CHAPTER VI.

ON THE MODERN VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES.

SECTION I.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE CIRCULATION OF THE SCRIPTURES.

I. Scarcity and high prices of the Scriptures. II. Rude attempts to convey an idea of their contents to the poor and illiterate. Account of the BIBLIA PAUPERUM. III. Number and classification of the translations of the Bible into Modern Languages.

I. THE versions noticed in the preceding chapter are all that are of importance for the purposes of biblical criticism: but copies of them do not appear to have been very numerous in any country. In the early ages of Christianity, however anxious its professors must have been to become possessed of the sacred volume, — and however widely it was read in their assemblies for divine worship, -still the publication of a version was not what it now is, the emission of thousands of copies into the world. It consisted, in a great measure, in translators permitting their manuscripts to be transcribed by others and so long as the tedious process of copying was the only one which could be resorted to, exemplars of the sacred writings must have been multiplied very slowly. Before the inventions of paper and printing, manuscripts were the only books in use, and bore such excessively high prices, especially those which were voluminous, that few besides the most opulent could afford to purchase them even monasteries of some consideration had frequently only a missal. So long as the Roman empire subsisted in Europe, the reading of the Scriptures in Latin universally prevailed: but, in consequence of the irruptions of the barbarous nations, and the erection of new monarchies upon the ruins of the Roman power, the Latin language became so altered and corrupted, as no longer to be intelligible by the multitude, and at length it fell into disuse, except among the ecclesiastics.

In the eighth and ninth centuries, when the Vulgate Latin version had ceased to be generally understood, there is no reason to suspect any intention in the church of Rome to deprive the laity of the Scriptures. "Translations were freely made, although the acts of the Saints were generally deemed more instructive. Louis the Debonair is said to have caused a German version of the New Testament to be made. Otfrid, in the same" (that is, the ninth) cen

1 Concerning the rarity and high prices of books, during the dark ages, the reader will find several authentic anecdotes in the first volume of an Introduction to the Study of Bibliography,' (pp. 345-349.), by the author of this work.

tury, rendered the Gospels, or rather abridged them, into German Verse: this work is still extant, and is, in several respects, an object of curiosity. In the eleventh or twelfth century, we find translations of the Psalms, Job, Kings, and the Maccabees, into French. But, after the diffusion of heretical principles, it became expedient to secure the orthodox faith from lawless interpretation. Accordingly the council of Thoulouse, in 1239, prohibited the laity from possessing the Scriptures; and this prohibition was frequently repeated upon subsequent occasions."

II. Although the invention of paper, in the close of the thirteenth or early in the fourteenth century, rendered the transcription of books less expensive, yet their cost necessarily placed them out of the reach of the middling and lower classes, who (it is well known) were immersed in the deepest ignorance. Means, however, were subsequently devised, in order to convey a rude idea of the leading facts of Scripture, by means of the Block Books or Books of Images, as they are termed by Bibliographers, of which the following notice may be not unacceptable to the reader.

The manufacturers of playing cards, which were first invented2 and painted in the fourteenth century, had in the following century begun to engrave on wood the images of the saints, to which they afterwards added some verses or sentences analogous to the subject. As the art of engraving on wood proceeded, its professors at length composed historical subjects, chiefly (if not intirely) taken from the Scriptures, with a text or explanation engraved on the same blocks. These form the Books of Images or Block Books just mentioned: they were printed from wooden blocks; one side of the leaf only is impressed, and the corresponding text is placed below, beside, or proceeding out of, the mouth of the figures introduced.

Of all the Xylographic works, that is, such as are printed from wooden blocks, the BIBLIA PAUPERUM is perhaps the rarest, as well as the most antient; it is a manual, or kind of catechism of the Bible, for the use of young persons, and of the common people, whence it derives its name, Biblia Pauperum-the Bible of the Poor; who were thus enabled to acquire, at a comparatively low price, an imperfect knowledge of some of the events recorded in the Scriptures. Being much in use, the few copies of it which are at present to be found in the libraries of the curious, are for the most part either mutilated or in bad condition. The extreme rarity of this book, and the circumstances under which it was produced, concur to impart a high degree of interest to it.

The Biblia Pauperum consists of forty plates, with extracts and sentences analogous to the figures and images represented therein; the whole are engraven on wood, on one side of the leaves of paper;

1 Hallam's View of Europe during the Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 536. 4to. edition. 2 They appear to have been first invented in 1390 by Jacquemin Gringonneur, a painter at Paris, for the amusement of Charles VI. king of France, who had fallen into a confirmed melancholy, bordering on insanity. Rees's Cyclopædia, vol. vi. article Cards.

