![BIBLE, in Latin. Edited by Gobelin Speck (1476-1556). Cologne: Eucharius Cervicornus for Gottfried Hittorp [?under the aegis of] Adolphus Rinchus and Arnoldus Segenius, 1530.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/1999/CKS/1999_CKS_06125_0050_000(114339).jpg?w=1)
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BIBLE, in Latin. Edited by Gobelin Speck (1476-1556). Cologne: Eucharius Cervicornus for Gottfried Hittorp [?under the aegis of] Adolphus Rinchus and Arnoldus Segenius, 1530.
2 (309 x 197mm). Collation: A-B6 C4 a-z aa-ff6 ee-ll4 mm-zz6 aaa-sss6 ttt8 uuu-xxx6. 415 leaves (of 418, lacking A1 title and xxx1,2 from the glossary of Hebrew and Greek terms). Gothic, roman, italic and occasional Greek type. Address to the reader within four-part woodcut border incorporating printer's mark, the Chronographia with same border and woodcut of St. Jerome in his study, ornamental woodcut initials from several sets. (Lightly browned, light dampstain at lower margin heavier in first and final leaves, final quire rehinged, a few small marginal wormholes.) Contemporary German panelled calf over wooden boards tooled in blind with a feathery roll, remains of two fore-edge clasps with catches on lower board, later speckled edges (rebacked). Provenance: contemporary annotations (trimmed) in English and Latin in four hands, at least one of which was an English reformer in exile involved in preparing the 1560 Geneva Bible; Mrs. Peeters (later 16th-century name written upside-down on A2).
A COPY OF THE EXTREMELY RARE EDITION OF THE LATIN VULGATE EDITED BY GOBELIN SPECK, WITH MANUSCRIPT ANNOTATIONS BY A TRANSLATOR/EDITOR WORKING IN EXILE ON THE CONTINENT TOWARDS THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE GENEVA BIBLE. IT IS THE ONLY SURVIVING MANUSCRIPT WITNESS TO ENGLISH BIBLICAL TRANSLATION BEFORE THE 17TH CENTURY AND IT IS A MAJOR DOCUMENT OF THE SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY OF THE ENGLISH REFORMATION IN EXILE.
The Geneva Bible, first published in 1560, is acknowledged to be second only to the Authorized (King James) version as a complete English scriptural text. It was prepared by a group of English reformers forced to flee to the continent at the accession of Queen Mary in 1553. Settling first at Frankfurt, in 1554 they moved to Geneva, a centre of Protestantism and of scholarly Biblical translation, and established an English church under the ministry of John Knox. Although the team of editors and translators involved in the Geneva Bible is nowhere named, it comprised members of the congregation of Marian exiles, with William Whittingham as general editor. Other contributors may have been Miles Coverdale, Anthony Gilby, Christopher Goodman, Thomas Cole, William Kethe, Thomas Sampson, Rowland Hall, John Pullain, John Bodley, John Baron, and William Williams. The present volume maintains their anonymity, as it is not signed and the hand of the annotations has not yet been identified, owing in large part to the lack of handwriting samples of many of the reformers.
There can be no doubt that the annotations in this copy were made by one of the team of reformers at work on the Geneva Bible. Of the more than 580 translated phrases into English written by the principal annotator, all but a handful correspond closely to readings in the Geneva version. More significantly, about half of these appear in the Geneva version for the first time. For example, where previous English Bibles had the baby Moses found 'in the flags' or 'among the reeds' (Genesis 2:3), the annotator of the present Bible had him found 'amongst the bulrushes'. This is the wording adopted by the Geneva Bible. There are another approximately 250 similar examples, where the translations written here are incorporated into the Geneva Bible in preference to earlier English phrasing.
Just as significant as the annotations which were incorporated into the Geneva Bible are those which were incorporated into neither the Geneva version nor any other version. Their omission shows that the annotator was not simply copying from an English Bible (perhaps as a crib) in annotating his Latin Vulgate, but that he was actively and independently working on the Geneva version, whose final editors chose among his translations, rejecting over twenty of them.
