The First [And Seconde] Tome or Volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus upon the Newe Testamente, 1548-1549. Married Set of the of the Rare First English Printing of Erasmus’s Paraphrases to the New Testament, With Annotations

Title: The First [& Seconde] Tome or Volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus upon the Newe Testamente, 1548-1549. A Married Set of the of the Rare First English Printing of Erasmus’s Paraphrases to the New Testament. Heavily Annotated in English, and Numerous Manicules by a Contemporary or Near Contemporary Owner to the First Volume, and Early to Near Contemporary Provenance Inscriptions
Author: Desiderius Erasmus; Nicolas Udall; Catherine Parr; Miles Coverdale; Leonard Coxe; Mary I of England; And Others
Publisher: London, Edward Whitchurch
Condition: Very Good

A married set, but a surprisingly rare and largely complete first edition of the English printing of Erasmus’s Paraphrases to the New Testament, a literary rendering of an English translation of the New Testament, interweaved with an English translation of Erasmus’s Paraphrase of the New Testament.

Sets are scarce on the market, with sets, even married ones, not coming to auction or bookseller catalogs regularly.

The text is printed in beautiful blackletter font, in a 48-line format, with large and small historiated and decorative woodcut initials.

In addition to his famous edition of the Greek New Testament, published with a Latin translation in 1516, Erasmus also produced a paraphrase of the whole New Testament (with the exception of the Apocalypse) between 1517 and 1524. Written in his spontaneous and natural Latin style, the work was received with great acclaim. An English translation of them was ordered during the reign of Edward VI, with funds supplied by Catherine Parr, the sixth, and surviving wife of Henry VIII. Among the translators were Miles Coverdale, Leonard Coxe, Thomas Key, John Olde, Nicholas Udall, and the young Princess Mary (later to be queen), who translated most of the paraphrase on the Gospel of John.

A copy of this work was ordered by royal injunction to be 'set up in some convenient place' in churches across the country in order that all clergymen and their parishioners could read it, thus putting it on a par with the Great Bible. 'It was instrumental in making the New Testament in English available and known to clergy and people' and was 'the chief means by which Erasmus was claimed for the English reformed church' (Craig, Forming a Protestant Consciousness, p. 335).

Although both volumes have annotations and inscriptions, the first volume is a veritable trove of notation. There are countless annotations in what is most likely either a contemporary or very near contemporary hand, written in Old English, and the dizzying script seen in 16th century manuscripts. There must be hundreds of hand-drawn manicules as well, more than I have ever seen in a single volume in my entire life. The second volume also has a few scattered annotations and notes, though nothing like what is seen in the first volume.

Both volumes bear quite a few notes of provenance over the centuries:

The first volume bears an inscription for who is most likely Edward Stillingfleet, ordained deacon and priest in 1724; chaplain to the bishop of Exeter in 1760; Vicar of Wolverley in 1761; vicar of Lindridge in 1766-1777; rector of Hartlebury and canon of Worcester in 1777, and having passed away in 21 Mar 1777, with his well mentioning some unspecified books.

Alternatively, the inscription is for one Edward Stillingfleet, an ordained deacon in 14 Mar 1756; perpetual curate in West Bromwich 1757-1782; lecturer of West Bromwich from 1758-1782; and rector of How Caple and Sollershope Herefordshire in 1795, having passed away in 1795.

There is also a bookplate for a more recent Caleb Robjohns, (c.1857-1929), the donor of over 5,000 books to the University College Leicester library. This volume bears the mark no. 225 [45 H.C.] and was later sold as a duplicate in 1934.

The second volume has significantly earlier ownership inscriptions, firstly for Thomas Kinge, Thomas Helme & Elizabeth Roseley (1571), followed by ownership inscriptions from John Cowel and John Ward; George Kadwell (bought from) Andrew Kembe, a bookseller in London.

The first volume has been bound in 17th-century blind-panelled reversed calf, and was rebacked with the original spine re-laid, and a newer leather spine label.

The second volume has been rebound in modern blind-stamped calf with a leather spine label.

The title page to the first volume is lacking, supplied in modern facsimile, as are the two blanks at end of Luke (kk6) and John (U8). The second volume also lacks six leaves, being the title page, C1-4 (Argument Romans) at the end of the preliminaries, and the penultimate leaf at end (Revelation of St John, folio xxxix), all being supplied in modern facsimile, and also lacking three blanks from St Paul to the Galathians and Ephesians). It should also be noted that there are various foliation errors. Asides from the penultimate leaf lacking, the main text itself is complete.

Two finely bound volumes in folio:

Volume 1: 658 of 661 leaves. [18], cxxi [i.e. cx], [8], xciiii, [14], cx[c]vii, [8], cxxi, [2], lxxxvi of lxxxviii leaves.

Volume 2: 347 of 353 leaves. [7 of 12], xliiii, lxiv, xxi, [5], xv, x, x, [xii], xxxiv, [xxviiii], [2], liv, [2], xxxix of xl leaves.

These volumes are in very good shape, with some rubbing and wear to the first volume. The lower half of leaf b8 from the preliminaries has been excised and repaired with text loss affecting the final two lines and the three words ‘without end. / Amen’. There are also marginal repairs to leaf a2 of the preliminaries, and a long diagonal closed tear repair to Matthew O2. There is some damp staining and soiling to the initial leaves, and some spotting and occasional marginal burn holes. Some of the annotations to the first volume have been shaved due to trimming. The second volume also has some dampstaining and soiling throughout, heaviest to the initial handful of leaves.