CHAPTER XLVIII.

THE printing of the Bible seems up till 1576 to have been open to any who could obtain a royal license. Wilkes, Queen Elizabeth's ambassador to France, Holland, and Germany, enjoyed for some time the privilege of being "her Majesty's printer of the English language." This patent was sold in part to John Jugge, the son of the printer of the Bishops' Bible, amidst the protests of 175 members of the Stationers' Company, and of 185 dealers in books. Another patent, more extensive, was sold by Wilkes in 1579 to Christopher Barker for a "great sum." In 1589 Christopher Barker obtained a direct patent for himself and his son Robert who outlived him fortysix years, and died an imprisoned debtor. This patent embraced "all Bibles and Testaments whatever in the English tongue, with notes or without notes, printed before then or afterwards to be printed by our command." Robert Barker obtained in 1612 a patent for his eldest son Christopher, to be held after his father's death; but this son dying in 1617, the patent, to last for thirty years, was transferred to the second son Robert. The Barkers then assigned their right to Bonham Norton and John Bill; and in 1635 Robert Barker paid £600 for the patent already enjoyed by his two elder sons, to be held in reversion by his younger sons, Charles and Matthew. The Barkers thus held the patent virtually till 1709, a period of 130 years, when the Basketts got it and kept it for 90 years or till 1799, the last thirty years of this term being assigned, however, to Charles Eyre and his heirs for £10,000. Eyre took possession in 1769, and assumed William Strahan

THE PRINTING OF THE VERSION.

289 as partner, and the patent came in course of time into the hands of the present possessors, Eyre & Spottiswoode.1

As told on page 33, Barker had been in the service of Walsingham and had his patron's crest, a tiger's head, over his shop in Paternoster Row; and the same symbol occurs in the initial letter of Psalm cxii, in the edition of 1611, and similarly at Psalms xxxv, exii, exiii, in the edition of 1617. The Barkers honoured Cecil, also, in a similar way, by inserting his arms in capital letters in their Bibles, as in the initial B, of Psalm i, of the editions of 1634 and 1640.

But as the patent descended through these years there were various changes in the names appearing on the title-page of the Bible, and though only one date is given in the following clauses, the same names usually continued for several years. In 1620 the printers are Robert Barker & John Bill; in 1631, Robert Barker & the Assignees of John Bill; in 1666, John Bill & Christopher Barker; in 1679, John Bill, Thomas Newcomb, & Henry Hills; in 1690, Charles Bill & the Executrix of Thomas Newcomb; in 1728, John Baskett & the Assigns of Henry Hills; in 1769, Thomas Baskett & the Assigns of Robert Baskett; in 1806, George Eyre & Andrew Strahan. The Universities at the same time had their own printers.

It is a gross but a natural mistake to imagine that these patents were given to secure correct and careful printing. They are simply a royal gift to a public servant or a favourite, with or without a pecuniary return. They contain no injunction as to correctness, and provide no penalty for inac

curacy.

The following pages are not meant to present a systematic Bibliography; only a very few distinctive editions of the English Bible are noticed, so that we do not stir the question as to the names that ought to be given to certain forms and sizes of the volumes. A description of various lists of English Bibles (Tutet, Ducarel, and Ames being included), may be found in Cotton's preface to his "Editions of the English Bible." The long list published by Lea Wilson contains only the copies in his own library; and though he got 1 Report of a Select Committee of the House of Commons, 1860.

into confusion about the issues of 1611, he has given useful accounts of many editions. Loftie's "Century of Bibles" contains much interesting information; and in his Appendix he has printed a list of the copies of the Authorized Version in the British Museum, in the Bodleian Library, in the Library of Canterbury Cathedral, in that of Mr. Francis Fry of Bristol, and in the Royal Library at Stuttgart. The large collection of Bibles belonging to the late Mr. Euing, of Glasgow, has been bequeathed by him to the library of the University.

The revised copy or copies of the Bishops' Bible used at press have not been preserved. A volume in the Bodleian Library, an edition of 1602, with corrections, has been sometimes taken for one of them; but Canon Westcott clearly proves the incorrectness of the opinion, from the nature of the marks and notes. Kilburne's Tract,1 published in 1659, contains this curious protest, that the printing of Bibles should "not be solely appropriated to Mr. Hill and Mr. Field, on pretence of their purchasing the translated copy made in anno 1611, and unduly entering it lately as their private copy, and for their sole property in the Stationers' Register." It seems to be beyond doubt that the revisers wrought upon a copy of the edition of 1602, a reprint of that of 1572, and certainly not upon a copy of the first edition of 1568, as has been sometimes conjectured.

