Case 1 Sources: Wycliffite Bible

Richard Rolle on The English Psalter
Richard Rolle’s commentary on the Psalms expanded to include Wycliffite doctrine. Probably late l4th century manuscript with characteristic English illumination. Originally from the royal library Henry VIII at Westminster. Rebound for Archbishop Bancroft.

Constitutions of Oxford
Drawn up in 1408 by Archbishop Arundel to control preaching, academic speculation and biblical translation, all of which had become associated with Lollardy. Wycliffe is mentioned by name in the sixth section. Arundel’s Register II, ff.1 lv-12

Wycliffite Bible
First translation of the complete text of the Bible into English by the followers of Wycliffe. Late l4th century manuscript.

Wycliffite Tract
Only known extant copy of this version of a radical Wycliffite tract against the temporalities of the clergy. Written in the early 15th century probably by a wandering preacher. The arguments are supported by biblical texts cited in the margin. In pocket book form, possibly for concealment.

Wycliffe’s Trialogus
Lollardy persisted into the early 16th century, but because of the continuing force of the Constitutions of Oxford, little appeared in print. The Trialogus was the earliest work by Wycliffe to be printed and was published in Basle in 1525. It is valuable as a brief compendium of his final views on many subjects including the Eucharist, based largely on the biblical texts of institution.

The Dore of Holy Scripture
The early Reformers were aware of their Wycliffite precursors, but the only part of the Wycliffite translation of the Bible to be printed in the 16th century was the General Prologue by John Purvey, published in London in 1540 as The Dore of Holy Scripture, by John Gowgh, who was frequently in trouble with authorities for dealing in prohibited books.

Case 2: Sources: Continental

Hebrew Grammar and Dictionary
The first edition of De Rudimentis Hebraicis, a Hebrew grammar and dictionary drawn up by Johann Reuchlin and printed at Pforzheim, the author’s birthplace, in 1506. Reuchlin was a German humanist and pioneer in the development of Christian Hebrew studies which made possible the scholarly translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew.

Hebrew Pentateuch
The Hebrew Pentateuch, 1491, one of the Hebrew biblical texts printed by the Soncino family in Naples. It includes the commentary of Rashi, one of the greatest mediaeval Jewish commentators on the Bible, used by Luther in his German translation, by Pagninus in his Latin translation, and mentioned in Matthew’s Bible, based on Tyndale’s work.

Complutensian Polyglot
This splendid edition of the Bible in Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic and Latin marks the birth of modern biblical scholarship. It was produced under the patronage and at the expense of Cardinal Ximenes, founder of the University of Alcala (Complutum). The New Testament was actually printed in 1514, two years before the publication of the edition by Erasmus, but the polyglot was not published until 1522 after papal authorization. Aids to the study of Hebrew were included.

Luther’s Translation of The Bible
Luther’s translation of the Bible into German was immediately and widely popular and influential, replacing older versions. It formed the basis of translations into Dutch, Swedish, Icelandic and Danish. This copy is from Sion College Library and is the 1536 third edition by Hans Lufft of Wittenberg, who published the first complete edition in 1534. Tyndale used Luther’s biblical translations as an aid to his own work.

Greek New Testament
The first published edition of the New Testament in Greek, 1516, edited by Erasmus with his own Latin translation and Annotations. The first major challenge to the primacy of the Vulgate. Tyndale used Erasmus’s edition as an aid in his own work and several of Tyndale’s English New Testaments include the Latin version by Erasmus in parallel.

Annotations of Erasmus
The annotations on the New Testament by Erasmus, which had formed part of his 1516 edition of the Greek New Testament, were republished as a separate work in 1519.

Case 3: Early Reformation: Tyndale

Tyndale New Testament
Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament was first printed at Worms in 1526. He translated directly from the Greek but used the New Testaments of Erasmus and Luther as aids. He had hoped to produce the work in England but his approaches met with offi- cial hostility. Carefully revised editions were published by Tyndale at Antwerp in 1534 and 1535. The Lambeth copy on display was published in 1536 probably at Antwerp. Widely distributed, and one of the most influential books of the early Reformation in England.

Tyndale Pentateuch
The first printed edition of the Pentateuch in English, translated by Tyndale from the Hebrew, with the help of the Vulgate and Luther’s German Pentateuch of 1523. Published at Antwerp in 1530. Sion College Library copy, imperfect, with the marginal notes cut out according to the Act of Parliament of 1543.

