remarks, added in the margin below, are short, directly applied to the point, and well conceived; and the whole of the rich apparatus of the book is valuable."—(Hug's Introd. to the New Test. by Dr. Wait, vol. i. pp. 487, 488.) A copy of this curious and valuable work is in the library of the British Museum.

6. Ulfilas. Veteris et Novi Testamenti Versionis Gothicæ Fragmenta quæ supersunt, ad fidem Codd. castigata, Latinitate donata, adnotatione criticâ instructa, cum Glossario et Grammaticâ Linguæ Gothicæ, conjunctis curis ediderunt H. C. de GABELENZ et Dr. J. LOEBE. Vol. I. Altenburgi et Lipsiæ, 1836. 4to.

In this edition are comprised all the fragments of the Gothic Version of the Bible which are known to be extant. They are accurately printed from the best MSS. and critical editions, the various readings of which are exhibited in the notes. The first volume contains all the fragments of the New Testament, to which are prefixed learned prolegomena, discussing the history and critical value of the Gothic Version, and the various MSS. of it which are preserved in different libraries. The second volume was announced as being in a forward state of preparation, while this sheet was passing through the press.

7. The Gothic Gospel of Saint Matthew, from the Codex Argenteus of the fourth Century; with the corresponding English or Saxon, from the Durham Book of the eighth Century, in Roman Characters; a literal English Lesson of each; and Notes, Illustrations, and Etymological Disquisitions on Organic Principles. By Samuel HENSHALL, M.A. London, 1807. 4to.

8. Ulphila Partium Ineditarum, in Ambrosianis Palimpsestis ab Angelo MAIO repertarum, Specimen, conjunctis curis ejusdem Maii et Caroli Octavii Castillionæi editum. Mediolani, 1819. 4to.

This work is illustrated by two plates; the first containing fac-similes of the Codices Rescripti, discovered in the Ambrosian Library, (of which some account has already been given), and the other containing a fac-simile specimen of a Greek mathematical treatise, in which the names of Archimedes and Apollonius are mentioned, and which Signor Maï discovered under some Lombard Latin writing of great antiquity.

9. Ulphila Gothica Versio Epistolæ Divi Pauli ad Corinthios secundæ, quam ex Ambrosianâ Bibliothecâ Palimpsestis depromptam, cum Interpretatione, Adnotationibus, Glossario, edidit Carolus Octavius CASTILLIONEUS. Mediolani, 1829. 4to.

Stutt

10. Evangelii secundum Matthæum Versio Francica sæculi IX. necnon Gothica sæc. IV. quoad superest. Edidit J. Andreas SCHMELler. gart und Tübingen, 1827. 8vo.

lectures on the German It contains the Gospel

This work was published by Professor Schmeller, to illustrate his Language and Literature, delivered in the University of Munich. of St. Matthew in the Frankish dialect, from a MSS. of Tatian's Harmony, of the ninth century, preserved in the Library at St. Gall, in Switzerland. The fragments of the Gothic Version are given according to the Codex Argenteus, and the remains of the Gothic Version, discovered by Maï and Count Castiglioni. A comparison of these two versions will show, that the Frankish and Gothic languages are only dialects of the same antient language, which in the lapse of ages have gradually diverged from each other.

[iii] THE SCLAVONIC VERSION.

Wiwlia, sinetz Knigi, wetchago i nowago sawieta pojasiku slowensku.— The Bible, that is to say, the Books of the Old and New Testament in the Sclavonic language. Ostrog, 1581. folio.

This is the editio princeps of the entire Sclavonic Bible: an interesting account of various previous editions of detached portions of the Old and New Testament, as well as of the pains bestowed in order to render this impression correct, will be found in Dr. Henderson's Biblical Researches, pp. 78-82. Clement (Biblioth. Curieuse, tom. iii. pp. 441-444.) has given a minute description of it; to which Dr. Dibdin acknowledges himself indebted for part of his account of Earl Spencer's copy. (Bibliotheca Spenceriana, vol. i. pp. 90— 93.) But Dr. Henderson, from his residence in Russia, and his critical acquaintance with the Sclavonic language, has been enabled to add much important information (which does not admit of abridgment) relative to this and to subsequent editions of the Sclavonic version, which was utterly unknown to those bibliographers.—See his Biblical Researches, pp. 83-86. 92-103.

[iv.] THE ANGLO-SAXON VERSIONS.

