Lot 54
  • 54

Bible in English [The Great Bible, First Edition]

Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 USD
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Description

  • The Byble in Englyshe, That Is to Saye the Content of All the Holy Scrypture, Both of ye Olde and Newe Testament, Truly Translated after the Veryte of the Hebrue and Greke Textes, by ye Dylygent Studye of Dyverse Excellent Learned Men, Expert in the Forsayde Tonges. [Paris: François Regnault, 1538 and completed at London by] Rychard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch, April 1539
  • paper, ink, leather
5 parts in one volume, folio (15 x 10 in.; 381 x 254 mm). 521 (of 530) leaves. Divisional title for Hagiographa repeats woodcut border of general title depicting Henry VIII, Cranmer, and Cromwell distributing Bibles, title for Part II (A1) composed of 16 woodcuts of biblical scenes, 54 woodcut text illustrations all but two rendered column width by flanking narrow woodcut ornaments, numerous floral, historiated, and criblé woodcut initials, some metal cast capitals as described by Blayney; general title and divisional title for Part III (AA1) in facsimile, divisional titles for Parts II (A1) and Hagiographa (Aaa1) cut round and inlaid, letterpress title for the New Testament (Aa1) inlaid within facsimile border, *2–4, *6, and Nn8 in facsimile, *5 cut round and inlaid with approximately 8 lines skillfully supplied in facsimile, lacks blank Q4, approximately 50 leaves remargined (leaves quires Ll and Nn also guarded) with occasional loss of text (side-notes on Bb5 supplied in facsimile), a few corners renewed, some other minor marginal repairs, closed long tears to 7 leaves (those on H2 and QQ1 and costing a some text), a few headlines and sidenotes shaved. Nineteenth-century brown morocco antique by W. Pratt, diapered and paneled in blind, the spine in six compartments tooled in blind and lettered gilt, gilt-ruled turn-ins, edges gilt; rebacked.  

Provenance

Henry Sotheran (letter dated 11 September 1897, tipped to front pastedown) — Rev. Eugene Augustus Hoffman, Dean of General Theological Seminary, New York City (presentation bookplate to the Seminary). acquisition: Christie's New York, 1 October 1980, lot 22  

Literature

Formatting the Word of God 8.6; STC 2068; ESTC S122342; Peter W.M. Blayney, The Stationers' Company and the Printers of London. Vol. 1 1501–1546 (2013). pp. 360–374, passim; Herbert 46

Catalogue Note

First edition of the "Great" Bible, so called because of its imposing size "which Thomas Cromwell as the king's viceregent, in an injunction to the clergy  (September 1538), ordered to be set up 'in sum conuenient place within the said church that ye haue cure of, where as your parishioners may moste commodiously resorte to the same and reade it ...'" A revision of by Coverdale of Matthew's Bible, which he corrected chiefly by the aid of Sebastian Munster's Latin translation of the Hebrew OT ... and of the Vulgate and Erasmus's Latin version in the NT, with the collateral help of the Complutensian Polyglot" (see Lot 148) (Herbert).

Grafton and Whitchurch selected François Regnault of Paris to print the Bible. Their choice can be attributed to the greater skill of Parisian printers as well as the availability of quality paper.  Furthermore, meant to impress by its scale, the Bible was to be printed on large demy paper measuring more than 22 x 16 inches (559 x 406 mm); and no printing press in England was suitably machined to accommodate it.

By the end of 1538, the French authorities, already suspicious of Reformers, suppressed the work and confiscated many of the sheets remaining in Regnault's possession. (Blayney estimates that 60 percent of the printed sheets had previously reached England safely based on an analysis of the initials and woodcuts). Grafton and Whitchurch subsequently transported the necessary presses, type, and workmen to London where the edition was completed in April 1539.