Bibliographic Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature

by Henry Watson Kent

The other title-page is seen in the facsimile. It is printed with a woodcut border which represents above, the Evangelists Matthew and Mark, the Adonai, Lamb, and Dove in cartouches, while below are found St. Luke and St. John, the Lamb on the altar, and the cherub's head, Barker's ornament. The tents and shields of the Twelve Tribes are represented in twelve round panels on the left side, and the Twelve Apostles, similarly framed, on the right. The signatures

and

are seen at the bottom of the title panel. This border, like the great primer black letter of the text, had been previously used by Christopher Barker, in an edition of the "Bishops Bible," published in 1585, and by Robert in 1602; afterward, in an edition of the New Testament (Royal Version) published in 1617, and also in other works. While more finished in execution, the design is similar in idea to one often used by Barker, notably in a Bible printed in 1593, and bears some resemblance to a border found in Plantin's "Great Bible."

The copper-plate title is sometimes found with what is called the first issue of the work, sometimes with the second, and sometimes with the editions of 1613 and 1617. It has been suggested that it was intended to be used with the woodcut border always found with the New Testament in both issues, and usually ascribed to the second, although "there is no ground for supposing that it was always issued with it." That Boel took the motive of the tents and shields of the Tribes for a minor detail in his border, is a point worthy of notice because this fact might, with some reason, be used to prove that inasmuch as his engraving was made some time after the unknown wood-engraver's border, it could hardly have appeared with the first issue.

We quote the following from W. I. Loftie's A Century of Bibles:

"Mr. Fry has compared together 70 copies of the Bible of 1611. By observing how many of them were exactly alike he was able to determine their order of publication. Twenty-three copies were found to present the same peculiarities. Two only varied from the 25 and from each other, in 8 leaves, 2 in one and 6 in the other. Of the remaining 45, 40 were mixed with leaves from other editions, but 38 contained leaves of the same edition. Mr. Fry's conclusions were as follows:—One issue is unmixed except 2 copies in 25: the other is made up (1) with reprints, (2) with parts of the first issue, (3) with preliminary leaves from 3 other editions: he therefore infers that the two issues were distinct and that the issue which presented the fewest instances of admixture was the first. His conclusions seem unassailable; it is therefore assumed to be proved in this list, that the issue of which he examined 25 copies so nearly alike, is the first, and is entitled to the honour of being called the Editio Princeps of the version."

The chief differences in the collation of what is called the second issue with the first are these: "The fifth leaf is Sig. B. in the preliminary matter: Kalendar C, C2, C3, and followers. In the first page of the Dedication OE is printed for OF and in the eighth line CHKIST for CHRIST. In the 'Names and order of the Bookes' there are three lines printed in red: I Chronicles, is misprinted I Corinthians, and II Chronicles, II Corinthians. The chief errors of the first issue are corrected, but the repetition in Ezra iii. 5, remains. Exodus ix. 13, Let my people goe that they may ſerve thee, for serve me. S. Matthew xxvi. 36, Then commeth Judas with them unto a place called Gethſemane, for Then cometh Jeſus. The initial P. in Psalm 112, contains a woodcut of Walsingham's crest."

Robert Barker's name calls for more than passing notice, since he it was who, more than any one else after the forty-seven translators, was responsible for the production of the Authorized Version. On January 3, 1599, the court of assistants of the Stationers' Company recognized the letter patent of Queen Elizabeth granting Robert Barker the reversion for life, after his father's death, of the office of Queen's Printer, with the right of printing English Bibles, Books of Common Prayer, statutes and proclamations. Christopher Barker, the father, who was also Queen's Printer, made an interesting report in December, 1582, on the printing patents which had been granted from 1558-1582, and in it he speaks of his own rights. Mr. Edward Arber, in quoting the report, calls it a masterly summary, whose importance and authority as a graphic history of English printing, it would be hardly possible to exaggerate. In "A note of the offices and other speciall licenses for printing, graunted by her maiestie to diuerse persons; with a coniecture of the valuation" he says: "Myne owne office of her Maiesties Printer of the English tongue gyven to Master Wilkes, (and which he had bought) is abbridged of the cheefest comodities belonging to the office, as shall hereafter appeare in the Patentes of Master Seres and Master Daye: but as it is I haue the printing of the olde and newe testament, the statutes of the Realme, Proclamations, and the booke of common prayer by name, and in generall wordes, all matters for the Churche."