Page:Institutes of the Christian Religion Vol 1.djvu/24

xvi work, and of the various changes which it experienced under the hand of its distinguished author during a series of revisals, extending over the long period of twenty-three years.

It is well known that the First Edition is extremely rare. Even the Library of Geneva possesses only a mutilated copy, and not one has been discovered in any public library in England. The whole number of copies known to exist probably does not exceed half a dozen. Fortunately, one of these copies belongs to Mr David Laing, of Edinburgh, who, with his characteristic kindness and liberality, put it at once into the hands of the Translator, with full power to avail himself of it for the benefit of the Calvin Translation Society. It is hoped that the privilege thus bestowed, while it furnishes the means of gratifying a natural and most rational curiosity, may also be made subservient to a higher end.

The First Edition forms a volume in small octavo, of 514 pages, exclusive of the Index, which is placed at the end, and occupies five pages more. For the title-page and its reverse, reference is made to fac-simile No. I. Appendix. The whole work, which is described as one book, is divided into six chapters. These, however, are preceded by the Preface, or, as it is called, Epistola Nuncupatoria, which is printed in Roman character, and terminates on the 41st page, the place and date being, as already observed, "Basilese, X. Calendas Septembres," without any year. The Preface has undergone revisal like the other parts of the work; but as the variations are pointed out in foot notes in the Translation, it seems unnecessary to advert to them here, farther than to observe, that while almost every sentence contained in the First Edition is still retained, additional sentences have been occasionally introduced, chiefly for the purpose of amplifying the quotations from the Fathers.