Books and Manuscripts

The First English Catholic New Testament in English

Rhemes: John Fogny, 1582. First edition. 4to. (xxviii), 745, (27) pp. Full contemporary calf, stamped in blind and in gilt, rebacked, edges renewed, extremities dry and rubbed, front and rear boards rubbed, scattered scratching to same; all edges trimmed; old ownership signature of R.N. Green-Armytage, Middle Temple, Bath, on front free endpaper; trimmed old ownership signature at top of title-page; scattered minor spotting and foxing to text; scattered minor dampstaining along top edge of some leaves at rear; in slip case and chemise. Darlow & Moule 134 (Herbert 177)

"The editio princeps of the Roman Catholic version of the New Testament in English.Translated from the Vulgate by Gregory Martin, under the supervision of William Allen (afterwards Cardinal Allen), and of Richard Bristow." (Herbert, p. 96) Following the restoration of English Protestantism by Queen Elizabeth I, Allen established the English College at the University of Douai in France in 1568 to serve as a bastion for exiled Catholics and to supply the Catholic Church with priests. By the time Martin began his translation in 1578, the English College was the center of English Catholic life, and at the time was temporarily removed to the safe haven of Rheims due to religious conflict with Calvinists. The project of completing a full Catholic Bible in English served to provide English Catholics not only with a version they could read and understand, but also to counter the many Protestant translations that were often antithetical to their needs and beliefs. Martin finished this translation in March 1582 but due to funding issues the Old Testament was not completed for another 27 years, in 1609. Once completed, the full Douai-Rheims Bible proved influential for the completion of the 1611 King James Bible (see lot 167), and was often consulted by its revisors.

Robert North Green-Armytage (1878-1966) was an English lawyer, writer, and book-collector.