On Old English Bibles.

There is only one woodcut in the folio Bible of 1537 ( that of Jonah ) , which is not in that of 1535 . The edition of Matthew ' s Bible , printed by Petyt and Redman , in 1540 , has the first and New Testament titles printed from the 1535 blocks . The same may be said of the Bible printed by Raynalde and Hy ll , in 1549 .

Of course the letterpress is different in each case . The edition of Matthew ' s Bible , with E . Becke ' s peculiar notes , printed the same year ( 1549 ) by Day and Seres , contains forty-nine impressions from the identical woodcuts used by Van Meteren . Richard Jugge used Van Meteren ' s woodcuts of the four Evangelists ( the Man , the Lion , the Ox , and the Eagle ) in his revision of Tyndale ' s New

Testament in 1552 , and in its re-issue in the " Fysshe " Testament of 1553 . The large map in the Bishops' version of 1574 is the same as appeared in the first English Bible . What became of the type used by Jacob van Meteren has never been discovered , for , excepting that the word " Lorde , " in Roman letters , may be observed in the 1537 editionnone of the type of Coverdale ' s 1535 Bible has

, ever been found in any other book . Mr . Francis Fry , who is the greatest authority , living or dead , on the subject of English Bibles and Testaments , has spared no trouble , expense , or talent in searching , at home and abroad , for traces of Van Meteren ' s type , but without sueenss .

The title of this Bible is , " Biblia , the Bible that is the Hol y Scripture of the Olde and New Testament faithfull y and truly translated out of Douche and Latyn into Englishe , MDXXXV . " The colophon is , " Prynted in the yeare of our Lord MDXXXV , and fynished the fourth daye of October . " The size of the book is small folio , measuring about 12 inches by 8 inches . It met with anything but a warm reception in Englandand the publisher

, had great difficulty in selling it . To effect the sale of the book , Nycholson cancelled the original Antwerp title , ancl issued a fresh one , with new preliminary matter . We do not know of any copy , excepting the Earl of Leicester ' s , that has Van Meteren ' s title as it was brought to England with the unbound Bible . When this book arrived from Antwerp it had no dedication to the Kingbut

, , finding it sold badly , Nycholson inserted a dedication to Henry VIII . of five pages long , and nearly as fullsome as that " to the hi gh and mighty Prince " in our present version . It is not certain how many years Coverdale ' s first Bible hung on Nycholson ' s hands , but in 1537 he printed two editions in English type , one in folio and the otber in quarto . This he may have done to help off the Antwerp ¦

edition , for some copies of the first edition have the name of King Henry ' s "dearest just wyfe , and most vertuous Pryncesse , Quene Jane , " in the dedication , instead of Anne . As Henry was not married to Jane Seymour until May 20 th , 1536 , it is plain that all the copies of the 1535 Bibles could not have been sold for a considerable time after that date . It is possible that the leaves of dedication with

Queen Jame ' s name may have been supplied from the second edition of 1537 . To mix up editions in this way , seems not to have been considered blameworthy . August 16 th , 1550 , Christopher Froschover , of Zurich , printed another quarto edition of Coverdale ' s Bible for " Andrewe Hester dwellynge in Paules Churchyard at the sygne of the whte horse . "

y The type of the preliminary matter of this edition is different to the angular German type of the text of the book , and is believed to have been printed in England , as it is the small old English letter then common . A 2