Lot 353A
Bible, New Testament, English and Latin
Auction: 16 May 2008 at 12:00 BST
Description
The newe testament both Latin and Englysche ech correspondente to the other after the vulgare texte, communely called. S. Jeromes. Faythfully translated by Myles Coverdale. Southwarke: printed by James Nicholson, 1538. Second edition of Coverdale's diglot testament, with the text altered in Matthew, xxvi to "before the cocke do crowe" from "before the cocke synge", but with title page of the first edition (naming the translator as Myles Coverdale, rather than Johan Hollybushe), 8vo, title printed in red and black within woodcut border, double column, 41 lines, woodcut initials, Almanack and Kalendar printed in red and black, eighteenth-century panelled calf, lacking 2 leaves *3-*4 (3rd page of dedication, and 3pp. of "To the reader") at beginning, RR1and VV1-8 at end (pages 337-344, and 2 leaves of the table of Epistles and Gospels after Salysbury use), some early annotations, upper cover detached, a few light spots and stains, final seven leaves with very slight loss of inner lower margin
Footnote
Note: Second quarto edition of Coverdale's diglot Testament.
Before leaving London in 1538 for Paris, where he had undertaken to prepare what was afterwards known as the Great Bible, Coverdale had settled that Nycolson should publish for him in London a New Testament with the Vulgate text and his own English version printed side by side. "The book appeared in 1538 in a handsome form, but so full of misprints and errors that Coverdale repudiated it, and immediately arranged for an edition under his own superintendance at Paris. This appeared in November of the same year from the press of Francis Regnault. Nycolson however, published, also towards the end of 1538, a revision of his first edition (Herbert 38); this, according to the title-page in some copies, was Faythfullye translated by Johan Hollybushe. In this second and corrected issue the type was reset and errors are far less common, though many still persist, e.g. in the numbering of the folios. Some copies have a title closely agreeing with that of the first edition, but with many more words in red ink; others, like the copy described in Herbert 38, have a title printed entirely in black, with the name Johann Hollybushe substituted for Miles Coverdale, which appears (from its different water-lines) to be a cancel-leaf.
Provenance: Anthony Lynskell, early inscription on *2; A. Carious R.J.; Kenneth Mackenzie Downie 1864, inscription on endpapers.