Bible in English - Tyndale New Testament & Liturgical Primer

A goodly prymer in englyshe, newly corrected and printed, with certeyne godly meditations and prayers added to the same, very necessarie & profitable for all them that ryghte assuredly understande not [the] latine & greek tongues. London: John Byddell for William Marshall, 16 June 1535

8vo (8 1/8 x 5 7/8 in.; 206 x 150 mm). Black letter, woodcut royal arms impaling those of Anne Boleyn on title, part of calendar, headlines and paragraph headings printed in red, collation: ()², A-B⁴, C⁵, D-F⁴; A-K⁴, L², M², N-T⁴=[99 of 104] leaves; lacking blank C₆, L_3-4 and M_1-2 removed possibly because of the name of Anne Boleyn, title and following blank leaf mounted on stubs and a bit short, C₄ torn at bottom affecting last line of Calendar, tears in lower margin of quire I, top margin of I₁ torn affecting a few words, some spotting and staining.



Bound with:
[The newe testament yet ones agayne corrected by W. Tyndale: where unto is added a necessarye Table. Antwerp: M. Crom? or widow of C. Ruremond, 1536]



Black letter, title of Pauline Epistles within woodcut border bearing imprint date, collation: a-r⁸, s⁶; +⁸, t-z⁸, A-E⁸, F⁷, G⁶, H⁸, I¹⁰, +⁸=[269 of 276] leaves, ca. 120 woodcut text illustrations including some after Dürer's "Apocalypse," cut of the Royal Arms with greyhound and dragon as supporters on last page; lacking first 4 leaves (as in 4 of the 7 copies recorded including the copy in Herbert), and leaves F₈, G₁ and G₃, b_1-3 frayed at bottom affecting catchwords, some marginal spots, inkstains and dampstains, small worm track in gutter margins of quires m-r and H, tiny hole in Z₄ affecting one letter, lower outer corner of A₁ frayed with loss of a few words and mended with sewing, contemporary marginalia in Hebrews. 16th-Century English blind-tooled calf, in a panel design with a central lily medallion, remains of clasps and catches; worn, rebacked in 18c? with gilt spine, gilt-stamped red leather title label which is now worn with upper compartment loose, corners and edges torn. In a brown morocco slipcase.

Kathryn Goswold (16c signature on title) — Simon Smythe (signature on endpaper) — John Vanhatten (signature on endpaper) — George Goyder (bookplate)

STC 15988 (7+ copies listed); STC 2833 (7+ copies listed) & Herbert 20

see cataloguing
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The "Engraver's Mark" edition of Tyndale's translation; the woodcut on leaf t1 with foot of Saint Paul resting on a stone inscribed with the monogram "AKB," i.e. Adrian Kempe de Bouchot.

Three distinct quarto editions of Tyndale's New Testament were printed in the year he was martyred (1536). They are chiefly distinguished by the variations in the woodcut of Saint Paul on leaf t1, the other versions showing a mole or a blank stone. Although there appears to be no absolutely conclusive evidence to show the order of publication, various small differences suggest that the "mole" edition was the first, and the "blank stone" the last of the three. Forty-eight distinct blocks were used for the 122 illustrations present in a complete copy.

Tyndale's New Testament in English, philologically sound and carefully derived from the Greek version of Erasmus, was bitterly opposed by the ecclesiastical authorities and many copies were burned. Since its publication, it has dominated all successive translations right up to modern times, with nine-tenths of the King James Version itself derived from this work.

The exceptionally rare Primer, commonly known as "Marshall's Primer," is the second edition of the first complete primer in English (STC 15986). It includes Girolamo Savonarola on Psalm li, beginning on the first leaf M3r with title "An exposition after the maner of a contemplation vpon the .li. psalme, called Miserere mei deus".