It might be anticipated that a patentee would at a new epoch endeavour to produce an immaculate edition, as he had no fear of rivalry, and could command his own price. But the result has been far otherwise. Barker looked, however, to the sale and dispersion of the first editions, for there were two competitors in the market. It was meant to succeed and supplant the Bishops', of which it was a professed revision, and

1 Kilburne's Tract has been reprinted by Mr. Loftie in his Century of Bibles, London, 1872. The title of the Tract, a copy of which is in the British Museum, is "Dangerous Errors in several late printed

Bibles; to the great scandal and corruption of sound and true religion. Discovered by William Kilburne, Gent. Printed at Finsbury, anno 1659.

XLVIII.]

NUMEROUS MISPRINTS.

291

the change was speedily and easily effected. The two books were brought into artistic correspondence by the employment in King James' Bible of the same head pieces, woodcuts, and other embellishments, which had appeared in the Bishops'. The figure of Neptune with his trident and horses, which appears so often in the Bishops', stands at the beginning of Matthew. The figure wants freshness, for the cut had not even been touched up for its present position. But the Genevan was a more formidable rival; and the new Bible was also made to correspond externally in many ways with this older and very popular version. The title-page of the smaller editions of 16121613 is a facsimile in its ornamentation of that so often found in copies of the Genevan, the title being in the heart-shaped oval, with the twelve tribes and the twelve apostles in the margin. The quarto Bibles and the octavo New Testaments had usually this plate. The issue of 1616, the first folio in Roman letter, appropriated a design already used in the Bishops', the arms of James being substituted for those of Elizabeth, and the dragon giving way to the unicorn. Before the year 1640, Barker and his successors had issued fifty editions, five in goodly black letter folio in 1611, -13, -17, -34, -40. By this time also two editions had also been published in Edinburgh, and ten at Cambridge.

But the printing itself is from the beginning marked by many serious blunders, and those who saw the first edition through the press did not exercise a strict and continuous supervision. What are called the first and second issues 2 of 1611 are disfigured by many errors. A portion of a verse is printed twice in the one issue, Exodus xiv, 10. "Judas" stands for "Jesus "3 in the other (Matt. xxvi, 36), with Christ spelled "Chkist,'

and "OE" for "OF" in the Dedication, while in the list of books 1 and 2 Chronicles are put down as 1 and 2 Corinthians. Exodus ix, 13, reads, "Let my people go that they may serve thee," for "serve me." The following are a sample of misprints in what has been commonly called the first issue: Gen. x, 16, "Emorite" for "Amorite"; Exodus xxxviii, 11, "hoops" for "hooks"; Lev. xiii, 56, "the plaine be" for "the plague be"; xvii, 14, "ye shall not eat" for "ye shall eat"; Ezra iii, 5, the word" offered" is repeated. Isaiah xlix, 20, “the place is too straight" for "strait," though the first is an older form of spelling; Jer. xxii, 3, "deliver the spoiler" for "the spoiled"; 1, 29, "she hath done unto her" for "she hath done, do unto her"; Ezek. vi, 8, "that he may have" for "ye may have"; xxiv, 7, "poured it" for "poured it not "; Hosea vi, 5, "shewed them" for "hewed them"; Mal. i, 8, "if he offer" for "if ye offer"; Matt. vi, 3, "right" for "right hand"; viii, 25, "awoke" for "awoke him"; xvi, 25, "his" is repeated; 1 Cor. xiv, 23, "come together into some place," but rightly given in xi, 20, "into one place." The headline 2 Chron. xxix is printed xxxix, and the headline Micah iv is printed "Joel"; Gen. xvii, heading Isaac is spelled "Izsaac." On the top of the column. containing the portion of 1 Esdras iv, Apocrypha is printed. Anocrynha. For its errors and inconsistencies the first edition. cannot, therefore, be regarded as a standard edition. There are also capricious irregularities in the printing of the supplemental words. The edition of 1613 is still worse, for though it corrects some errors of the first issues, it has many of its own; Lev. vii, 25, "the fast of the beast" for "the fat of the beast"; xix, 10, "shall glean" for "shall not glean"; xxvi, 24, “wake contrary" for "walk contrary"; Deut. xix, 5, "slippeth from the helm" for "the helve"; 1 Sam. x, 16, "water" for "matter "; 2 Kings xxii, 3, "were" for "year"; 2 Chron. vi, 10, in the throne of David" for "in the room of David"; Neh. x, 31, "we would not leave" for "we would leave"; Job xxix, 3, "shined through darkness" for "walked through darkness"; Isaiah lix, 7, "shed bleed" for "shed innocent blood"; Ezek. xxiii, 7, " she delighted herself" for "she defiled herself"; Dan. iv, 13, "a watcher holy and an one" for "a