From its first publication in 1560 the Geneva Bible was hugely popular. It was reprinted more than 120 times, even after the first appearance of the Authorized Version in 1611. It was the Bible of Shakespeare, Milton and Donne and thus its language resonates throughout English literature. AS THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT PHRASINGS FOR SEVERAL HUNDRED WORDS OF THE GENEVA BIBLE, THE ANNOTATIONS IN THE PRESENT COPY HAVE HAD A PROFOUND IMPACT ON ENGLISH CULTURE. Furthermore, since many of these translations were retained in the Authorised Version, THEY ARE THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT FOR READINGS IN THE ENGLISH BIBLE AS THEY HAVE BEEN KNOWN TO ENGLISH READERS FOR OVER FOUR CENTURIES. To this anonymous translator we owe such familiar phrasings as 'Grind the faces of the [poor]' (Isaiah 3:15), '[For who hath despised] the day of small things?' (Zechariah 4:10) and the supremely elegant '[The sin of Judah is written] with a pen of iron [and] with the point of a diamond' (Jeremiah 17:1). In contrast, earlier English translations (Coverdale, Taverner, the Great Bible and Becke-Day) of these phrases wrote: 'mar the faces', 'a little season' and 'with the pen of iron and with an adamant claw'.
The present annotated copy of the Speck Bible is the only known manuscript of English biblical translation in progress before the 17th century. The next earliest example -- a 1604 Bible annotated in preparation of the Authorized Version, now at the Bodleian Library, Oxford -- post-dates it by almost half a century (cf. E.C. Jacobs in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 69, 1975, pp. 1-15; The Library, 6th ser., 2, 1980, pp. 16-39; and The Library, 6th ser., 14, 1992, pp. 10-126). It also provides the only indication of the methods and organisation of work applied by the reformers to their monumental project. The annotations are largely restricted to the names of animals, vegetables, minerals, clothing, architectural details and household implements, making it clear that this was one specific task assigned to a translator. The Latin annotations may also be seen to be working towards the Geneva version, providing a gloss which is then translated into the published edition. For instance, against a list of forbidden animals in Leviticus 11:29-30 which in Speck's Vulgate text is 'mustela, crocodilus, migale, licerta', the annotator writes 'weesle, vel rana, ye ratt, lizeard'. The Geneva version adopts the annotator's Latin synonym, translating 'rana' correctly as 'frog'; previous English versions read 'toad'. The Latin annotations suggest that the anonymous translator made use of other scholarly sources in carrying out his task. While one hand was responsible for the majority of the annotations, there are three others. One annotated the first in a few instances, although these revisions generally were not incorporated into the Geneva version; another provided English translations almost exclusively restricted to Psalms, Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus which appear to derive primarily from Coverdale's 1535 version; and a fourth hand provides only a few Latin annotations of no significance.
The Bible chosen by the English reformer to annotate with his translations is AN EDITION OF THE LATIN VULGATE EDITED BY GOBELIN SPECK, WHICH IS OF EXTREME RARITY AND GREAT TEXTUAL SIGNIFICANCE. In one of the few discussions of the Speck Bible yet published, Henri Quentin unreservedly calls it one of the best editions of the Latin Vulgate which had yet been printed: "Elle prsente cependant un des meilleurs textes qui aient encore t publis de la Vulgate" (Mmoire sur l'tablissement du texte de la Vulgate, chapter 4, Collectanea Biblica Latina, vol. VI, Rome and Paris: 1922). Gobelin Speck (Latinized to Laridius) was a Carthusian at the Cologne Charterhouse at the time he edited the Bible; six years after its publication he became prior of the Mainz Charterhouse (A. Vaccari, 'Chi fu Gobelino Laridio, ottimo editore della Volgata nel cinquecento', Scritti di erudizione e di filologia, vol. 2, Rome: 1958). The preface describes Speck as a man of great integrity and learned in Hebrew. It also states that he consulted 15 Hebrew and Latin exemplars, and that he amended the Latin Vulgate only when he found the ancient Latin sources in agreement with the Greek and Hebrew. Speck distinguished passages which were absent in the Hebrew and Greek sources but present in the Latin by having them printed in small type, and he omitted passages from the Vulgate when they were present in neither the ancient Latin nor the Hebrew exemplars. In this latter editorial practice Speck was following previous biblical scholars such as Osiander, but he reached his own conclusions regarding 'genuine' passages, based on the extensive exemplars available to him (cf. Quentin). That one of the translators of the Geneva Bible chose the Speck Bible as the basis for his work attests to the regard in which Speck's edition was held by contemporaries concerned with textual accuracy.
