Bibles, &C .

BIBLES , & c .

By Bro . HENRY MELVILLE .

The library of William Euen , Esq ., according to Bro . Buchan , contains " about 568 ancient and peculiar editions of the English Bible . 55 This certainly must be a splendid private collection , but the National , or British , museum has twenty-three large folio volumes of catalogue to Bibles , and one volume of the same size is a mere index to the

contents of the twenty-three volumes . Bro . Buchan in writing respecting Miles Coverdale ' s Bible in the above collection , says— " The title is a fac-simile , the original having been worn away or lost . 55 " The Coverdale Bible in the

British Museum is translated from the Douche and Latyn . It has four title-pages all bound up together , three being dated 1535 , the fourth 1536 . It is certainly strange and unusual to give one book so many titles , three of which are precisely alike .

That of 1536 explains what is meant by the translation being from the Douche . ' * The same writer I referred to in my last notice ( who mentions that the greater portion of Latin Bibles from the Mazarene to 1554 are without titlepages ) gives the following observations : —

" Cranmer ' s Old and New Testament , printed by Richard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch , 1539 . In 1538 Henry the VIII . being so often importuned to authorise the printing of the translation of the Bible , he committed the care thereof

to Cromwell and the printing to Richard Grafton , who pretending the want of good paper here , got our King s and Francis s license to print it at Paris both in Latin and English in a large volume . Kennet s History of England , 2 nd vol ., p . 213 .

The idea of Grafton getting permission from the King of England and the King of France to print the work in Paris is somewhat strange , and if paper was scarce why not import it to LONDINI IN 0 _ TICINA EICHAEDI GBAFTONI TTPIS IlIPBESS , where a multitude of other works were being produced !

Kennet further says , that Henry the VIII . " in 1546 did severely forbid the translation of the New Testament by Tindal and Coverdale , or any other than is permitted by Parliament , —p . 262 .

This Cranmer s Bible , as it is called ( dated Paris and London ) is edited by Wm . Coverdale at the instance of Thomas Lord Cromwell , and therein is an epistle of Coverdale dedicated to Henry himself—why should Henry allow Coverdale to print

the first Bible in English in 1536 , and sanction his editing Cranmers s Bible in 1539 , and then , in 1546 , severely forbid the translation of the New Testament by Coverdale ? The pictured titlepage of Cranmer s Bible represents King Henry

the VIII . on his throne giving books with both hands , on the covers of which are Ferbitm Dei . The title is " The Byble in English , that is to say the contents of all the Holy Scripture , both of the Old and New Testament , truly translated after the

veryte of the Hebrew and Greek textes , by the dilligent study of divers excellent learned men expert in the aforesaid tongues . ' There is a prologue by the Reverend Father in God Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury . For a frontispiece

there is an engraving of Cranmer . It is pasted on a fly-leaf , and would suit any other folio work . The superscription on the engraving is " Martyrio Coronatis 1556 , Mar . 21 . Cranmer was one of Foxe s martyrs .

" Grafton s Bible , of London , 1540 , is m three volumes . This is printed on vellum , remarkably well got up and very new in appearance . The pictured part of the title-page is the same as that of Cranmer s , only highly illuminated , and so are

all the introducing letters , & c . The text of the title-page is merely ' The Bible in . English . At the end it says , ' finished in April 1540 . The kalender and the prologue of Thomas are the same as in Cranmer s , in fact it is the very same book

with trifling typographical variations . " Grafton's Bible , of London , 1540 , printed on paper , in one volume , finished in Dec , 1540 , ' Bible in English , that is to say , the content of all the Holy Scriptures both of the Old and New

Testament with a prologue thereto , made by the Reverened Father in God Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury , otherwise similar to the preceding . " Another of London like production of 1540 , finished in 1540 , but printed by Edward Whitchurch . ' These four specimens of Grafton and Whit-