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The newe Testament of the last translacion. By Wylliam Tyndall with the prologes and annotacions in the merge[n]t, declaryng many harde places conteyned in the texte, also in the later ende foloweth the Epistles of the olde Testament.
Description
Title page printed in red and black (1549) with an architectural design with two supporting figures and below under an arch a recumbent figure writing. The title page is contemporary and perhaps supplied from another copy. The prelims include an Almanak, Calendar, and Tyndale’s address to the reader. Text in single column black letter with 35 lines to the full column. The text closely follows the 1534 edition of William Tyndale. References, subject headings, and notes in the margins. Woodcut initials before each chapter. Tyndale’s prologues before Matthew and each of the Epistles, including his long introduction to Romans. Ends on dated colophon (1548).
Collation
[unsigned]^4 (-[unsigned]1-3, with authentic title page), A^6(-A^6), B-Z^8(-B-C^6, lacking all text before Matthew 15), Aa-Nn^8. 271 of 292 leaves. Prelims and all missing text supplied in color facsimile.
Binding
Rebound in period-style black calf. Covers with a diaper framework design within a rectangular frame. Spine with four raised bands and elaborate blind tooling to compartments. Endpapers renewed.
Condition
Lacking prelims and all text up to Matthew 15, except title page; Rr7 repaired to upper corner with a few missing words replaced in facsimile; Cc7 lower corner repaired; minor spotting and staining with slight damp-staining at the rear; a few small wormholes; a clean text with some early marginalia in places, far better than typically seen of Tyndale New Testaments from the period.
Provenance
Bookplate of Bristol Baptist College Library to front pastedown with their shelf mark x.9.1 and identification 89b on front free endpaper. An inserted letter in a nineteenth century hand (from Francis Fry?) attempting to identify the edition and inquiring of available copies at the library that match his description; accompanied by C[hristopher] Anderson’s response that no such copies exist. Anderson is the author of Annals of the English Bible. On a blank endpaper facing the title page, an early inscription claims “Coverdale’s Testament” yet this is corrected below (in Fry’s hand?). “A Gifford” of the Baptist College, Bristol, Particular Baptist minister, antiquarian book collector, and librarian at the British Museum to headline of D1.
Scarcity
ESTC records only six institutional copies, with only one in North America. RBH records only one copy at auction (Ryrie sale), also lacking many leaves.
Note
A rare and early Tyndale New Testament. Most of the copies from the forty editions of Tyndale’s New Testament are from the final three printed editions. Heavily suppressed by Mary and produced from much smaller print runs. A true rare and collectible gem.
References
Herbert 77; ESTC S90918; Fry’s No. 18.