Tyndale Diglot
The earliest diglot edition of Tyndale’s English New Testament with the Latin of Erasmus, printed in London in 1538.

Tyndale on Scripture
This volume comprises A pathway into the Holy Scripture and A compendious introduction, prologue or preface unto the Epistle to the Romains, both by Tyndale, and apparently both unique copies of the 1564 reprints by John Charlewood.

Tyndale on Matthew
An exposycyon upon the v. vi. vii. chapters of Mathewe ... Originally published in Antwerp in 1533 and reprinted probably in London in 1536. Based to some extent on Luther’s exposition of 1532.

Tyndale’s Translation Condemned
An Instrument issued by Archbishop Warham in May 1530 by order of Henry VIII denouncing works by Tyndale, Fish and Frith as heretical, including the ‘translacyon also of scrypture corrupted by Wyllyam Tyndall, as well yn the olde Testament as yn the newe’. Warham had already issued an injunction for its suppression in 1526.

Life of Tyndale
Print of Tyndale and brief life in Holland’s Herwologia, a collection of portraits and brief biographies of famous and learned Englishmen, published in 1620.

Execution of Tyndale
Illustration of the death of Tyndale in 1536 from the first edition of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, 1563. According to report his last words were “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes”.

Case 4: Early Bible Printing in England

Proverbs And Ecclesiastes 1534
These two volumes form the only known copy of the first part of the Bible to be printed in English in England, probably in 1534 by Thomas Godfray. The translator has been identified as George Joye on the evidence of Bale’s Summarium, 1548. Joye was a Cambridge Lutheran, biblical translator and associate of William Tyndale.

Coverdale Bible 1535
The first edition of the whole Bible to be published in English, 1535. Miles Coverdale was a Cambridge Lutheran forced to flee to the Continent in 1528. He may have helped Tyndale in his work of biblical translation, though his scholarship was not on the same level as Tyndale’s.

Matthew’s Bible 1537
This Bible was published in 1537 by John Rogers, a close friend of Tyndale and later to be the first of the Marian martyrs. The name Thomas Matthew in the dedication probably stands for Tyndale himself, whose version was used from Genesis to 2 Chronicles and for the New Testament, the remainder being taken from Coverdale’s version. The King’s licence was obtained by Cromwell at Cranmer’s request “untill such tyme that we the Bishops shall set forth a better translacion, which I thinke will not be till a day after domesday”.

Taverner Bible 1539
An unusually fine and complete copy of the fourth translation of the Bible into English after the Tyndale, Coverdale and Matthew translations. Taverner was a Greek scholar whose patron was Thomas Cromwell. His translation was based on the Matthew version, but had little influence on the development of English biblical translation as it was overshadowed by the publication in the same year of the Great Bible.

Coverdale Illustrations
Biblisch Historien, published in Frankfurt by Christian Egenolff in 1535. Woodcuts by Hans Sebald Beham of biblical scenes which were used in the illustration of Coverdale’s Bible.

Holbein Biblical Illustrations
Historiarum Veteris Instrumenti icones, published in Lyons by Trechsel in 1538. The rare first edition of Holbein’s woodcuts of biblical scenes from the Old Testament. The illustrations were deliberately made small in size to fit into their correct positions in the text. They were used in several Bibles but not surprisingly in the Great Bible of Henry VIII.

Case 5: Official publications

Royal Injunctions 1538
The second royal injunctions of Henry VIII, drawn up by Thomas Cromwell and sent by him to Archbishop Cranmer on 30 September 1538. Cranmer issued a mandate for the publication to the archdeacons of his province on 11 October. Among other matters it was ordered that the Great Bible, “the whole Bible of the largest volume in English”, be set up in each church and its study by parishioners encouraged.

Cranmer’s Register, f.215v

Great Bible
The first edition of the Great Bible, printed in 1539 and ordered by Thomas Cromwell to be placed in churches for the use of the congregation. The title page, ascribed to Holbein, depicts Henry VIII, Archbishop Cranmer and Cromwell distributing Bibles while the people cry ‘Vivat Rex’. This version was a revision by Coverdale of Matthew’s Bible with the help of Munster’s Latin translation of the Old Testament and Erasmus’s Latin version of the New Testament.