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so that, when folded, they are placed opposite to each other. Thus, as the white sides of the leaves may be cemented together, the total number is reduced to twenty, because the first and last page remain blank. Copies however are sometimes found, the leaves of which not having been cemented on their blank side, are forty in number, like the plates. Each plate or page contains four busts, two at the top, and two at the bottom, together with three historical subjects: the two upper busts represent the prophets or other persons whose names are always written beneath them; the two lower busts are anonymous. The middle of the plates, which are all marked by letters of the alphabet in the centre of the upper compartment', is occupied by three historical pictures, one of which is taken from the New Testament; this is the type or principal subject, and occupies the centre of the page between the two anti-types or other subjects, which allude to it. The inscriptions which occur at the top and bottom of the page, consist of texts of Scripture and Leonine verses.

Thus in the fortieth plate, of which our engraving is a copy2, the two busts of David and Isaiah are placed in the middle of the upper part of the page, between two passages of the Bible. The first of these, on the left of those prophets, is partly taken from the Song of Solomon (chap. v. 7, S.) and runs thus: Legitur in Cantico Canticorum quarto capite, quod (or quo) sponsus alloquitur sponsam, et eam sumendo dixit; "Tota pulchra et amica mea, et macula non est in te. Veni, amica mea; veni, coronabere." Sponsus verus iste est Christus; qui, in assumendo eam sponsam, quæ est anime sine macula omnis peccati, et introducit eam in requiem eternam, et coronat cum corona immortalitatis.3

The second passage, which is on the right of David and Isaiah, is taken from the Book of Revelations, and runs thus: Legitur in Apocalypsi xxi. capite, quod angelus Dei apprehendit Jhoannem Evangelistam, cum esset in spiritu, et volens sibi ostendere archani Dei dixit ad eum; "Veni, et ostendam tibi sponsam, uxorem agni." Angelus loquitur ad omnes in generali, ut veniant ad auscultandum in spiritu agnum innocentem Christum, animam innocentem coronantem.3

Beneath the bust of David which is indicated by his name, is a scroll proceeding from his hand inscribed Tanquam sponsus dominus procedens de thalamo suo. [See Psal. xix. 5. Vulgate Version.]

Beneath Isaiah is ysaye vi, with a label proceeding from his hand inscribed Tanquam sponsus decoravit me corona. [Sce Isa. Ixi. 10. Vulgate Version.]

The letter.. between these two labels denotes the order of the plate or page, as the cuts in this work follow each other according to two sets of alphabets, each of which extends from a to v only:

1 These letters Mr. Dibdin thinks are the origin of the signatures which are used to denote the order of the sheets in printed books. Bib. Spenc. vol. i. p. xxvi. 2 Made from the last plate or page of the exemplar, which was the late Mr. Willet's. See the engravings facing the title-page.

3 The above sentences are printed without the contractions, which are so numerous and so complex, as to be with difficulty understood by any who are not conversant in antient records and early printed books.

when the first series is completed, a second is begun, the letters of which are distinguished by two points. a. . b.. t. &c.

In the central compartment, between the busts above described, is the type or principal subject; it represents the rewards of the righteous in the eternal world, and the Redeemer is introduced as bestowing the crown of life on one of the elect spirits. The antitype on the left is the daughter of Sion, crowned by her spouse with the following Leonine verse,

Laus aie vere: spōsū bñ sēst here;

that is,

Laus anime vere sponsum bene sensit habere.

The antitype on the right is an angel, speaking to St. John, with this verse beneath :

Spōs amat spōsam Xs nimis et speciosam ;

that is,

Sponsus amat sponsam Christus nimis et speciosam.

From the left hand figure of the bust at the bottom of the plate, proceeds this label corona tua c'culigata [circumligata] siet [sit] et calciame [calciamenta] i peb [in pedibus], with a reference to Ezekiel, ch. xxiv. The twenty-third verse of that chapter [Vulgate Version] is most probably the passage intended.

From the figure on the right (which seems to have been designed for the prophet Hosea, as the other figure may mean the prophet Ezekiel,) proceeds the label, Sponsabo te mihi in sempiternum, &c. with a reference to Hosea v. The passage alluded to will be found in Hos. ii. 19. which runs thus :- Sponsabo te mihi in sempiternum, et sponsabo te mihi in justitia, et in misericordia et in miserationibus. [Vulgate Version.]

