Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/502

 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

493

long parliament, and suffered for a time to keep bis prebend, when all the rest of the prebendaries were turned out. But seeine the course which the second parliament took, he inclined to the king^s cause, and lired in retirement during the commonwealth.

He was born in the parish of St. Olave, in Southwark, and was first of Christ church, and then of Westminster, where he died in the be- ginning of October, 1659, and was buried in Sie south aisle of St. Peter's church, Westmin- ster. He was a learned man ; but does not ap- pear to have published any book. — ^Wood's Athen Oxon FaiH, i. p. 212.

1638. Died, Hans Padlsen Resen, D.D., bishop of Zealand, the great promoter of dis- persing the scriptures in the Danish tongue. When Christian IV. came to England in 1606, on a visit to his brother-in-law JamesI.,hechose Resen and Venusin to accompany him. Here Dr. Resen had an opportunity of forming an ac- quaintance with men of the highest repute in the republic of letters, and collected upwards of thirty ancient and scarce manuscripts; which were afterwards presented by his grandson to the university library in Copenhagen. On the demise of bishop Winstrup, in 1615, he was created bishop of Zealand, which office, says Zwergius, he discharged with great watchfulness and zeal, both in regard to the outward purity of religion, and the advancement of true piety, till his death.

The result of Resen's interview with his Danish majesty, was his appointment to super- intend a new edition of the holy scriptures, to be revised according to the Hebrew and Greek texts. In 1605, the new testament appeared in 2 vols. 18mo., printed on ordinary paper, with a small, yet tolerably distinct type ; and is remark- able for being the first of any part of the Danith scriptures in which the divuion of the chapters into verses is introduced. An edition of the Pen- tateuch, answering to the new testament just described, in size, paper, and arrangement, was finished April 19th, 1605; and is stated to have been printed by Niels Michelson, at John Al- bert's. The text of these editions is exactly the same as that of the whole bible printed in 1607.

Resen's bible being completed, was published at Copenhagen in 1607, " with his majesty's special privilege." On the back of the title-page is the portrait of Christian IV. with this motto, " Regina iirmat pietas," — ^" Piety is the strength of kingdoms."

The publication of Resen's bible gave rise to a famous controversy between Resen and Ivar Stubb, the Hebrew professor in the university of Copenhagen, which terminated in the expulsion of the professor from his office, and is said to have occasioned his end.

Several editions of the psalms succeeded the publication of Resen's bible. Amon^ which may be noted an edition printed by H. Wald- kirch, Copenhagen, 1614, 8vo. accompanied with a portrait of Luther; a metrical version bv Christian Berg, Copenhagen, 1614, 12mo. witn

Uie tunes of Sobwasser, which were greatly es- teemed in the Lutheran churches of Germany ; another elegant metrical version by A. C. Arre- boe, who had been deposed from the see of Drontheim, for his irregular life; Copenhagen, 1623, I6mo. and a small folio edition of the psalms printed by Tyge Nelson, in Copenhagen, 1632, at the expense of the noble and benevolent lady Ellen Marsvin, of Ellenborg. The object she had in view in publishing this edition was, that the holy and sublime truths in it might be accessible by old people with weak eyes, which it is certainly well calculated to answer, the type being so uncommonly large, that though the size be small folio, there are sometimes not more than three verses on a page. Denmark was now in possession of three Mitions of the bible, and of several impressions of select portions of it : yet the copies thus brought into circulation were inadequate to the wants of the nation. Little progress, however, was made in the work for some time, which was most probably owing to his majesty having resolved that the bible should be in /olio, and the want of a sum adequate to the expenses of such an undertaking. Steps were, nevertheless, taken for the procuring of paper, and engaging a printer: and at length the bible appeared in 1633, in larg^e folio, printed at Copenhagen ; accompanied with plates. The portrait of Christian IV. is insertea before the preface, and portraits of Danish kings, in a smaller size, fill the border. Some copies were printed on parchment, and presented by his ma- jesty to foreign courts. The profits arising from the sale of this edition were ordered to be applied to the publication of a Hebrew and Latin bible, the emoluments of which were to be devoted to printing other useful and vendible books; and 300 rix-dollars of the sum advanced by the Nor- wegians, were sent to Amsterdam, as a contri- bution towards the building of the Lutheran church, in that city. The plan of the Hebrew bible failing, an account was rendered to the consistory, by which it appeared that the neat profit ansing from the sale of this edition of the Danish bible amounted to 7000 dollars; of which 1000 were given to the library, and 2000 to the librarian; 2000 applied to the purchase of fuel and candles for the students of king's college ; and the interest of the remaining 2000 employed in relieving the widows of the professors.

In 1639, the royal permission was obtained for reprinting Resen's biDle,the former impression being exhausted. The new testament was first ready, and was published separately, in 1644; and the entire bible made its appearance in 1647, 4to. The whole has a double title, the first surrounded with figures, and acconipanied with a beautiful figure of Christian IV., the second quite plain ; double titles were also affixed to each part, the one ornamented with figures, the other plain. This revision of Resen's version is generally called Svaning's Bible, from having been corrected principally by archbishop Svan- ing, who improved the version, according to the manuscripts left by Resen.

VjOOQ IC