New Testament Paraphrases
The Paraphrases of Erasmus, which form a biblical commentary, were first published in full in 1523. An English translation was instigated by Queen Catherine Parr and one of the translators was Princess Mary. By the injunctions of 1547 it was ordered to be placed in all parish churches. This is one of the volumes of the subsequent 1548-49 edition. Bishop Gardiner believed that the print run was the then enormous total of 40,000 copies.

Visitation Articles 1548
Canterbury diocesan visitation articles. Item 16 asks whether the clergy “have provided one boke of the whole Bible of the largest volume in Englishe, and the Paraphrasis of Erasmus ... in the Church, where their parishioners maie most commodiously resorte to the same”. These instructions were repeated in the 1559 Injunctions of Elizabeth bound later in this volume.

Royal Injunctions 1547
Among other reforming injunctions were those leading to the increased use of English in church services: the liturgical Epistles and Gospels at High Mass, and the Bible readings at Mattins and Evensong. Item 7 requires each parish to obtain a copy of the Great Bible and Erasmus’s Paraphrases in English for parishioners to read in the church. The present copy has been corrected in a contemporary hand, possibly in preparation for a later edition. “Altar” has been amended to “table” and “Mass” to “Communion”.

Liturgical Epistles and Gospels
The Epistles and Gospelles edited by Richard Taverner in 1540, the year after the publication of his translation of the Bible. Cranmer is amongst the anonymous divines believed to have contributed. The liturgical epistles and gospels were to be used in English by royal injunction during services, and were popular works in their own right. The woodcut initials and title page are thought to be by Holbein.

Case 6: Elizabethan Church

Geneva Bible
First edition of the Geneva Bible produced by Whittingham and other scholars in 1560. Based on the Great Bible for the Old Testament and Whittingham’s revision of Tyndale’s 1534 edition of the New Testament. Published by Rouland Hall in Geneva, 1560. After Tyndale, the translators of the Geneva Bible had the strongest influence on the Authorized Version.

Whittingham’s Geneva New Testament
Printed in 1557 at Geneva, this was the first English Testament printed in Roman type and with verse divisions. The translator was William Whittingham, an elder of the English exile church at Geneva. The division into verses was probably taken from Estienne’s Greek-Latin Testament of 1551 and the use of italics for explanatory words from Beza’s New Testament of 1556. Used for the New Testament in the 1560 Geneva edition.

Metrical Psalter
The whole Psalter translated into English Metre, by Archbishop Parker, c. 1567. Elaborately bound by Parker’s own binders and intended as a presentation copy by Margaret Parker, the Archbishop’s wife, to the Countess of Shrewsbury.

Anglo-Saxon Gospels
The Gospels of the fower Evangelistes translated in the olde Saxons tyme out of Latin into the vulgare toung of the Saxons ..., 1571. Edition of the Gospels in Anglo-Saxon and in English (Bishops’ Bible version), published under the direction of Archbishop Parker and with a preface by John Foxe the Martyrologist. Archbishop Whitgift’ s copy.

Bishops’ Bible 1568
Revision of Cranmer’s Great Bible undertaken by Archbishop Parker between 1563-68 with the assistance of a committee of scholars, mostly bishops. The revisers exercised restraint in correcting the Great Bible text, and were criticised for not removing all errors. In size, typography and illustration however the Bishops’ Bible was outstanding. On display is the opening of Psalm 1 with an illustration of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, as Beatus Vir, the godly example for all.

Bishops’ Bible 1573
2 volumes of the 5 volume set published in 1573. Printed on vellum and illuminated. Archbishop Whitgift’s copy: his coat of arms appears on each cover.

Rheims New Testament
The first edition of the Roman Catholic version of the New Testament in English, printed at Rheims in 1582. It was translated from the Vulgate by Gregory Martin, supervised by William Allen and Richard Bristow, all members of the English College at Douai, temporarily moved to Rheims. Its purpose was to counter Protestant use of biblical argument. The Rheims New Testament, itself indebted to Coverdale, exercised a strong influence on the translators of the Authorized Version. The Old Testament was not published until 1609-10 at Douai.

