Descriptions of detached Books of the New Testament. Acts of the Apostles, by C. Tye.. EDITIONS OF THE BIBLE, AND PARTS THEREOF, FROM THE YEAR 1525 TO 1850. N. B.-An asterisk added to the date denotes that the year is not expressed, but that it is believed to be ascertained by circumstantial evidence. REIGN OF KING HENRY VIII. 1525*. THE GOSPEL of ST. MATTHEW, (translated by William Tyndale,)" printed as it was written by the Evangelist". The GOSPEL of ST. MARK (by the same.) Supposed to have been printed at Hamburgha. *The NEWE TESTAMENT in Englysshe, (translated by W. Tyndale,) with Glosses and a Prologue. Begun at Cologne, by P. Quentel; and finished at Worms, by Peter Schoeffer. -British Museumb. a No fragment of this first-fruit of Tyndale's scriptural labours is known to be remaining. See Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, vol. i. p. 153, &c. and the Biography of Tyndale, prefixed to the reprint of his Doctrinal works by the Parker Society in 1848. b Only a single fragment of this edition now remains, containing, on 31 leaves, the Prologue, and part of St. Matthew's Gospel. It was discovered in 1834 by Mr. Rodd, an intelligent bookseller of London, who with great diligence and tact traced out the particulars of its publication. It afterwards passed into the hands of the right hon. Thomas B Grenville; and is now, with the rest of the magnificent Grenville library, in the British Museum. See a collation of it in the Appendix; a more full one in the "Bibliotheca Grenvilliana;" and a minute description, accompanied by three fac-similes, executed for Mr. Rodd in 1831, in Anderson's Annals of the Bible, vol. i. p. 52-64. Le Long appears to have been aware of this edition, as printed at those two towns. N. B.-The Prologue, and also the glosses, or marginal notes, have been reprinted, in Tyndale's Doctrinal Treatises, published by the Parker Society in 1848. *The NEWE TESTAMENT in Englysshe, (by Wm. Tyndale.) No place; no name but now generally supposed to have been printed at Worms, by Peter Schoeffer.-Bristol Museum; St. Paul's, London, (imperfect) c. c Of this valuable and highly interesting volume, the first-fruits of an attempt to print the Scriptures in the English tongue, and the chief cause of the persecution and subsequent death of the translator, a single copy only was supposed to exist. Of the manner in which this found its way into the Harleian library, and of the value set upon it by lord Oxford and Mr. Ames, a short but interesting account is given in the following extract from a letter preserved in the Bodleian library. It is in the handwriting of Ames, is addressed to Mr. George Ballard, and dated Wapping, June 30, 1743: "I cannot forbear telling you "of my good success in buying at "lord Oxford's sale the phoenix of "the whole library; I mean the first English Testament that ever was "printed in the year 1526. It has "been thought no perfect one was left "from the flames. My lord was so "well pleased in being the possessor of it, that he gave the person [Mr. "John Murrey] he had it of, ten 'guineas, and settled an annuity of "twenty pounds a year during the "person's life, which is yet paid him. "The particulars are too many to "commit to a letter: the old histo"rians and Fox give a good account "of it." Herbert's account, given in a note at p. 1535, may form a sequel to this: "This first edition was in the posses"sion of Mr. Ames, who bought it for "fifteen shillings, out of the Harleian "library, No. 420, sold by Tho. Os 66 'borne, 1743. Mr. John White pur"chased it for 157. 4s. 6d. at the auction "of Mr. Ames' books, No. 1252, sold "by Langford [on May 13th] 1760, " and sold it for twenty-one pounds to "Dr. Gifford; who at his decease [in "1784] bequeathed it, with many 12o. others, to the Baptist Museum, "Bristol." But it has been my fortune, in examining the library of St. Paul's Cathedral, to discover a second copy. Unluckily it is imperfect, both at the beginning and end; and its former owner, as if afraid of a second bishop Tonstall, has contrived most ingeniously to disguise and disfigure it, by intermixing the leaves of the Gospels and Epistles with each other in the strangest manner. The volume is in half-binding, lettered (for what reason I know not) "Lant's Testament." Surely it well deserves to be carefully taken to pieces and examined: the deficient parts should be supplied by a transcript from the Bristol copy, and inserted in their proper places, lest an unhappy accident should deprive us of either of them the volume should then be rebound, and placed under lock and key, and under the special superintendence of the librarian. [This was written in 1821. My suggestions have been partly adopted, and the deficient leaves appear to be the following: title, fol. 1. 2. 3. 8. 15. 16. 23. 31. 32. 39. 40. 46. 47. 116. 192. 193. 198. 255 to 262. 311 to 313. 316 to 343. 3 unnumbered leaves at the end, containing Tyndale's address, and the errata. The remaining parts of the volume are generally in fair sound condition. But yet, see Anderson on the subject, I. p. 69.] I think it unquestionable, that Tyndale's name was not affixed to either of the New Testaments of 1525, though he added it in later editions: for in his Address to the Reader, prefixed to his "Parable of the Wicked Mammon," (first printed in 1527,) he says, "The cause why I set my name before this "little treatise, and have not rather "done it in the New Testament, is that 1526. NEW TESTAMENT, (by W. Tyndale.) The first surreptitious edition, "printed by the Douche men;" Antwerp, by Christopher Endhoven. 1527. NEW TESTAMENT, (by Tyndale.) Second surreptitious edition; Antwerp, by Hans van Roemundt, or Ruremond.-See Lewis, Hist. of English Translations; and Anderson, I. p. 163. 1528. NEW TEST. (by Tyndale.) Third surreptitious edition; supposed to have been printed at Antwerp. 1529. ST. PAUL'S First Epistle to the CORINTHIANS, chapter vii.; with an exposition, (by W. Tyndale); Malborowe in the londe of Hesse, by Hans [It contains sign. I. in eights. The first 8 leaves have no signature.] "then I followed the counsel of Christ, "which exhorteth men (Matt. vi.) to "do their good deeds secretly, and to "be content with the conscience of 66 well-doing, and that God seeth us, 66 and patiently to abide the reward of "the last day which Christ has pur"chased for us; and now would fain "have done likewise, but am com"pelled otherwise to do." George Joye has a statement to the same effect, in his tract called "An Apology to satisfy, if it may be, Wm. Tyndale," &c. 1535. 12o. This edition was reprinted at London in 1536, with an introductory memoir of Tyndale, by Mr. George Offor, who has added numerous collations of the text with the revised edit. of 1534. d This impression seems to have been a very large one, amounting to two, or perhaps three, thousand copies. Yet so hotly was it pursued, that no copy can now be identified in any known collection. See Anderson, I. p. 127, &c. e I do not know that any copy of 12o.? 12o.? 120.? this edition can be identified. Lewis fancied that he had found one, in the library of Emmanuel College Cambridge, as described to him by Dr. Waterland. But I have examined that volume, and find it to be the edition of Coverdale's version, printed in 1538 without name of place or printer. In the "Repertorium Bibliographicum," 8o. London, 1819, it is stated that an edition of this year was in possession of the marquess of Blandford. But, in the Whiteknights sale-catalogue of that library, the book in question (lot 4098) is described simply as "Tyndale's New Testament, very imperfect;" without any intimation of date or of its being this particular edition. f According to Sir Thomas More, (English Works, fol. 342,) this Exposition was thought to be the production of Fryer Roye, a person who is mentioned by Tyndale, in his introduction to the "Parable of the Wicked Mammon," ," as the man who helped him, while translating the New Testament, 'both to wryte and to compare the |