Given the great textual authority of the Speck Bible, its rarity is perplexing. Only three other copies are recorded: Wlfenbuttel (Herzog August Bibliothek), Rome (Vatican Library), and New York (General Theological Seminary). There is no copy in the great Bible collections such as the Landesbibliothek at Stuttgart or the British and Foreign Bible Society Library at Cambridge. One other copy, formerly at Munich and now apparently lost, has been recorded. It is possible that the title-page reproduced by Quentin represents a fifth copy. Even more puzzling than its rarity in the 20th century is the fact that it did not spawn any direct descendants. Subsequent scholarly editions of the Latin Vulgate seem ignorant of its existence. Not until this century when Quentin had it incorporated into the great Rome edition of the Vulgate (where it was one of the few printed editions cited) did it engender an edition, almost four centuries after it was printed. Its contemporary and modern rarity may indicate that the edition was suppressed, but it is difficult to see how its text -- a scholarly edition of the Latin Vulgate -- could have offended Cologne authorities of the time.
The printer of the Speck Bible was well known to English readers, having produced books by English authors such as Richard Croke (Introductiones in Rudimenta Graeca, 1520) and Bishop John Fisher (De veritate corporis et sanguinis Christi in eucharistia, 1527). He also produced books for the English market in Latin with dedications to the English king, Henry VIII, such as the works of Dionysius Carthusianus (printed with Quentel and Soter, 1532-40). Cervicorn's most notable production in English was the Coverdale Bible, the first complete edition of the Bible in English. Printed only 5 years after the Speck Bible, the Coverdale Bible brought Cervicorn into direct contact with the English reformist community on the continent. It almost certainly brought him the opprobrium of the Cologne authorities intolerant of reformist sympathies and necessitated his printing at least part of the edition at his second press at Marburg. The close relationship between Coverdale, who we know to have worked on the Geneva Bible project, and Cervicorn is noteworthy in light of the present annotated copy of the Speck Bible. Given Cervicorn's professional involvement with Coverdale and other English reformers in exile and the importance of Speck's edition of the Latin Bible, it should be no surprise that at least one copy served as a base for preparing the Geneva version. The Speck Bible may now be recognised as one of the sources for the Geneva Bible, and as having enjoyed indirectly a posterity unbeknownst to biblical scholars up to the present day.
References: Copinger Incunabula Biblica (1892), 224; VD-16 B-2596.
2 (309 x 197mm). Collation: A-B
A COPY OF THE EXTREMELY RARE EDITION OF THE LATIN VULGATE EDITED BY GOBELIN SPECK, WITH MANUSCRIPT ANNOTATIONS BY A TRANSLATOR/EDITOR WORKING IN EXILE ON THE CONTINENT TOWARDS THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE GENEVA BIBLE. IT IS THE ONLY SURVIVING MANUSCRIPT WITNESS TO ENGLISH BIBLICAL TRANSLATION BEFORE THE 17TH CENTURY AND IT IS A MAJOR DOCUMENT OF THE SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY OF THE ENGLISH REFORMATION IN EXILE.
