Books and Manuscripts

The boke of Magna Carta / with Diuers other Statutes / Whose names appere in the nexte lefe folowynge / translated into Englyshe
(London: Robert Redman), 1534. First complete and unabridged edition in English. 8vo, 5 1/4 x 3 1/2 in. (133 x 89 mm). (iv), 165, 177-194, (6) l.; lacking leaves 166-176. Translated from the Latin and French into English by George Ferrer. Text in gothic type, with woodcut initials, and Redman’s printer’s device on verso of 2B8. Full modern brown calf, red morocco spine label, stamped in blind and in gilt; edges stained blue; light soiling and wear to title-page, three repairs in top with small section of in-filling; loss and heavy wear to leaves 161 and 163-165, affecting text; light to moderate dampstaining in top of most text leaves; leaves 116, 185, 186, and 194 trimmed close in fore-edge shaving printed folio number; scattered marginalia and soiling to text. Beale S-10; ESTC S122094

Exceedingly rare first complete and unabridged printed English translation of the Magna Carta. Robert Redman (d. 1540) was a rival of English printer Richard Pynson (publisher of the first printed edition of the Magna Carta, in 1508), and took over his printing studio on Fleet Street in London upon the latter’s death in 1529/30. Redman recruited politician, lawyer, and poet, George Ferrers (c. 1510–1579), to provide this English translation from the Latin. Redman, like Pynson, was known for publishing legal texts for practicing lawyers and judges, as well as aspiring law students, at London’s Inns of Court, and his firm provided some of the first English translations of statutes for London’s legal community.

This first complete English translation is preceded only by John Rastell’s 1527 partial English translation. Ferrer included the full translation of the Charter, plus statutes antedating Edward III that were not included in Rastell’s edition. Redman and Ferrer’s Great Charter was poorly received upon publication due to its numerous grammatical and printing errors, which were corrected in subsequent editions over the following decade, including by Redman’s wife, Elizabeth, in her 1541 reprint.

Rare. ESTC locates only nine institutions worldwide with copies. This is the first copy we can locate in the available auction records in the past 48 years, and only the fifth copy overall.