Grafton and Edward Whitchurch, newly housed in the vacated precinct of the Gray Friars, appeared, in April 1539, the first edition of the Great Bible. The name ‘Great Bible,’ as being ‘ of the greatest volume’ (both terms being used by Grafton him- self), is a convenient one by which to denote the seven editions of this work issued during the years 1539-41. Of these the second and subsequent ones had a preface by Cranmer, and the name ‘ Cranmer’s Bible’ may be properly applied to them. But it is not correct to use it, as is often done, of the first edition as well, in the preparation of which the archbishop had no direct share. The dates of the seven are as follows :—(i.) April 1539; (ii.) April 1540; (ili.) July 1540; (iv.) ready in November 1540, but kept back till the following year, on account of the fall of Cromwell in July 1540; (v.) May 1541; (vi.) November 1541; (vii.) December 1541. Though no two issues are identical, the family likeness is so strong that it will suffice to describe the first, and to indicate briefly the features by which later ones may be identified. The title of (i.) is:* ‘The Bible in| Englyshe, that is to saye, the con|tent of all the holy serypture, bothe | of y® olde and newe testament, truly | translated after the veryte of the | Hebrue and Greke textes, by y® dy|lygent studye of dyuerse excellent | learned men, expert in the forsayde | tonges. @ Prynted by Richard Grafton & | Edward Whitchurch. | Cum priuilegio ad imprimen|dum solum | 1539.’ This title, in black and red letters, is surrounded by a singularly spirited woodcut, bearing no artist’s name or mark, but commonly believed to be by Holbein. In the centre at the top, a king, his crown laid aside, is prostrate on the ground before a figure of the Saviour appearing in the clouds. Lower down the central line, the same king, seated on his throne, and now easily recognizable as Henry VIII., is giving a clasped volume lettered verbum Det to a group of ecclesi- astics on his right, headed by Cranmer, and to a corresponding group of lay nobles and others on his left, headed by Cromwell. Beneath, on the dexter side, a preacher, not unlike Colet (who, however, had been dead twenty years), is address- ing a mixed multitude on the words of 1 Ti 2). Labels, with suitable inscriptions in Latin, issue from the mouths of the chief characters. Some little boys, too young to have learned Latin, cry ‘God save the king’ in English.t Five more leaves of preliminary matter follow, containing (1) ‘The Kalender,’ ending with ‘an Almanach for xix years’; (2) ‘An exhortacyon to the studye’ . 3 (3) ‘The summe and content of all the holy scripture’. ..; (4) ‘A prologue’...; (5) ‘A descripeyon and successe of the kynges of Juda’ . . .3 (6) ‘With what iudgement the bokes of the Olde Testament are to be red.’ Genesis begins on the seventh leaf, marked ‘fo. 1.’ It is worth while to give some extracts from the Prologue, ‘expressynge what is meant by certayn signes and tokens that we have set in the byble. First, where as often tymes ye shall fynde a small letter in the texte, it sygnifyeth that so moche as is in the small lettre doth abounde and is more in the common translacyon in Latin, then is founde ether in the Hebrue or in the Greke. . . . Moreouer, where as ye fynde this figure of it betokeneth a dyuersyte and difference of readynge betwene the Hebrues and the Chaldees in the same place. . . We haue also (as ye maye se) added many handes both in the mergent of thys volume and also in the
* The copy used is that marked O. 18. d.1in the Library of the British Museum. It is a singularly fine copy, the leaves measuring 15 x 10 inches. A sumptuous copy on vellum, meant for Cromwell himself, is in the Library of St. John’s College, Cambridge. In this the title is somewhat abridged.
+ A full description of the woodcut is given in Moulton, pp. 138, 139, and in Mombert, pp. 204, 205.
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text, vpon the which w® purposed to haue made in the ende of the Byble (in a table by themselues) certen godly annotacions: but for so moch as yet there hath not bene soffycient tyme minystred to the Kynges moost honorable councell for the ouer- syght and correccyon of the sayde annotacyons, we wyll therfore omyt them, tyll their more con- uenient leysour. . . . God saue the Kynge.’ The colophon is: ‘The ende of the new ‘Testamét : | and of the whole Byble, ffynisshed in Apryll, | Anno M.CCCCC. XXxIx.* | A Diio factii est istud.’
Peculiarities by which the various issues of the ‘Great Bible’ may be distinguished one from another have been minutely tabulated by Fry (Description of the Great Bible, fol. 1865). The first three editions alone have the i) as a reference for Coverdale’s intended ‘annotacyons,’ the ‘ conuenient leysour’ for which never came. The same three editions also are the only ones which present Cromwell’s coat of arms, in Holbein’s woodcut, unerased. After his attainder and execution, July 28th, 1540, the circle containing his arms is left blank, Cranmer’s Prologue, as was said, is prefixed to the second and following editions. In it he distinguishes two classes of people : some being too slow, and needing the spur; others too quick, and needing the bridle. ‘In the former sorte be all they that refuse to read the scripture in the vulgar tongue. .. . In the latter sorte be they which by their inordinate reading, vndiscrete speaking, contentious disputing, or otherwyse by their licentious living, slaunder and hynder the worde of God. ...’ The Introduction to the Apocryphal Books, for which, however, Cranmer is not in the first instance responsible, has a curiously confused account of the term ‘ Hagiographa,’ by which for some reason they are described :—‘because they were wont to be reade, not openly and in comen, but as it were in secret and aparte.’ The mistake was repeated in the editions of April and July 1540, and of May and December 1541. In the fourth of the seven, the first which shows Cromwell’s arms erased, the title presents, by way of compensation, the names of Cuthbert [Tunstall], Bishop of Durham, and Nicholas [Heath], Bishop of Rochester, as those by whom the work was ‘ouersene.’ In the title to this edition, also, the king is styled ‘supreme heade of this his churche and Realme of Englande.’