Description
Wm. Tyndale’s “The Byble”. LUKE 22:44-24:12. FRAMED. “The Passion of Christ: Betrayal, Crucifixion & Resurrection”. The Byble, 1537. FIRST EDITION. VERY RARE. Known either as the “Tyndale-Matthews Bible” or the “Matthews Bible,” but published simply as “The Byble.” Text here is Tyndale’s unaltered final translation, being the first New Testament Tyndale translation in a whole Bible (based on his 1535 edition a/k/a the first GH ed.); see notes below. Printed most likely in Antwerp by John Rogers a/k/a Thomas Matthews (martyred in 1555), for R. Grafton and E. Whitchurch who published “The Byble” in London, 1537. Folio size, 13.3″ x 9.0″, Black Letter type. Reference: Herbert 34. Leaf is in FINE+ condition overall, clean with full marginal notes; small closed tear to outer edge due to normal usage (see pics). Leaf is Folio XXXV [=35] with two small Chapter Woodcut initials. See the final pictures for an exact comparison to this leaf, from a facsimile of the 1537 Matthews Bible. COA on premium “gold leaf” paper w. gold seal. This is an original, premium NT folio leaf in near-excellent condition, professionally framed and double-sided to view both sides of the leaf. COA and Description are set in a museum quality Bifold Portfolio. Census of extant Bibles is about 40 copies, most of which are incomplete. [Regarding the pricing of this leaf: NT leaves are 4-times rarer than OT leaves, and this one is a premium leaf!] Very Rare to Extremely Rare.
PROFESSIONALLY FRAMED. Double-sided to see either side. 17.0″ x 13.3″. All archival. Black matting with black inner edge. UV clear glass on both sides. Antique-looking gold gilt wooden frame. Value: $250.
OF NOTE: Of the original est. 1500 copies of this Bible, only about 40 remain – some 15 complete and some 25 incomplete (compare to about 250 extant 1611 first issue “He” King James Bibles). But how many individual leaves are extant is unknown. Judge for yourself how rare this leaf is! Some history: William Tyndale’s New Testament, the first printed English NT, was published in 1525 (only 3 copies are extant) with several editions thereafter. Because Tyndale translated from the Greek using Erasmus’ Greek text, his English NT is widely considered “the real primary version of our English Bible” (Herbert), with his translations making up about 75% of all English Bibles today. Tyndale translated the entire NT and some parts the OT, completing only the first five Books of Moses, Jonah, and the non-canonical Prayer of Manasseh, prior to his execution on October 1536. While the 1535 Coverdale Bible was the first whole bible in English (only about 15 or so are extant), Coverdale based his 1535 translation on German and Latin sources rather than on the original Greek and Hebrew, so Tyndale’s work is not represented in the Coverdale Bible. In distinction from Coverdale, John Rogers a/k/a Thomas Matthews, in compiling “The Byble” of 1537, used Tyndale’s 1535 NT without adjustments or editing, the remainder of the OT being Coverdale’s own 1535 translations; see Herbert 15 and 34 for this scholarly consensus. Rogers’ only contribution was the marginal notes, chapter summaries, and prefaces. The Byble of 1537 a/k/a Mathews Bible was thus the first whole Bible to use Tyndale’s unedited translations from Greek and Hebrew sources — though the Coverdale Bible has the distinction of being the first whole English Bible but notably without Tyndale’s translations. Notwithstanding, only Tyndale’s translations have stood the test of time, forming the basis of the Great Byble of 1539-1541 in which, strangely, Coverdale revised Tyndale’s translations from Matthew’s 1537 “The Byble” rather than using his own, likely out of political expediency!! In sum: Tyndale’s translations, not Coverdale’s, proved superior and formed the basis of all major English translations in use today.
Value: $2450. Framed.
