The First Edition of the “Great” Bible 1539

[Bible in English.] The Byble in/ Englyshe, that is to saye the con-/ tent of all the holy scrypture, bothe/ of ye olde and newe testament, truly/ translated after the veryte of the/ Hebrue and Greke textes, by ye dy-/ lygent studye of dyuerse excellent/ learned men, expert in the forsayde/ tonges./ Prynted by Richard Grafton &/ Edward Whitchurch./ Cum priuilegio ad imprimen-/ dum solum./ 1539.

The first edition, first printing of the Miles Coverdale “Great” Bible, “the hole byble of the largest volume,” which Thomas Cromwell, as the King’s vice-regent (King Henry VIII), in an injunction to the clergy (September 1538), ordered to be set up in sum conuenient place wythin the said church that ye haue cure of, where as your parishioners may moste comodiously resorte to the same and reade it.

Collates exceptionally complete: quire * (of preliminaries) compromised with substantial chipping and repair – general title-page supplied, sized – lacks *2, first leaf of the Kalendar. [Q4], blank, excised as expected. Lacks only [Aai] (NT title-page) and [Nn8] final leaf (Table and Colophon). GGv mis-signed BBv. Mm iiii mis-signed M iiii. Woodcuts as called for.

Overall an exceptionally tall and crisp clean copy, with far less damp and other staining and repair than expected or usually encountered.

The single most important Bible of the established Church of England (the official Anglican Church) until the 1611 King James Bible. (The Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer still carries forward the Coverdale Psalter of the “Great” Bible. This Bible is a revision by Miles Coverdale of the 1537 “Matthew’s” Bible (of John Rogers) which Coverdale “corrected” chiefly by the aid of Sebastian Munster’s new critical Latin from the Hebrew OT (1534/5) and employing the Erasmus new Latin NT with a glance to the Complutensian Polyglot (see Herbert, p. 25). Coverdale worked under the direct patronage of Thomas Cromwell, so this edition is sometimes nicknamed the “Cromwell Bible” – and from the Second Edition forward the “Great” Bible contained a prologue by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, and is therefore sometimes nicknamed the “Cranmer Bible” (or version).

Ex-libris Zion Research Library, the A. Marguerite Smith Collection of Bibles and Related Books. Ex-Quaritch with their collation notes (matching mine) penciled on rear pastedown. (Quaritch describes this copy as better than the Rylands copy, “one of the finest in existence.”)

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The Second Quarto Edition of Coverdale’s Diglot New Testament

[Bible in English.] The newe tes-/ tament both in Latine and/ Englyshe eche correspondente to/ the other after the vulgate text, com-/ munely called S. Jeromes… Prynted in Southwarke by James Nicolson. Set forth wyth the Kynges moost gracious lycence. [1538]

The second quarto edition of Coverdale’s diglot New Testament, a corrected edition of Nicolson’s faulty first edition (Herbert 37) which was repudiated by Coverdale. Here, the corrected text point shows at Matthew 26 C, “crowe” now for “synge.”

Collates as Herbert 37. Title-page here in old facsimile. Has 2 (of 6) preliminary leaves. A-Z8, Aa-Vv8. Revelation ends at Vv6 verso. Internally wants leaves [Bb8] and Cc[i], containing end of Acts 23 (modern verses 20-31) – that is, the text wants only eleven verses of text. Two final leaves of “Table” heavily repaired. Some tears/chips (some repaired); some damp and other staining. Some ink notes, e.g. II Corinthians [Gg6] verso.

Overall a near fine example of an exceptionally rare book.

nb: Title-page states Jeremiah quote as “xxxi” and Herbert states “xxii” while actually, the quote is from Jeremiah 23. Also, title page of this edition replaces attribution to Coverdale with attribution to one Johan Hollybushe, though work is still Coverdale’s.

Herbert 38 (cf. Herbert 37). DM 20 (cf 19). STC 2818 (cf 2816). Mozley, Coverdale and his Bibles, p. 188.

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