The Geneva Bible, first published in 1560, is acknowledged to be second only to the Authorized (King James) version as a complete English scriptural text. It was prepared by a group of English reformers forced to flee to the continent at the accession of Queen Mary in 1553. Settling first at Frankfurt, in 1554 they moved to Geneva, a centre of Protestantism and of scholarly Biblical translation, and established an English church under the ministry of John Knox. Although the team of editors and translators involved in the Geneva Bible is nowhere named, it comprised members of the congregation of Marian exiles, with William Whittingham as general editor. Other contributors may have been Miles Coverdale, Anthony Gilby, Christopher Goodman, Thomas Cole, William Kethe, Thomas Sampson, Rowland Hall, John Pullain, John Bodley, John Baron, and William Williams. The present volume maintains their anonymity, as it is not signed and the hand of the annotations has not yet been identified, owing in large part to the lack of handwriting samples of many of the reformers.
There can be no doubt that the annotations in this copy were made by one of the team of reformers at work on the Geneva Bible. Of the more than 580 translated phrases into English written by the principal annotator, all but a handful correspond closely to readings in the Geneva version. More significantly, about half of these appear in the Geneva version for the first time. For example, where previous English Bibles had the baby Moses found 'in the flags' or 'among the reeds' (Genesis 2:3), the annotator of the present Bible had him found 'amongst the bulrushes'. This is the wording adopted by the Geneva Bible. There are another approximately 250 similar examples, where the translations written here are incorporated into the Geneva Bible in preference to earlier English phrasing.
Just as significant as the annotations which were incorporated into the Geneva Bible are those which were incorporated into neither the Geneva version nor any other version. Their omission shows that the annotator was not simply copying from an English Bible (perhaps as a crib) in annotating his Latin Vulgate, but that he was actively and independently working on the Geneva version, whose final editors chose among his translations, rejecting over twenty of them.
From its first publication in 1560 the Geneva Bible was hugely popular. It was reprinted more than 120 times, even after the first appearance of the Authorized Version in 1611. It was the Bible of Shakespeare, Milton and Donne and thus its language resonates throughout English literature. AS THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT PHRASINGS FOR SEVERAL HUNDRED WORDS OF THE GENEVA BIBLE, THE ANNOTATIONS IN THE PRESENT COPY HAVE HAD A PROFOUND IMPACT ON ENGLISH CULTURE. Furthermore, since many of these translations were retained in the Authorised Version, THEY ARE THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT FOR READINGS IN THE ENGLISH BIBLE AS THEY HAVE BEEN KNOWN TO ENGLISH READERS FOR OVER FOUR CENTURIES. To this anonymous translator we owe such familiar phrasings as 'Grind the faces of the [poor]' (Isaiah 3:15), '[For who hath despised] the day of small things?' (Zechariah 4:10) and the supremely elegant '[The sin of Judah is written] with a pen of iron [and] with the point of a diamond' (Jeremiah 17:1). In contrast, earlier English translations (Coverdale, Taverner, the Great Bible and Becke-Day) of these phrases wrote: 'mar the faces', 'a little season' and 'with the pen of iron and with an adamant claw'.
