1566 Tyndale New Testament - Scarce

[The Newe Testament of our Saviour Jesu Christe. Faythfully translated out of the Greke. With the notes and expositions of the darke places therein. … The pearle which Christ commaunded to be bought is here to be founde, not els to be sought.]

Summary

An attractive and profusely illustrated quarto Tyndale New Testament. This is the third edition of Jugge’s revision and the final Tyndale New Testament. A scarce book in a remarkably well-preserved contemporary binding with nearly one hundred woodcuts.

Description

General title page in photographic facsimile. Calendar printed in red and black. Eighty-three woodcuts in ninety-four occurrences including a map of Palestine and a map of St. Paul’s journeys. Text in single column black letter type in paragraph format. This handsomely printed revision by Jugge is lavishly illustrated combining the woodblocks from the two previous editions with the blocks by Virgil Solis that were later used in the Bishops’ Bible. The large title-page portrait features young king Edward, who awarded Jugge a license to print the first edition. First chapter woodcut initials cover eleven lines of text. Divisional printed title to the Epistles of St. Paul through Revelation. Text presented with 38 lines to the full column. Jugge’s revision served as an effort to bring the English translation closer to the original Greek. The last of the over forty editions of Tyndale’s New Testament, with the headlines in Roman type.

Collation

[flueron]^8 (-[fleuron]1-3), [par]^10, A-Y^8, Aa-Pp^8, Qq^4 (-Qq1-2,4). 312 ff. Lacks 6 leaves altogether (title page, dedication, first leaf of calendar, final leaf of Revelation, two leaves of the Tables).

Binding

Bound in contemporary calf with center and cornerpieces stamped in blind with remains of gilding. Initials “RA” and “IA” stamped to the side of each centerpiece, stubs from two pairs of ties. Spine with five raised bands. Rubbed and lightly scuffed with hinges cracked, but intact. Very scarce in an unrestored binding.

Condition

[fleuron]4-7 of prelims frayed to edges; [fleuron]6-7 detached; [C], A1-2 piece torn off to lower corner margin without text loss; A3-8, Oo pulled with small loss to gutter; Ten leaves (G2,7,O4,7,Y2,Z7,Gg6,Kk1-2,Mm4) with marginal loss only; O6 (John 1) torn at lower corner with loss to two lines of text; X8 loss to upper corner with chapter numbers removed; Ii5-Kk,Pp2-8 stain to right third of text; final leaf frayed with marginal loss; occasional spotting and soiling in places but a very nice copy overall.  

Provenance

Doyley Gower, early signature on flyleaf (likely the son of Sir Thomas Gower and Anne Doyley of Stittenham, Yorkshire. Gower was a Royalist officer in the English Civil War; bookplate of Clifford Baylis.

Note

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 would be killed 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.

Scarcity

USTC records 21 copies in holding with most copies lacking the title page. RBH records only 1 copy at auction since 1936 with that copy lacking over 200 leaves.

References

Herbert 121; STC 2873; ESTC S122998; USTC 506525; Luborsky 2873; PMM 58 (1526 edition).