The English Bible In Translation
We take it for granted today that we can pull from our shelves books to read which have been translated from a myriad of languages across history and time. However, this was not always the case, and especially not when it came to sacred texts.
If you are interested in any of these items, please email Early English & Philosophy specialist Oliver Yarwood at oliver@shapero.com to request a copy of the catalogue.
We take it for granted today that we can pull from our shelves books to read which have been translated from a myriad of languages across history and time: Tolstoy in English, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius in French, even the tales of One Thousand and One Nights, translated from the Arabic into French and then English. But this was not always the case, and especially not when it came to sacred texts.
Indeed, the translation of the Bible out of the Latin Vulgate and into the vernacular was once a source of major controversy across all of Europe, but nowhere more so than in England. It led in 1409 to the official condemnation of the first complete English translation of the scriptures, known as ‘Wycliffe’s Bible’ after the dogmatic theologian who became a thorn in the side of the ecclesiastical authorities in the late fourteenth century.
Although the translation remained in circulation long after 1409, Wycliffe’s Bible did not appear in print until 1731, when a small edition of just 160 copies was issued. The copy featured in our catalogue comes from the revived second edition of 1810 and is extra-illustrated with woodcuttings after an 1877 edition of the Biblia Pauperum.
The next major translation to appear in our catalogue takes its name from the Swiss city of Geneva, where this edition was conceived by members of the English clergy during a period of exile following the accession of the Catholic Mary Tudor as Queen of England in 1553.
The Geneva Version is notable for the many woodcuts which adorn the text, which in our example have been meticulously coloured by hand. It’s also famed for the numerous study notes and commentary which reflect the Calvinist orthodoxy of the age and its place of origin.
These factors combined to make the Geneva Version popular with the reading public and emerging Puritan wing of the church, but not so with the ecclesiastical authorities who viewed this radicalism with circumspection.
The solution was a revised translation of Henry VIII’s Great Bible, the first authorised English Bible. This effort was organised by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker, and carried out by members of the episcopate, and so the ‘Bishop’s Bible’ came into being.
The result was adorned with even more woodcuts than the Geneva Version, making it the most lavishly illustrated English folio Bible of the sixteenth century, but unfortunately for the ecclesiastical authorities, the translation never became popular with the reading public.
When James VI of Scotland acceded to the throne in 1603 he sought to heal this division within the church, and so convened a conference at Hampton Court Palace in 1604 where a new translation was conceived.
The King James Version was not initially a success: new editions of the Geneva Bible continued to appear long into the seventeenth century. Nevertheless, overtime the translation grew in popularity, and has widely come to be seen as a towering achievement in the history of the English language.
This example is the third edition to be printed in this distinct large folio format, and is illustrated with John Speed’s Genealogies Recorded in the Sacred Scriptures and his acclaimed double-page map of Canaan.
Written by Oliver Yarwood
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