The present annotated copy of the Speck Bible is the only known manuscript of English biblical translation in progress before the 17th century. The next earliest example -- a 1604 Bible annotated in preparation of the Authorized Version, now at the Bodleian Library, Oxford -- post-dates it by almost half a century (cf. E.C. Jacobs in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 69, 1975, pp. 1-15; The Library, 6th ser., 2, 1980, pp. 16-39; and The Library, 6th ser., 14, 1992, pp. 10-126). It also provides the only indication of the methods and organisation of work applied by the reformers to their monumental project. The annotations are largely restricted to the names of animals, vegetables, minerals, clothing, architectural details and household implements, making it clear that this was one specific task assigned to a translator. The Latin annotations may also be seen to be working towards the Geneva version, providing a gloss which is then translated into the published edition. For instance, against a list of forbidden animals in Leviticus 11:29-30 which in Speck's Vulgate text is 'mustela, crocodilus, migale, licerta', the annotator writes 'weesle, vel rana, y
The Bible chosen by the English reformer to annotate with his translations is AN EDITION OF THE LATIN VULGATE EDITED BY GOBELIN SPECK, WHICH IS OF EXTREME RARITY AND GREAT TEXTUAL SIGNIFICANCE. In one of the few discussions of the Speck Bible yet published, Henri Quentin unreservedly calls it one of the best editions of the Latin Vulgate which had yet been printed: "Elle prsente cependant un des meilleurs textes qui aient encore t publis de la Vulgate" (Mmoire sur l'tablissement du texte de la Vulgate, chapter 4, Collectanea Biblica Latina, vol. VI, Rome and Paris: 1922). Gobelin Speck (Latinized to Laridius) was a Carthusian at the Cologne Charterhouse at the time he edited the Bible; six years after its publication he became prior of the Mainz Charterhouse (A. Vaccari, 'Chi fu Gobelino Laridio, ottimo editore della Volgata nel cinquecento', Scritti di erudizione e di filologia, vol. 2, Rome: 1958). The preface describes Speck as a man of great integrity and learned in Hebrew. It also states that he consulted 15 Hebrew and Latin exemplars, and that he amended the Latin Vulgate only when he found the ancient Latin sources in agreement with the Greek and Hebrew. Speck distinguished passages which were absent in the Hebrew and Greek sources but present in the Latin by having them printed in small type, and he omitted passages from the Vulgate when they were present in neither the ancient Latin nor the Hebrew exemplars. In this latter editorial practice Speck was following previous biblical scholars such as Osiander, but he reached his own conclusions regarding 'genuine' passages, based on the extensive exemplars available to him (cf. Quentin). That one of the translators of the Geneva Bible chose the Speck Bible as the basis for his work attests to the regard in which Speck's edition was held by contemporaries concerned with textual accuracy.
Given the great textual authority of the Speck Bible, its rarity is perplexing. Only three other copies are recorded: Wlfenbuttel (Herzog August Bibliothek), Rome (Vatican Library), and New York (General Theological Seminary). There is no copy in the great Bible collections such as the Landesbibliothek at Stuttgart or the British and Foreign Bible Society Library at Cambridge. One other copy, formerly at Munich and now apparently lost, has been recorded. It is possible that the title-page reproduced by Quentin represents a fifth copy. Even more puzzling than its rarity in the 20th century is the fact that it did not spawn any direct descendants. Subsequent scholarly editions of the Latin Vulgate seem ignorant of its existence. Not until this century when Quentin had it incorporated into the great Rome edition of the Vulgate (where it was one of the few printed editions cited) did it engender an edition, almost four centuries after it was printed. Its contemporary and modern rarity may indicate that the edition was suppressed, but it is difficult to see how its text -- a scholarly edition of the Latin Vulgate -- could have offended Cologne authorities of the time.
The printer of the Speck Bible was well known to English readers, having produced books by English authors such as Richard Croke (Introductiones in Rudimenta Graeca, 1520) and Bishop John Fisher (De veritate corporis et sanguinis Christi in eucharistia, 1527). He also produced books for the English market in Latin with dedications to the English king, Henry VIII, such as the works of Dionysius Carthusianus (printed with Quentel and Soter, 1532-40). Cervicorn's most notable production in English was the Coverdale Bible, the first complete edition of the Bible in English. Printed only 5 years after the Speck Bible, the Coverdale Bible brought Cervicorn into direct contact with the English reformist community on the continent. It almost certainly brought him the opprobrium of the Cologne authorities intolerant of reformist sympathies and necessitated his printing at least part of the edition at his second press at Marburg. The close relationship between Coverdale, who we know to have worked on the Geneva Bible project, and Cervicorn is noteworthy in light of the present annotated copy of the Speck Bible. Given Cervicorn's professional involvement with Coverdale and other English reformers in exile and the importance of Speck's edition of the Latin Bible, it should be no surprise that at least one copy served as a base for preparing the Geneva version. The Speck Bible may now be recognised as one of the sources for the Geneva Bible, and as having enjoyed indirectly a posterity unbeknownst to biblical scholars up to the present day.
References: Copinger Incunabula Biblica (1892), 224; VD-16 B-2596.