Antiquarian Bibles - Catalogue 3
Catalogue 3
We are releasing our third catalogue in preparation for the upcoming Boston Book Fair. Some of the highlights discussed below include:
The Great He Bible - the first edition of the King James Version
A complete Matthews-Tyndale Bible with provenance of Mary Queen of Scots
Second edition of the New Testament in Dakota with provenance of Mrs. Isaac Warrior
First edition of William Fulke’s New Testament
The first Bible printed in America in a European language
A scarce Tyndale New Testament
The Great He Bible
The editio princeps of the King James Bible – the crowning jewel of English Bible versions and one of the most important books in all literature. Its influence can best be summed up by G.M. Trevelyan who stated that “for every Englishman who had read Sidney or Spenser, or had seen Shakespeare acted at the Globe, there were hundreds who had read or heard the Bible with close attention as the words of God. The effect of the continual domestic study of the book upon the national character, imagination and intelligence for nearly three centuries to come, was greater than that of any literary movement in our annals, or any religious movement since the coming of St. Augustine.”
Matthew’s-Tyndale Bible
The Matthew’s Bible (also referred to as the Matthew’s-Tyndale Bible) was printed in 1537, 1549 (two editions), and 1551. Copies of the 1537 first edition are very difficult to find and rarely complete. The text was reprinted twice in 1549: one edition with the notes slightly revised by Edmund Becke and the “wife-beater” note at 1 Peter 3 (this copy), and the other edition being a straight reprint of the 1537 text without woodcuts and a notoriously bad printing. This edition boasts numerous woodcuts in the text (especially the Pentateuch, the gospels, and Revelation).
John Rogers (1505 - 1555)
The Matthew’s Bible was the work of John Rogers who used the pseudonym of Thomas Matthew to hide his connection with William Tyndale. Tyndale was strangled and burned at the stake in 1536. Rogers secured Tyndale’s unpublished work on the Old Testament from Genesis through 2 Chronicles, as well as the book of Jonah. The vast majority of the Matthew’s Bible is thus Tyndale’s work, and this version forms the basis of our modern English Bible.
Early signatures of Alexander Livingston on inner rear boards on blanks, and the end of the Old Testament. Laid in extensive handwritten genealogy stating that Alexander Livingston, fifth Lord Livingston was the original owner of the Bible. Alexander’s daughter Mary was chosen to become one of Queen Mary’s ladies-in-waiting and became known as one of the famous “Four Marys.”
Dakota New Testament
A very scarce copy of the second edition of the New Testament in the Dakota language bound with the first edition of the books of Genesis and Proverbs in Dakota. The work was translated by Rev. Stephen Riggs. Riggs was commissioned as missionary to the Dakota in 1837. He devoted himself to the study of the language and became both a master and an authority on the subject.
The Rev. Thomas S. Williamson left his successful practice in medicine to translate the Old Testament, first issuing the books of Genesis and Proverbs. He organized a native church at Lac-qui-Parle and has been called the Father of the Dakota Mission. “The men who sought the moral and spiritual elevation of the Sioux Indians, by consecrating their scholarship to the dissemination of scriptural light and knowledge, have made an imperishable record (Wright, 300).”
William Fulke’s New Testament
Gregory Martin (1542-1582), translator of the Rheims New Testament, and William Fulke (1536-1589), Protestant apologist, had been engaged in debate since 1582 when Martin published A Discovery of the Manifold Corruptions of the Holy Scriptures by the Heretics. Fulke had answered twenty-one Roman Catholic works since 1558 and issued a response to Martin (A Defense) the following year in 1583.
Fulke was described by a contemporary as “that profound, ready, and resolute doctor, the hammer of heretics, the champion of truth”. He was fully committed to the idea that the Pope and the Church of Rome were the Antichrist and much of his work involves point-by-point unpicking of Catholic theology. Fulke’s ultimate response to Martin’s claims was the parallel New Testament or Confutation against the Rheims’ text with many annotations. To accomplish this work, he lodged with two assistants for nine months in 1587. The resulting controversy between Fulke and Martin brought the Rheims text into the limelight and to the notice of the committee of translators for the King James Bible. Our copy is the scarce first edition of Fulke’s work with later editions being more common.
First Bible Printed in America in a European Language
The first Bible printed in America after Elliot’s Indian Bible of the 1660s, and the first American Bible printed in a European language. A very good copy in original beveled boards. 1200 copies of this Bible were printed by Christopher Saur. He was a man of conviction in matters of morality and religion, and he sought to produce a Bible that his fellow Germans could read in their native tongue.
He appealed to Germany where Dr. Heinrich Luther provided him with the type, in exchange for a presentation copy. It took him three years to complete the printing of the Bible. Saur made every effort to promote the reading of the Scriptures. His asking price was eighteen shillings but he is quoted as saying that “to the poor and needy we have no price.”
Scarce Tyndale New Testament
This is the third edition of Jugge’s revision and the final Tyndale New Testament. William Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament was the first to be printed in the English language. The father of the modern English language, and the father of the English Reformation, Tyndale was spurred on by the desire to “cause a boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scripture” than the clergy of the day.
He was martyred for this cause in 1536. The translation was bitterly opposed by Bloody Mary and many copies of Tyndale’s Bibles were burned. Research has shown that at least eighty percent of the King James Version is Tyndale’s. We trace only 1 copy at auction since 1936 with that copy lacking over 200 leaves.
