1538 Coverdale New Testament

LAST OF THE "MARTYR'S BIBLES"

"The New Testament" Myles Coverdale Version

Octavo size

Herbert's Bible Reference # 40, recording only 4 copies in existence. 

Some hold this edition to be the earliest separate issue of Coverdale's New Testament, but Nycolson's editions are probably earlier. Leaves are unnumbered. Each page contains 48 lines of printed text. References in the margins. Coverdale's summaries before the chapters; and gloses at the end of many. Tyndale's Prologues to most of the books. Contains about 200 impressive woodcut illustrations. These include cuts of the Four Evangelists, and SS. Paul, Peter, and James (the two latter being full-page cuts). The text also contains 153 small woodcut illustrations, distributed as follows: 51 in St. Matthew, 22 in St. Mark, 42 in St. Luke, 37 in St. John, and 1 in Acts. These illustrations are the same as those which appeared in "Jesu Christi Vita", a work printed by Matthew Crom in 1537, and which are teh work of LIeven de Witte, a painter of Ghent. At Acts II there is a full-page cut of the Day of Pentecost, and in Revelation there are 21 full-page illustrations. 

VERY fine rebind, including resewing properly to conservator standards. Housed in a special protective box. Binding has silver claps, and extensive gold tooling to covers and spine. Note that this edition is missing a number of leaves, including the title page to St. Matthew Chapter 8 and various other leaves throughout the book. The missing leaves are filled in with EXCELLENT quality facsimile pages. Original pages are in excellent condition considering the age of this volume. They are only lightly faded with some staining and foxing, but the text is still bold and readable. This is an incredible piece of history for the discerning Bible collector. What once was illegal to own is now yours to treasure today.