Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/417

Bagster 8vo and 4to, forming the second part of the 'Treasury Bible.' '2. ' The Management of Bees, with a description of the "Ladies Safety-hive," with 40 illustrative wood engravings,' London, S. Bagster, 1834, small 8vo. A second edition was published in 1838, and a third (also unaltered) in 1805. 3. 'Spiritual Honey from Natural Hives, or Meditations and Observations on the Natural History and Habits of Bees, first introduced to public notice in 1657 by S. Purchas, M.A.,' London, S. Bagster, 1834, small 8vo.

[Information from Mr. B. Bagster; Broad's Memoir of the Life and Christian Experience of S. Bagster, jun., 1837; Literary Gazette, 1834, p. 753.]  BAGSTER, SAMUEL, the elder (1772–1851), founder of the publishing firm of Bagster & Sons, born 26 Dec. 1772, was the second son of George and Mary Bagster, of Beaufort Buildings and St. Pancras. He was educated at Northampton under the Rev. John Ryland, and, after serving an apprenticeship with William Otridge, commenced business as a general bookseller on 19 April 1794 in the Strand, where he remained until 1816. A few years before his removal, the rarity and consequent costliness of all polyglot bibles gave him the idea of supplying the want of a handy and inexpensive edition. He first brought out a Hebrew Bible, which was followed by the Septuagint, both in foolscap octavo. The production of English bibles was a monopoly in the United Kingdom, confined in England to the king's printer and the two great universities, in Scotland to Sir D. H. Blair and John Bruce, and in Ireland to Mr. Grierson. It had been decided, however, that the patent did not apply to bibles printed with notes, and Bagster brought out in 1816 ‘The English version of the polyglot bible’ (with a preface by T. Chevalier), in foolscap octavo size, containing a selection of over 60,000 parallel references, mainly selected and all verified by himself. The book was extremely successful. Every detail in its production was superintended by the publisher, who introduced a new style of binding in the best Turkey morocco, with flexible tight backs, the sheets being sewed with thin thread or silk. He also used prepared sealskins, which, with their ‘pin-head grain,’ were much admired. In 1816 he removed to 15 Paternoster Row. The first issue of the ‘Biblia Sacra Polyglotta Bagsteriana’ appeared between 1817 and 1828, four volumes in foolscap octavo and quarto form, containing, besides the prolegomena of Dr. Samuel Lee, the Hebrew Old Testament with points, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint Greek version of the Old Testament, the Latin Vulgate, the authorised English version, the Greek Textus Receptus of the New Testament, and the Peshito or ancient Syriac version. An edition was printed of a quarto French, Italian, Spanish, and German Bible, which Lowndes states was entirely destroyed by fire on the premises in March 1822, when only twenty-three copies of the New Testament portion were preserved. A folio edition of the polyglot was published in 1828, repeated in 1831, and subsequently, presenting eight languages at the opening of the volume, and including all the ancient and modern versions above mentioned. Copies of the different texts and translations were brought out separately, and in various combinations. The well-known motto of the firm, πολλαὶ μὲν θνητοῖς γλῶτται, μία δ'ἀθανάτοισιν, is said to have been due to the Rev. H. F. Cary (Notes and Queries, ser. i. v. 587). We are informed by a member of the family that the Latin version, multæ terricolis linguæ, cœlestibus una, was by William Greenfield. As the two versions appear on Greenfield's tomb, it is very probable that they were both by him. In consequence of the arbitrary regulations of the excise authorities, paper could only be had of certain sizes. It was partially owing to Bagster's exertions that the rules were modified. Two other forms of the English bible were issued, and, all of them harmonising page for page, began what is known as the ‘Facsimile Series.’ The publication of the first volume of the polyglot was followed in 1821 by an octoglot edition of the liturgy of the Church of England in a handsome quarto. The eight languages were English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, ancient Greek, modern Greek, and Latin. In 1822 Bagster made the acquaintance of the self-taught Orientalist, William Greenfield, of whose life he wrote an interesting account in the ‘Imperial Magazine’ (1834, pp. 9, 63). Greenfield had suggested a lexicon to the polyglot edition of the Hebrew Bible, which caused him to be engaged as a proof-reader to the various learned publications Bagster was then bringing out. In 1824 Bagster circulated the prospectus of a polyglot grammar in twenty or thirty languages upon the principles of comparative philology, also the suggestion of Greenfield, who in 1827 edited for the publisher his ‘Comprehensive Bible,’ with 4,000 illustrative notes, 500,000 marginal references, a general introduction, and a variety of other useful information. Bagster's Syriac New Testament (1828–29) Hebrew New Testament (1830), Polymicrian Greek Lexicon (1829), Schmidt's Greek Concordance (1829), and, in fact, all the small and