| The Bible, published
in April 1539, is popularly kown as the Great Bible, because
it was splendidly printed on very large folio paper (42×28cm;type-page
33.7×23.5cm). The first English Bible, formally authorized
by King and Parliament, it is a notable landmark in the
history of the English Bible. This “authorized” Bible was
in effect a revision by Miles Coverdale of the Matthew Bible
published two years previously. “Thomas Matthew”, the name
of the supposed editor, was in all probability a pseudonym
of John Rogers, a friend and fellow-worker of William Tyndale,
who later suffered martyrdom under Queen Mary in 1555. Rogers
compiled it from the renderings of Tyndale and Coverdale's
Bible of 1535; his primary purpose is supposed to have been
to publish Tyndale's unpublished translation of the historical
books of the Old Testament (Joshua-2 Chronicles). The text
of the Matthew Bible was revised by Coverdale largely with
the help of Sebastian Munster's Hebrew-Latin Bible and Desiderius
Erasmus's version of the New Testament.
Coverdale was not a first-class Biblical scholar but he
was certainly endowed with a sense of rhythm, a delicacy
and a happy ease of expression, to which we are indebted
for many felicitous euphonious phrases through their incorporation
in the Authorized Version of 1611. And it is on the Psalms
in the Norvember 1541 edition of the Great Bible that is
based thePsalter in the Prayer Book used in the services
of the Church of England. Thus one part of the Great Bible
has remained in use long after the version of the Great
Bible as a whole was replaced by later and better versions
and finally by the Authorized Version.
Among surviving copies most, it is said, appear to be mixtures
of parts from more than one edition. The present elpis facsimile,
the first reprint of that Bible since 1569, is copied from
the first edition of 1539, which is part of the editions
of the Great Bible in the Bible House Library, now preserved
in the University Libray of Cambridgte. This set, originally
belonging to the Fry collection, is believed to be, in the
words of Francis Fly,“the only complete set extant, each
copy of which may be considered prefect”. |
