The text of the New Testament of Iesus Christ, translated out of the vulgar Latine by the papists of the traiterous seminarie at Rhemes… By William Fulke. London: Deputies of Christopher Barker, 1589.

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BIBLE, in English

The text of the New Testament of Iesus Christ, translated out of the vulgar Latine by the papists of the traiterous seminarie at Rhemes… By William Fulke. London: Deputies of Christopher Barker, 1589.

Price realised GBP 40,000

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BIBLE, in English
The text of the New Testament of Iesus Christ, translated out of the vulgar Latine by the papists of the traiterous seminarie at Rhemes… By William Fulke. London: Deputies of Christopher Barker, 1589.
First edition of an important refutation of the Rheims Catholic New Testament, with pastedowns from an early 10th-century manuscript on vellum of St Jerome’s Treatise on the Psalms. In his attempt to produce the first systematic and comprehensive argument against the New Testament printed at Rheims in 1582, William Fulke inadvertently secured for that work ‘a publicity which it would not otherwise have obtained, and was indirectly responsible for the marked influence which Rheims exerted on the Bible of 1611’ (Herbert).

The contemporary annotations on the endpapers show evidence of considerable scholarship, comparing the translations with the Vulgate and the Greek, and referring to commentators including Erasmus and Estius [the Dutch Catholic scholar Willem Hessels van Est]. The annotator shows a marked hostility to the Catholic Douay-Rheims translation, often noting where it diverges from the Vulgate (‘the vulgate not tra[n]slated’; ‘doth not translat[e] the vulg.’), elsewhere criticising ‘absurd’ translations (e.g. of one phrase within the Epistle of James ‘an absurd translation and the note like unto it’) and noting of one phrase in Thessalonians 1.11 that it is ‘not translated but corrupted for advantage’. In the same partisan spirit, the Protestant translations are referred to as ‘our translation’ (‘our new translation both in the great bible & the new testament printed apart… misprinted 1 Cor 4.9. se[e] the lesser bible’; ‘compare our translation’; elsewhere ‘or as we translate’). Herbert 202; STC 2888.

Folio (280 x 203mm). Title with woodcut border (occasional faint stains, some marginal chips or tears). Contemporary calf, borders ruled in blind enclosing small blindstamped central arabesque, red morocco spine label lettered in gilt; with manuscript pastedowns from Germany, early 10th century: fragments of 27 lines of text in 2 columns written in a neat caroline script in brown ink, ruled in blind, pinpricks survive. The text of the upper and lower pastedowns consecutive, from the commentaries on Psalms 84 and 86 (binding somewhat rubbed, lacking ties, small chips to spine). Provenance: anonymous contemporary annotator, who has added approximately 60 notes on the endpapers and pastedown – Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon (1732–1802; armorial bookplate on front pastedown and title verso, inscription on title).

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