The last line in our fac-simile of the Biblia Pauperum may be thus read :

V9 tūc gaudēt aie sibi qu bonu datr ome.

that is,

Versus. Tunc gaudent animæ sibi, quum bonum datur omne. Bibliographers are by no means agreed concerning the age1 which

1 Baron Heinecken, who has examined several copies of this work with minute attention, has discovered five different editions of the Biblia Pauperum; the fifth is easily known, as it has fifty plates. In executing the other four editions, the engravers, he observes, have worked with such exactness, that there is very little difference between any of them, so that it is impossible to determine which is the first. The attentive bibliographer however will discover several variations. These are pointed out by Heinecken, who has described the subjects of the different plates or leaves with much minuteness; as his interesting work is in the hands of every bibliographer and amateur, it will be sufficient to refer to his Idée d'une Collection d'Estampes, pp. 293-333; from which Santander has abridged his neat account, Dict. du xv. Sicele, vol. ii. pp. 207-210. Lambinet (Recherches sur l'Imprimerie, pp. 61-72;) and Daunou (Analyse des Opinions sur l'Origine de l'Imprimerie, pp. 7-15.) have short but interesting notices, relative to this and the other Books of Images, which will repay the trouble of perusal to those who have not the dear volume of Heinecken, or the elaborato work of Santander.

they assign to the curious volume above described. Mr. Dibdin', it is apprehended, dates it too low, in fixing it to the year 1450 and though the cuts are not designed in so heavy and Gothic a style as Baron Heinecken ascribes to them, yet the execution of them on the wood-blocks is confessedly very coarse, as our specimen (which is an exact fac-simile) will abundantly prove. The form of the letters also is too Gothic, and too void of proportion to bear so late a date: indeed, if they be compared with the letters exhibited in some of the fac-similes in the Bibliotheca Speencriana (which are supposed to have been executed between 1420 and 1430), the similarity of coarseness in the shape of the letters, will render it probable that the Biblia Pauperum is nearly of equal antiquity. In fact, it is this very coarseness of the letters (as Heinecken has remarked) which has caused the edition above described to be preferred to every other of the Biblia Pauperum.2

III. The discovery of the art of printing in the fifteenth century, and the establishment of the glorious Reformation throughout Europe, in the following century, facilitated the circulation of the Scriptures. Wherever its pure doctrines penetrated, the nations that embraced it, adopting its grand principle that the Bible contains the Religion of Protestants, were naturally desirous of obtaining the sacred volume in their respective languages. And even in those countries, into which the Reformed Doctrines were but partially introduced, it was found necessary to yield so far to the spirit of the times, as to admit, in a limited degree, vernacular translations among the people. Since the Reformation, wherever learned and pious missionaries have carried the Christian Faith, the Scriptures have been translated into the languages of its professors.

The total number of dialects, spoken in any part of the world, is computed to be about five hundred; and of these somewhat more than one hundred appear to constitute languages generically distinct, or exhibiting more diversity than resemblance to each other. Into upwards of one hundred and fifty of these various dialects, the sacred

1 Bibliotheca Spenceriana, vol. i. p. xxvi.

2 The rarity of the Biblia Pauperum has caused the few copies of it, which are known to be extant, to be sold for the most exorbitant prices. These indeed have varied according to the condition and difference of the several editions. The copy which Heinecken describes as the first (and which is noticed above; cost at the sale of M. de Boze, in 1753, 1000 livres, (431. 15s.); at the sale of M. Gaignat in 1769, 830 livres, (361. 6s.); at the sale of M. Paris in 1791, 511.; and at that of Mr. Willet, in 1813, two hundred and forty-five guineas! The edition, described by Heinecken as the second, produced at M. Verdussen's sale, in 1776, 250 florins of exchange, (about 241.); at that of M. la Valliere, in 1783, 780 livres, (341. 2s. 6d.); and at that of M. Crevenna, in 1789, 946 livres, (411. 7s. 9d.) Copies of the Biblia Pauperum are in his Majesty's library (formerly Gaignat's copy); in that of Earl Spencer; the Bodleian and Corpus Christi Libraries, at Oxford; Bennet College Library, Cambridge; in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, (it is very imperfect); in the Royal Library at Paris (formerly Valliere's copy, it is imperfect); and in the Public Library at Basle. For an account of the Speculum Humana@ Salvationis and other curious Books of Images, see the author's Introduction to Bibliography, vol. ii. Appendix, pp. v-xiv.; and Baron Heinecken's Idée Générale d'une Collection complette d'Estampes. Leipsic, 1771. 8vo.

3 Historical Sketch of the Translation and Circulation of the Scriptures, by the Rev. Messrs. Thomson and Orme, (Perth, 1815, 8vo.) p. 44.