Bible, [Testament Newydd ein Arglwydd Iesu Christ, 1567], the first printed Bible in Welsh

Bible. New Testament. Welsh

Testament Newydd ein Arglwydd Iesu Christ. London: Henry Denham for Humfrey Toy, 1567

FIRST EDITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN THE WELSH LANGUAGE, 4to (182 x 142mm.), black letter, woodcut initials and tailpieces, scattered early annotations in Welsh, old calf, incomplete, lacking all before A2 (opening of the Gospel of Matthew), K4, Y1,Y8, 2B4-5, and all after 3D1, A2-A6 heavily worn with fraying at edges and tearing, N5 torn, 2A4-5 and 2T3 torn with loss, staining, rebacked with later endpapers

A KEY MOMENT IN WELSH LITERATURE: THE TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. In 1562, the bishops of the Welsh Dioceses petitioned Parliament "to wyll and require and command the learned men to traducte the Boke of the Lordes Testament into the vulgare walsh tong." The next year, Queen Elizabeth I granted to William Salesbury and his colleagues a seven-year patent for the sole right to print the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer in Welsh. Salesbury's Welsh Lectionary (1551) included the Gospels. The present edition, however, is the first edition of the entire New Testament in Welsh. In his dedication to the Queen, Salesbury wrote, "And would be to God that your Graces subiectes of Wales might also have the whole booke of Gods woord." Salesbury and his colleagues quarelled and did not complete their proposed Old Testament during their seven-year patent. The first complete Welsh Bible was achieved in London in 1588 by William Morgan and Christopher Barker.

RARE. The only copy sold at auction since 2001 was the Ryrie library copy (Sotheby's, New York, 5 December 2016, lot 135), and no complete copy has come to the auction market for at least forty years. 

PROVENANCE

"John William is the true onor [sic] of this book" (G1r); Jane Williams, 21 December 1868; Thomas Price Williams, 1878; T. Hughes P. Williams, 7 March 1884 (ownership inscriptions on front endpapers)

LITERATURE

STC 2960; ESTC S102557; Darlow & Moule 9580