Fulke’s New Testament
The Rheims New Testament and the Bishops’ Bible version printed in parallel columns. This book was produced by William Fulke in 1589 with the object of refuting the arguments of the Rheims version, but in the event gave considerable publicity to the translation. The two volumes are open at the same section of the New Testament for comparison.

Case 7: Authorized Version

Authorized Version: Manuscript Draft
One of only two surviving manuscript drafts of part of the Authorized Version. The work of translation was divided among six companies of translators, each taking on certain books of the Bible. Using principally the Bishops’ Bible, but also taking other versions into account, a new translation was made. A board of revisers then polished the copy. This manuscript contains the translators’ version of the Epistles. Verses from the Bishops’ Bible which were unaltered were left blank.

Authorized Version 1611
Second folio edition of the Authorized Version, 1613, 1611. The new translation was initiated after the 1604 Hampton Court Conference, and carried out with the active encouragement of King James. It was based on the Bishops’ Bible but the other major English versions were considered, and the whole corrected from original Hebrew, Greek and Early Latin texts.

Authorized Version 1616
The first small folio edition of the Authorized Version. Printed in Roman type and with some textual revision. The large engraving shows Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with a considerable menagerie of animals.

Cambridge Bible
First edition of the Authorized Version and Book of Common Prayer to be published at Cambridge by the University Press, 1629. Bound in dark blue velvet embroidered in silver in a design of grapes and vine leaves. In the centre of the front cover is a pelican; on the back a phoenix. The border is of acorns and oak leaves.

Oxford Bible
First edition of the Authorized Version and Book of Common Prayer to be published at Oxford by the University Press, 1675. With engraved title pages for Old Testament, New Testament and Prayer Book.

Baskerville Bible 1763
A magnificent Cambridge Bible, the magnum opus of John Baskerville, Printer to the University. Interleaved with John Sturt’s engraved plates. Excellent example of 18th century chinoiserie binding in the style of Baumgarten. Acquired from the Anglican Cathedral Library in Malta in 1985.

Case 8: Special and unusual Bibles

Coronation Bible of Elizabeth II
The Bible used at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. The binding, with royal arms, was designed by Lynton Lamb and executed by Sangorski and Sutcliffe.

Coronation Bible of Edward VII
The Bible used at the Coronation of King Edward VII in 1902. Printed, bound with elaborate gold tooling and presented by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

Coronation Bible of George V
The Bible used at the Coronation of King George V in 1911. Published by the Cambridge University Press and bound with elaborate gold tooling at Oxford. Presented by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

Nonesuch Apocrypha
Published in 1924 as part of the Nonesuch Press edition of the whole Authorized Version. The title page, engraved by S. Gooden, shows Tobias and the angel and other characters from the Apocrypha.

New Testament in Verse
The history of the New Testament attempted in verse, by Samuel Wesley (father of John Wesley founder of Methodism), London, 1701. Engravings by John Sturt.

Hieroglyphick Bibles
Popular children’s books which were frequently reprinted. Short passages of Scripture with some of the words represented by small cuts: “emblematical figures for the amusement of youth, designed chiefly to familiarize tender age, in a pleasing and diverting manner, with early ideas of the Holy Scriptures’.

Children’s Abridged Bible
The Holy Bible abridged ... illustrated with notes and adorned with cuts for the use of children 3rd edition, 1760. This work was dedicated “To the parents, guardians, and governesses of Great Britain and Ireland”. The ownership inscriptions read “Hannah Foster her Book, 1769” and “Gave to Jane Jackson by her Mamma.”

Abridged Bible for West Indian Slaves
Select parts of the Holy Bible, for the use of the Negro Slaves, in British West-India Islands (London, 1807). It is noticeable that the Old Testament has been heavily cut in comparison with the New Testament.

18th Century Revision
A Liberal Translation of the New Testament; being an attempt to translate the Sacred Writings with Freedom, Spirit and Elegance, by Edward Harwood, 1768. The translation unfortunately reflects the inflated style current at the period.

Confirmation New Testaments
Copies of the New Testaments on which Archbishops Davidson, Lang and William Temple took the oath of allegiance on the con- firmation of their elections to the archbishoprics of Canterbury or York. They are surprisingly small and unpretentious.

Case 9

Gutenberg Bible
First book printed with moveable type. Presentation copy on vellum and illuminated in the English style. The Lambeth copy contains the New Testament only.