous long and short bibliographical and historical notes under various titles and languages from 1535 to 1877. All these the reader has before him re-issued in the present volume. The collations of the rarer Bibles in many languages are elaborate, and I trust generally correct and carefully done. They cost me a vast amount of labour, and I flatter myself that true bibliographers will find them useful. In the notes, as well as in the Introduction, many new points are brought forward and discussed, wherein a great deal of the slop and conjecture of the historians of the Bible, even our latest ones, is spotted and, it is believed, for ever consigned to oblivion. Again, in the Introduction and notes I gave briefly the results of long and patient investigation respecting Coverdale and our first English Bible, and, I believe, to a great extent cleared up one of the most interesting mysteries lurking in English history and literature. Indeed, for the last three hundred years the good old Augustine monk Coverdale had been lost in a tangle of misconception and conjecture, insomuch that the last two or three historians of our dear old English Bible have asserted positively, without a particle of decent historical evidence, that the Coverdale Bible was printed by Christopher Froschover at Zurich. It has been my good fortune to discover where, by whom, and under what circumstances it really was printed. I showed on unimpeachable authority that Coverdale went abroad in 1534, and that the Bible was printed by or for Jacob Van Meteren at Antwerp; that Coverdale was not himself the translator, but that probably Van Meteren was, Coverdale aiding him, at his employer's cost, as a learned reviser, editor, proof reader, and general manager, with great prudence and discretion, and at the imminent peril of his life, both from the authorities of the Netherlands and of his own country at home. Any future historian of the English Bible must hereafter reject whole pages of conjecture, assumption, misconception, and frivolous speculation that fill the pages of Lewis, Anderson, Lee, Eadie, Westcott, and others, not alone in these matters pertaining to Tyndale, Coverdale, and Matthew, but many other points pertaining more or less to them and their times. With all its faults, this Catalogue is now given to the public. But in justice to the public, the most patient beast of burden known to the press, and in justice to myself, I must notice here the Notice with which my old friend, the Saturday Review, honoured me. It is the last of five articles which that eminent review devoted to the Caxton Exhibition. They are all of like excellence, and could manifestly have come from no other periodical. The first was upon Mr Gladstone's opening speech, and appeared in the number for July 7. The others, divided into four parts, covering the entire Exhibition, appeared in the four numbers of July 28, August 4, 11, and 18. As the last mainly concerns me, and the Exhibition of the Holy Scriptures as described by me in the Catalogue, I have pleasure in reproducing it here verbatim and entire, simply adding a few small figures for convenience of reference in the subsequent pages of this Flavour. From the SATURDAY REVIEW of the 18th August, 1877. THE CAXTON EXHIBITION. Though the Exhibition has now reached what may, with probable safety, be called "positively the last fortnight," the Bibles remain unarranged.1 This will be a great disappointment to many ardent bibliographers; but it may allay their regret 2 to know that, unless the present collection 3 had been largely supplemented, it could not have been considered in any sense representative of the history of Bible-printing. Mr. Stevens, to whom the arrangement of this part of the Exhibition was entrusted, has neither done it himself nor commissioned 10 4 8 any one else to do it. He has, however, 13 15 he claims for Jacob van Meteren, an Antwerp IV. 35 23 It is so 38 rare, 36 in all probability at Antwerp. 45 44 50 including, according to the "preliminary issue "49 of the Catalogue, that of 1535, "whereunto is added an exhortacion to the same of Erasmus Rot, with an Englysshe Kalender and a Table, necessary to fynde easly and lyghtely any story contayned in the iiii evangelistes and in the Actes of the Apostles." The book itself is,51 however, not to be found " easly and lyghtely" by a visitor; and is, we suspect, among the closed 52 volumes in a bookcase which occupies the centre of the gallery. The "preliminary issue" has become permanent, 53 not unaccustomed fate of South Kensington Catalogues. 54 "64 a Next 55 in interest after these the first English versions-comes the first, 56 perhaps we should say the only 57 authorized edition -that of Henry VIII., printed by 58 Grafton and Whitchurch in 1539, and celebrated in history as the Great Bible. Of this there are several copies, and the wood-cut title 59 said to have been designed by Holbein, 60 is worth studying. At the top the King is seated on a throne, 61 ensigned 62 with his arms, and surrounded by his courtiers, to whom he distributes copies of the book. At either side Cromwell and Cranmer, each also identified by his shield, are similarly employed; and round 63 the head of each person is a scroll, on which we read "Vivat Rex, or, where the person represented is a child, 65 "God save the King," for children of course could not be expected to cheer in Latin. 66 There is a tragic interest, too, about these curious pictures. Among the copies exhibited is one in which the circular space previously filled with Cromwell's arms is left blank. The shield has disappeared in the interval between the issue of the two copies; 69 and, in the same interval, the great Vicar-General had lost not only his shield, but his head. There are copies of several later editions, but we fail 70 to find any special notice of the sole 72 English issue of Queen Mary's reign. In 1553 Edward Whitchurche published a Bible which would recommend itself to some of our modern educational agitators. It is literally "without note or comment," all the preliminary matter printed with the Great Bible, including the Calendar and the Table of Lessons, being omitted. At least one copy appears in the Catalogue. Strange to say, those days of bigotry 74 seem to have 71 67 68 73 B 66 been favourable to Bible-printing; for the same year, 1553, witnessed the appearance of the first Spanish edition, 75 of which a copy, printed at Ferrara, comes from Althorp, and another is lent by the Bible Society. In 1557 William Whittingham, afterwards Dean of Durham, but then an exile at Geneva, published a New Testament of his own translation, the first 76 divided into