Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/287

 ii s. 111. APRIL 15, i9ii.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

281

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL JJ, 1911.

CONTENTS. No. 68.

NOTES : The Tercentenary of the Authorized Version, 281 City Churches Destroyed or Demolished, 282 Bibles with Curious Readings Order for a Bible temp. James I., 284 Hare Folk-lore and Easter Harrison the Regicide- Wellington Statues in London, 285 -Burns and the "wee wee German lairdie " Expedition to Ireland, 1571 " Burgling "First Rhinoceros in England, 286.

QUERIES : Nelson and the Victory -Josiah Charley Wall Churches at Bristol Sir Walter Scott's Poet Ancestor Black Bandsmen, 287 Swedish Mission to Abyssinia Vestry held on Lady Day Dr. T. Burton J. B. Falkener J. Heath Humphrey Henchman T. Gray and Mail Coaches The Roebuck and the Arcoul, 288 E. Ravenscroft- Count Leiningen's Memoirs 'Tom Jones': Dowdy G. Aarons, P.M. Alexander Cunning- ham, R.N. " Aleppo Merchant "Inn Bishop B. Vigors Marshal Tallard, Prisoner of War, 289.

REPLIES : Bishop Ken Pawper Bird, 290 Terrace- Eminent Librarians Yews in Churchyards, 291 A Cousin of Boswell Junius and the Duke of Bedford Dutchmen in Pembroke Sweetapple Surname: B. Hodgkin, 293 Sir W. Romney Ear - piercing rordon=Arbuthnot Litany : Spitting and Stamping the Feet, 294 Cbamney Family " Essex " as Christian Name Capt. Cook Memorials, 295 Emperor and Painter Benjamin Franklin and Dreams, 296 Gale Family Sonnets by Rafael Unicorn on Royal Arms Simon de Montfort: French Poem, 297 -Double Dedications Bell Inscription at Fal- mouth William Chalmers of Fintray Elephant and Castle in Heraldry -' St. Monica 'Murderers reprieved for Marriage Oundle, 298.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Lang on ' The World of Homer ' ' The Book of the Dead.'

Booksellers' Catalogues. Notices to Correspondents.

THE TERCENTENARY OF THE AUTHORIZED VERSION.

THE exhibition of Bibles and documents at the British Museum in connexion with this great Tercentenary was described in The Athenceum of the 18th of March, but no history of the Tercentenary celebrations would be complete without a record of the remark- able exhibition now open (and to remain open during the rest of the year) at the John Ry lends Library, Manchester, of the manu- scripts and printed copies of the Scriptures belonging to that institution. I am indebted to Mr. Henry Guppy for an early copy of the Catalogue he has prepared, in which he has included a valuable sketch of the history of the transmission of the Bible. In this sketcli reference is made to the discovery (due to William Cureton in 1842) of some fragments in the British Museum of the old Syriac

version of the New Testament, very different from that of the Peshitta. This version received the name of the Curetonian Syriac. No considerable portion of it was known, however, until 1892, when Mrs. Lewis and her sister. Mrs. Gibson discovered a palimp- sest manuscript on Mount Sinai which they photographed ; the underwriting of this was found to be a nearly complete copy of the four Gospels of a textual character closely I akin to that of the Curetonian.

This country, which was to be distin- [ guished in after years for its zeal in printing and circulating the Scriptures, was, Mr. Guppy points out, " late in entering the lists. England was nourishing her faith on manuscript copies cf Wiclif's versions long after the time when Bibles in the vernacular were being printed in other countries." This is apparent from the Rylands exhibits, which include the follow- ing first vernacular Bibles other than English :

Dutch, Delft, 1477.

French, Lyons, 1473-8.

German, Strassburg, 1466.

Italian, Venice, 1471.

Luther's New Testament, Wittemberg, 1522, and Luther's first Bible, Nuremberg, 1524, are also shown, as well as the first Bible with verse divisions, Lyons, 1528.

" When James VI. of Scotland svicceeded to the throne in England as James I. in the year 1603, there were three notable Protestant versions of the Bible in the popular tongue : The ' Great Bible,' the ' Genevan,' and the ' Bishops'."

At the Hampton Court conference held in January, 1604, James agreed to the pro- posal made by Dr. John Rainolds that a new translation of the Bible should be undertaken, with the well-known result that in 1611 the new version was given to the public.

As to its being called the Authorized Version, Mr. Guppy remarks that, '* strange to say, it was never formally authorized. Indeed, much of its history is involved in obscurity " ; and he quotes Dr. Scrivener, who says : " Never was a great enterprise like the production of our ' Authorized Version ' carried out with less knowledge handed down to posterity of the labourers, their method, and order of working."

" No evidence," continues Mr. Guppy, " has yet been produced to show that the version was over publicly sanctioned by Convocation, or by Parliament, or by the Privy Council, or by the King. It was not even entered at Stationers' Hall, with the result that it is now impossible to say at what period of the year 1611 the book was actually published.''