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Page xviii
two admirable books: most of which blemishes have been perpetuated to modern times.
1629. 2 Chr. ix. 11 marg.; Jer. xxxiv. 16; Ezek. xxxi. 14; Ecclus. xvii. 24; 2 Macc. ix. 18 (see Appendix C for all these); Judith i. 6 (“Hydaspe:” so also 1638 [not 1744], 1762, 1769, all moderns down to our model [below, p. xxiii.], which restores “Hydaspes” of 1611); Baruch vi. 8 (“gold,” all the editions just named, with 1744 added: here again our model restores “silver” of 1611); 2 Cor. viii. 7 (“in utterance,” repeated in 1638, 1699, “in utterance” 1762: but 1743, 1769 and the moderns restored “and utterance” of 1611); 1 Tim. iv. 16 (see p. x. note 2). Note also that this edition has misled every subsequent one by placing the reference to Ps. xxii. 6 in Job xxv. 6 over against the first “worm” instead of the second.
1638. Neh. xii. 3 marg. (Appendix A); Ezek. xviii. 1; Hos. xiii. 3 (see for these Appendix C); Acts vi. 3 (see p. x.); Rev. ii. 20 (“Jezabel,” the Greek form, followed by 1699, 1743: but “Jezebel” was restored in 1762).
In the matter of the italic type, to which much attention is paid in these two Bibles, one or other of them has led later copies wrong in the following places:
2 Sam. xxiv. 12 do it (1629), corrected in the American (1867) only; Isai. v. 9 marg. This is (1638); 25 were torn (1638); xxxviii. 12 marg. from the thrumme (1638); Jer. xxv. 18 and the princes (1638); Ezek. xl. 4 art thou brought (1629); Zech. vi. 3 and bay (1638); 1 Esdr. viii. 58 is a vow (1629); Matt. xv. 9 for doctrines 1638, for doctrines 1762, &c.; Eph. v. 26 cleanse it (1629). All these are merely uncorrected errata1.
The next pair comprises the black-letter folios of the King’s Printer, dated (10) 1634 [B. M. 1276. l. 5. 1–2] and (11) 1640 [B. M. 1276. l. 7]. The former is much mixed with later issues of the books of 1611 and 1617, and may be discriminated by the use of Mr Fry’s tests (A Description, &c. Plates 46, 47). The latter is at once detected by its use of Roman letters instead of italics in the marginal notes, nor does the type run quite line for line with the earlier folios. Speaking generally, these books contain none of the improvements found in the two Cambridge editions, although a few changes for the better may be met with here and there. Thus the edition of 1634 anticipates the emendations of 1638 in 1 Chr. i. 20; John vii. 16 (Appendix A): in Hagg. i. 12 it reads “Joshuah,” in Rev. xxi. 20 “sardonyx.” In Ecclus. xxxv. 18; xlix. 4; Acts iv. 17; vii. 10 (Appendix A) that of 1640, but not the other, adopts the readings of 1629. A fuller examination would no doubt bring to light some more instances, equally insignificant.
The volume of 1640 proved to be the last of the Bibles of its class, the Great Rebellion leaving men neither inclination nor means for costly undertakings of this nature. “You may well remember,” writes William Kilburne in 1659, to the honourable and elect Christians whom he addresses, “the zeal and care of the late Bishops (especially of reverend and learned Doctor Usher) was such, that for the omission in one impression of the Negative word [not] in the seventh Commandment, the Printer was fined £2000 or £3000 in the late King’s time, as I have heard2, which happened long before the late wars began: in which time, through the absence of the King’s Printers, and cessation of Bible-printing at London, many erroneous English Bibles were printed in and imported from Holland; which being diligently compared by the late Assembly of Divines were reported to the Parliament in 1643 to be corrupt and dangerous to Religion” (Dangerous Errors, &c. p. 5). This importation indeed was expressly prohibited by statute, without much good effect: “Moreover, during the time of the late Parliament great numbers of Bibles in a large 12° volume were imported from Holland in 1656 with this false title (Imprinted at London by Robert Barker, Anno 1638)…being contrary to the several Acts of Parliament of 20° Sept. 1649 and 7 Janu. 1652 for regulating of Printing” (ibid. p. 12). Kilburne furnishes a really painful list of the inaccuracies of these foreign Bibles (“thirty grand faults in part of Genesis, a hundred
| 1 | Professor Grote (MS. p. 36) speaks of a small 4to., Cambridge, 1637, in Trinity College Library, “which has none of the additions of Buck, 1638.” From the specimen Professor Lightfoot gives of its reading in 1 Cor. xii. 28 (On a Fresh Revision, &c. p. 129, note), it does appear to contain the changes or improvements of Cambridge, 1629. Such is the case also in Gen. xxxix. 1; Deut. xxvi. 1; Job iv. 6. The valuable manuscript notes of the late Professor Grote, from which we shall hereafter make several extracts, though scarcely in a state suitable for publication in full, were obligingly placed at our disposal by his representatives, and throw much light on the internal history of the printing of the Authorized Bible. |
| 2 | This notorious book, referred to by Addison (Spectator, No. 579), was published by the King’s Printers, Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, in 1632: the real fine was £300, to be expended on a fount of fair Greek type. It was inflicted by Archbishop Laud (whom even on the eve of the Restoration Kilburne does not care to name) in the High Commission Court. The impression was of course called in, but a single copy is said to survive in the Library at Wolfenbüttel. |
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