1. Heptateuchus, Liber Job, et Evangelium Nicodemi, Anglo-Saxonice. Historia Judith Fragmentum, Dano-Saxonice. Edidit nunc primum ex

MSS. Codicibus Edwardus THWAITES. Oxoniæ, 1699. 8vo.

The Anglo-Saxon version of the Heptateuch, that is, of the five books of Moses and the books of Joshua and Judges, was made towards the close of the tenth century by Ælfric, archbishop of Canterbury; and was published by Mr. Thwaites from an unique manuscript preserved in the Bodleian Library. The book of Job, also translated by Elfric, was printed from a transcript of a MS. in the Cottonian Library (now in the British Museum); and the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, from Junius's copy of the original manuscript in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The Danish-Saxon version of the book of Judith (a fragment of which is given in the publication now under notice) was made during the time when England groaned under the yoke of the Danish kings. A few notes on Elfric's preface, and some various readings collected from an Anglo-Saxon fragment of the book of Exodus, and the pseudo-gospel of Nicodemus, close this curious and rare volume.

2. Psalterium Davidis Latino-Saxonicum Vetus, a Johanne SPELMANNO, D. Henrici fil. editum e vetustissimo exemplari MS. in Bibliotheca ipsius Henrici, et cum tribus aliis non multo minùs vetustis collatum. Londini, 1640. 4to.

3. Libri Psalmorum Versio antiqua Latina cum Paraphrasi Anglo-Saxonicâ, partim solutâ oratione, partim metricâ, composita, nunc primum e Cod. MS. Bibl. Regiæ Parisiensis desumpta. Edidit Benjamin THORPE. Oxonii, e Typographeo Academico, 1835. 8vo.

4. The Gospels of the fower Euangelistes translated in the olde Saxons tyme out of Latin into the vulgare toung of the Saxons, newly collected out of auncient Monumentes of the sayd Saxons, and now published for testimonie of the same. London, printed by John Daye. 1571. 4to.

The Anglo-Saxon text is divided into chapters, and is accompanied by the English version then in use, in a parallel column, divided into chapters and verses, "which," it is stated in a prefatory note, "was observed for the better understanding of the reader." The editor of this now rare volume was Matthew PARKER; it has a preface, written by the celebrated martyrologist, John Foxe, by whom it is dedicated to Queen Elizabeth.

Two other editions of the Anglo-Saxon Gospels have been printed, viz. by William Lisle, in 4to., London, 1658; and by Thomas Marshall, in 4to., Dordrecht, 1665, with the MesoGothic version. Of the last edition there are copies, with Amsterdam, 1684, in the title; but these are the same edition, with a new title-page.

SECTION VI.

MODERN VERSIONS OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS.

§1. 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. 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 Debonnaire is said to have caused a German version of the New Testament to be made. Otfrid, in the same" (that is, the ninth) "century, 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 1229, prohibited the laity from possessing the Scriptures; and this prohibition was frequently repeated upon subsequent occasions."2

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 invented3 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 entirely) 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.

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.

2 Hallam's View of Europe during the Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 536. 4to. edition.

3 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.

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; 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 compartment1, 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 antitypes 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, 8.) 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 Revelation, and runs thus:- Legitur in Apocalypsi xxi. capite, quod angelus Dei apprehendit Jhoannem Evangelistam, cum esset in spiritu, et volens sibi ostendere archana 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. 4

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. [See 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 only when the first series is completed, a second is begun, the letters of which are distinguished by two points. a....f.. &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 :—

1 These letters, Dr. Dibdin thinks, are the denote the order of the sheets in printed books.

origin of the signatures which are used to 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 engraving 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.

4 See preceding note.

Sect. VI. § 1.]

Description of the Biblia Pauperum.

Laus aie vere: spōsū bñ sest 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 dat ome.

that is,

Versus. Tunc gaudent animæ sibi quum bonum datur omne. Bibliographers are by no means agreed concerning the age which they Dr. Dibdin2, it is appreassign to the curious volume above described. hended, 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 Spenceriana (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.3

1 Baron Heinecken, who examined several copies of this work with minute attention, 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 The attentive bibliographer, however, will it is impossible to determine which is the first. These are pointed out by Heinecken, who has described the As his interesting work is discover several variations. subjects of the different plates or leaves with much minuteness. in the hand 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, Lambinet (Recherches sur l'Imprimerie, Dict. du xv. Siècle, vol. ii. pp. 207-210. 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 elaborate work of Santander.

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

3 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