Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/375

 parishioners had in 1837 erected a monument to his memory (Gent. Mag. new ser. viii. 490).

A portrait of Coverdale, engraved by T. Trotter ‘from a drawing in the possession of Dr. Gifford,’ is in Middleton's ‘Biographia Evangelica,’ vol. ii. An engraving apparently from the same portrait is prefixed to the ‘Letters of the Martyrs’ (1837), and redrawn and engraved by J. Brain for Bagster & Sons, who added it to the ‘Memorials' and their reprint of the 1535 Bible; also in Mrs. Dent's Annals,’ 1877. The authenticity is doubtful.

The tercentenary of the first complete English Bible was observed on 4 Oct. 1835. Many sermons and addresses were delivered on the occasion, and medals in honour of Coverdale were struck. Coverdale had a grant of coat-armour in the reign of Edward VI: party per fess indented, gules and or, in chief a seeded rose between two fleurs-de-lis and in base a fleur-de-lis between two seeded roses, all countercharged.

The name of Coverdale will always be revered as that of the man who first made a complete translation of the Bible into English, but he was not a figure of marked historical interest. He was somewhat weak and timorous, and all through his life leaned on a more powerful nature. Barnes, Cromwell, Cranmer, and Grindal were successively his patrons. In the hour of trouble he was content to remain in obscurity, and left the crown of martyrdom to be earned by men of tougher fibre. But he was pious, conscientious, laborious, generous, and a thoroughly honest and good man. He knew German and Latin well, some Greek and Hebrew, and a little French. He did little original literary work. As a translator he was faithful and harmonious. He was fairly read in theology, and became more inclined to puritan ideas as his life wore on. All accounts agree in his remarkable popularity as a preacher. He was a leading figure during the progress of the reformed opinions, and had a considerable share in the introduction of German spiritual culture to English readers in the second quarter of the sixteenth century.

The following are the titles of the editions of Coverdale's Bible and Testament: (a) ‘Biblia. The Bible, that is the Holy Scripture of the Olde and New Testament, faithfully and truly translated out of Douche and Latyn into Englishe, .’ sine nota, folio (title printed in the same type as the Bible, and on the reverse ‘The bokes of the hole Byble’). (b) ‘Biblia. The Byble: that is the Holy Scrypture of the Olde and New Testament, faythfully translated into Englyshe, .’ sine nota, folio (title and preliminary matter printed in English black letter, text the same as (a). In ‘Notes and Queries,’ 6th ser. vi. 481–2, the Rev. J. T. Fowler describes an edition, now in the Cambridge University library, with a prayer by Bishop Shaxton on the back of the title and other variations from the collation given by Fry). (c) ‘Biblia. The Byble: that is the Holy Scrypture of the Olde and New Testament, faythfully translated into Englyshe, .’ sine nota, folio (title and preliminary matter printed in English black letter, text the same as (a) and (b)). (d) ‘Biblia. The Byble, that is the Holy Scrypture of the Olde and New Testament, faythfully translated in Englysh, and newly ouersene and corrected, .’ Southwarke, J. Nycolson, 1537, folio and 4to (it is doubtful whether the folio or quarto was the first issued in 1537, probably the folio. The original woodcuts and map are reproduced, but the type is the ordinary English black letter). (e) ‘The whole Byble, that is the Holy Scripture of the Olde and Newe Testament, faythfully translated into Englyshe by Myles Couerdale, and newly ouersene and correcte, ’ London, A. Hester [printed at Zurich by Christopher Froschouer], 1550, 4to (the second continental edition of Coverdale's Bible, in a German type similar, but smaller, to that of 1535. The title and preliminary leaves were printed in England in ordinary black letter. The original Zurich title had ‘by Mastr. Thomas Mathewe.’ The edition was republished in 1553 by Richard Jugge, with a new title-page, almanac, &c.) The New Testament from the Bible of 1535 was reprinted by Matthew Crom at Antwerp, with Tyndale's prologues, 1538 and 1539, 12mo, and by Grafton and Whitchurch, 1539, 8vo. Lea Wilson (Bibles, Testaments, &c., p. 143) describes a 12mo copy of the New Testament, which he dates circa 1535. Fry had two small New Testaments printed by Nicolson. The Book of Joshua from Coverdale's translation was issued about 1539 in 12mo, possibly by Gibson. The 1535 Bible was reprinted by Messrs. Bagster in 1847, 4to. (α) ‘The Newe Testament both Latine and Englyshe, ech correspondent to the other after the vulgare texte, communely called S. Jeroms. Faythfully translated by Myles Couerdale,’ Southwarke, J. Nicolson, 1538, 4to (the first edition of Coverdale's Latin-English Testament printed while he was in Paris. It is well executed but full of errors, and Coverdale had a more accurate edition (β) printed at Paris). (β) ‘The New Testament, both in Latin and English, after the vulgare texte, which is red in the Churche. Translated and corrected by Myles Couerdale,’ Paris, F. Regnault for R. Grafton and E. Whitchurch, 1538, 8vo. (γ) ‘The Newe Testament, both