verses, and three years later came out the famous "Genevan," or Breeches Bible," which for nearly a hundred years continued to be the popular version. Copies of the first edition are very rare, but two" at least are in the Gallery. It is adorned with maps, and has "moste profitable annotations upon all the hard places. It went through about two hundred editions, and was not superseded 78 in the estimation of the Bible-reading public until the profitable annotations, and even the headings of the chapters, appeared in an edition of King James's version published in 1649 by the Stationers' Com79 and made no doubt on purpose to pany, look as like the old favourite as possible.80 Many liberties were taken with both text and notes, among which perhaps the most serious dealt with the heading of Psalm cxlix., 81 the same psalm from which Obadiah 82 Bind-their-kings-with-chains-and their-nobles-with-fetters-of-iron took his memorable surname. In the Genevan Bible 83 this psalm was headed "An exhortation to the church to prayse the Lord for his victory and conquest that he giveth his saints against all man's power. In the Authorized Version 84 a very different meaning was given to the psalm :-"The prophet exhorteth to praise God for his love to the Church, and for that power which he hath given to the Church to rule the consciences of men. The new edition, 85 printed in the very year which saw the downfall of all supremacy 86 but that of the saints, was altered ingeniously; the power given to the Church was "for the conversion of sinners. And, strange to say, 88 there has ever since been a certain doubt about the form of this heading, and it now stands in ordinary Bibles in a form which differs alike from King James's and the saint's, for it breaks off short at the word "Church."89 87 دو We do not recognize 90 a copy of the quarto of 1649 in the Gallery, nor-and this is a much more serious omission-do we find a single perfect copy of the first issue of the socalled Authorized Version. 91 One, near the door, seems only to have its New 92 Testament title; but in the Catalogue there is a long paragraph about "Hee editions or "Shee"93 editions which calls for some notice.94 99 103 108 110 Two issues at least took place in 1611, and their differences are easily seen; but, except in the preliminary leaves, 95 it is seldom that the two issues are found separate. 96 Sheets from one were constantly 97 mixed with sheets from the other; and any attempt to say that one set of sheets belongs wholly to the first issue and another to the second ends not only in confusion, 98 but in something worse. When it has been arbitrarily 100 determined which set belongs to each issue, the next thing is to make existing examples conform; and a process takes place exactly analogous to that by which an enthusiastic architect is sometimes tempted to falsify the record in restoring an old building, 101 The collection of editions of the Authorized 102 Version is wretchedly poor, containing in fact only one volume of any importance 104-the Bodleian copy of the famous Bible of 1631 105. -an octavo in which the "not" was omitted from the Seventh Commandment. 106 We failed to find a first Oxford 107 Testament, a first Cambridge1 Testament, a Lloyd's 109 folio, a Blayney's' quarto, a first Irish,111 a first American, 112 an "immaculate" Bible of 1811,113 or, in fact, with the one exception, 114 anything of great note 115 in this department. There is a poor copy of the Scots Bible in octavo, with the plates by Bolswaert which were such an offence to the Puritans, and were specially charged against Archbishop Laud. The Psalm-books, too, are not remarkable for their rarity 117, except the American "Bay Psalm-Book," which enjoys the credit of being the first book printed in British North America, and of which the present copy, lent from the Bodleian, is unique on this side of the Atlantic. The Queen's Printers, the two University presses, and the Bible Society make great displays on the staircase, where copies may be seen of the "Gladstone Bible,"118 printed and bound at Oxford119 in twelve hours. The public was informed1 20 at first that the type had been set up within that time, and the curious in this kind of literature were on the look-out for a valuable crop121 of misprints and the speedy suppression of the whole edition. But the 116 type has been long standing, and the volume is of the ordinary 122 kind, and does not even, we believe, contain the Translators' Preface or the Apocryphal books. The machinery is apparently the most attractive part of the show.123 Where is Mr. Buckmaster 124 that he does not lecture on it? All125 the processes of paper-making, type-casting, composing, distributing, electrotyping, printing, and folding are carried on here. There are specimens of ancient types and woodcuts, and paper made on the old system is printed with a memorial of the Exhibition in a press of the slow, 126 awkward 127 kind which Caxton 128 must have used. The various attempts at setting up type by machinery occupy some space, and are examined with great interest. Hattersley's machine appears to be very convenient, but it is only by a practical printer129 that its merits or faults can be justly appreciated.1 130 The Clowes method differs from the Hattersley in the use of electricity; but it is open to objections which, as far as we can judge, 131 must be fatal to its extensive use. In fact, of six systems here exhibited the Mackie steam composer, the Clowes electric composer, the Hattersley, the Kastenbein, the Muller, and the Heinemann-it may safely be said that not one 133 is likely to come into extensive use in a printing house, although the Hattersley may be suitable for amateur work, and the others are all very pretty as toys.1 134 The room in which the various processes of stereotyping are carried on will be found very attractive, especially as the plates cast are for actual use. Among the curiosities of the Exhibition are the machines of various 132 136 kinds for arranging 135 sheets of paper for the press, some of them seeming to be furnished with a human finger and thumb, and much more than human accuracy and regularity. It is perhaps1 a pity that the machinery could not have formed a separate exhibition, perhaps 137 in combination with bookbinding, 138 as it is, the staid bibliographers 139 above stairs complain much of the noise and the smell, 140 caring evidently very little as to how a book is produced so that it is produced; and perhaps going on to think, since they set so much store by rarity, that when a press has issued a single copy of a book, the more seldom it repeats the process 141 the better. |