Overview:
Title: The New Testament, Translated from the Latin, in the Year 1380, by John Wiclif
Editor: Reverend Henry Hervey Baber
Publisher: Richard Edwards, London
Date: 1810
Language: Middle English
Format: Folio
Reference: Herbert 1537
Description
An attractive 1810 edition of John Wycliffe's New Testament, edited by the Reverend Henry Hervey Baber and printed in London by Richard Edwards.
This important edition reproduces the later Wycliffite translation of the New Testament, originally produced in the late fourteenth century. It represents one of the earliest attempts to make the Scriptures accessible in the English language, long before the translations of William Tyndale and the King James Bible.
The 1810 publication was the first edition prepared by Henry Hervey Baber and only the second separately printed edition of Wycliffe's New Testament, following John Lewis's 1731 publication.
The volume includes an engraved portrait of John Wycliffe, Baber's historical memoir, an account of early English biblical translations, the complete New Testament text, additional scriptural lessons according to the Use of Sarum, and an extensive glossary explaining the archaic language.
Historical Significance
John Wycliffe was an English theologian and religious reformer whose ideas anticipated several important developments of the Protestant Reformation.
Associated with the earliest complete translations of the Bible into English, Wycliffe and his followers sought to make Scripture available beyond the Latin-reading clergy.
The Wycliffite Bible circulated in manuscript during the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Its Middle English language provides a fascinating insight into the development of both the English Bible and the English language itself.
Published in 1810, this edition appeared during a renewed scholarly interest in Britain's medieval religious and literary history. Baber's work helped preserve and introduce Wycliffe's translation to a wider nineteenth-century readership.
Binding
Bound in half leather with marbled paper-covered boards, raised spine bands, and a red leather title label lettered in gilt, Wickliffe's New Testament.
The binding presents an attractive period appearance, with the contrasting marbled boards and leather spine reflecting the traditional style of nineteenth-century bookbinding.
Condition
A well-preserved antique volume showing general wear consistent with its age.
The leather and marbled boards display rubbing, scuffing, and surface wear, particularly around the extremities. The interior exhibits occasional foxing, spotting, and age-related discolouration, while the printed text remains generally clear and legible.
The engraved portrait frontispiece and title page are present.
Dimensions:
Weight - 1.66kg
Height - 31.5cm
Width - 25.5cm
Thickness - 2.8cm
