The Concordance;- 1578

The First Alphabet of directions to common places, containing all the Hebrew, Caldean, Greek and Latin.

By  Robert F. Herrey 1578 

Two right profitable and fruitfull Concordances, The “First” Alphabet of directions to common places, containing all the Hebrewe, Caldean, Greeke and Latin words, and names scatteringly dispersed throughout the whole Bible, with their common places following every of them. And the “Second” comprehending all such other principall words and matters, as concerne the sense and meaning of the Scriptures, or direct unto any necessary and good instruction. 

Published in London : By Christopher Barker, printer to the Queenes most excellent Maiestie, [1578]   This 1st. edition was printed as a separate Book by Christopher Barker in 1578 with a forward by the Author  Robert F. Herrey.;-  With 92 Pages;- According to A Short-Title Catalogue of Books 1475-1640 by A.W. Pollard & G.R.Redgrave, The Concordance,  Begins on A2 With the opening page  “ The Preface to the Christian Reader, touching the two Alphabets ensuring”. The Date 1578 is on the second page;-  above,  “Thine in the Lord, Robert F. Herrey.”  Then the Concordance started to be published by  Christopher Barker and Family two years later, in all Geneva Bibles of 1580 to 1615.

Re-bound in Burgundy red leather, in good collectable condition. The Concordances is Complete, Part One & Two.  No other copies of the year of 1578 are held in C.O.P.A.C. or any other Institutional Libraries in the World, so this is the only true 1st. Edition Copy found. Later editions 1580 or later are in some Libraries. The  Imprinted at London : by the Christopher Barker, Printer to the Queenes most excellent Maiestie.  Christopher Barker Printer’s device to the final page. The Barker Family printer most of the English Bibles. Christopher Barker the father of a printing dynasty.

A concordance is an index. The idea is simple. Look up a word in the index and see a list of pages where the word occurs in the book. In the Bible concordance the list is of chapters and verses rather than pages. For example, look up "begat" in a Concordance of the Authorised or King James Version of the Bible and find that "begat" is listed 228 times in 142 verses if the three citations in the Apocrypha are included. There is a lot of begatting (begetting) in the Good Book.

The fascinating fact that people get themselves begat 228 times in the Bible is only slightly less impressive than the fact that John Marbeck compiled the first English concordance of the entire Bible over four centuries ago. His work on the concordance got him accused of heresy. This makes the first English list of biblical begats about four hundred years old. His first concordance was destroyed by fire coincidentally with his sentence to die at the stake for heresy so, after his release from a death sentence and pardon, he hit the books again and got the abbreviated version published in 1550. Although Cruden's Preface is a good short history of the Bible Concordance, perhaps the most popular early concordance is ignored in Cruden's summary. Robert F. Herrey's, concordance dated 1578 was bound with the Geneva Bible. The Herrey concordance sets forward three purposes. One purpose seems to set the prooftext goal of his and all later concordances: "I have likewise by themselves placed all, and as many proper and useful English words, as are contained in the same Bible, conducing to the finding out of the most fittest sentences, and best common places, tending to the proving or verifying of any article and doctrine, concerning our Christian faith and Religion, or belonging to any other godly or necessary instruction: so as if thou would understand what is to be learned in the Scriptures touching God or his power, his wisdom, or his love, his mercy, or his truth, his justice, his promises, his plagues, or his punishments”. Herrey then appends a long list of who can benefit by understanding various doctrines and ideas.

common phrases so that his "Complete Concordance" includes reference lists for "at the beginning," "from the beginning," and "in the beginning."

So there is an index to the almost one million words in the Bible. It is a thorough index, complete and mostly accurate if one can forgive the fact that Cruden missed Huz the brother of Buz completely (Gen 21:21). It seems only fitting to have an index, since the Bible is the only book without a real title. Bible means book. The Bible is a library of books with an index, thanks to Cruden. The concordance is like the card catalog of the library, or for those who have only discovered libraries in the last decade, the computer catalog of library holdings.
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Thank you for your interest in our Tyndale New Testament Bible of 1534;- Herbert 13;- Fry’s No. 3 Tyndale Bible, Complete. 
As far as can be ascertained form the various Auction Records World-Wide , no complete Tyndale New Testament Bible of 1534;- has come to the market to be sold.
So there are no Auction record to go on as a guide,. I need to point out that The Bay Psalm Book, This humble and well-worn hymnal was printed in 1640 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Stephen Daye, first printer of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It is the very first book published in what is now the United States, sold at Sotheby's New York, November 2013, for $14,165,000.  And please note this is one of only 11 copies known to exist. 

There are at the moment no known complete copies of Tyndale New Testament Bible of 1534 in existence in private hands, 2 copies incomplete in The British Library. 

We here at felixrarebooks.com are proud to have such a complete copy for sale. Over the years we at felixrarebooks.com have handled many rare books and we still do. Tyndale New Testament Bible of 1534 was the last Bible he worked on. In a second address to the reader, beginning on the reverse of the first title page,  Tyndale defends with much spirit his own translation against the pretended corrections of Joye, and quotes for the purpose of identification the “tytle of Joye’s edition of August 1534” (Fry’s No. 2). 

Fairly clean throughout, with old antiquarian hand written notes on a few pages. 39 illustrations to the last 100 pages. The 39 woodcuts include small woodcuts of the Four Evangelists, The Day of Pentecost, St. Paul, St. Peter, St. James, and 22 larger woodcuts to illustrate Revelation. Also the 2 woodcuts of the 2 Title-Pages. 
A full page contains 33 lines and there are  423 pages within, printed both side so that is 846, including the two title pages. References, subject-headings, and notes- a few of the last in roman type-appear in the margins. There are Prologues ( Chiefly based on Luther’s ) to all the Epistles; that before Romans fill 34 pages. The Woodcut border of the first title page is framed with a blank shield at the base. That of the second title differs slightly, and the shield bears three graving tools and the initials M K, i.e. Martin de Keyser., Antwerp, Merten de Keyser (born Martin Lempereur; died 1536) was a 16th-century French printer and publisher working mainly in Antwerp,  (Present day Belgium)  for a long time in the 16th. century, Antwerp was part of the Netherlands, the Low Countries -  Merten de Keyser  printed the first complete French and the first complete English Bible translations as well as a number of works by English Protestant Authors. He died in 1536. 
The Tyndale New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ of 1534 is complete in every way, with 850 pages, and with no facsimiles pages within, none of the pages are trimmed and all pages are whole and no repairs appear anyway on or in the book, though the pages are very fragile and aged brown to the edges, a few, very minor hidden glue repairs to the spine when some of the pages appeared to separate from the spine, which would be normal to stabilise and protect the loss of pages and keep the book together. There are a few old antiquarian hand-written notes throughout and in the margins,  but they do not interfere with the text. The aged brown leather parchment Binding appears to be original with a few faded scribbles and a hand-written lettering to the front and back covers, the spine is dark and dirty with age, with a hand-written name of Tyndall (spelled "Tyndall", rather then Tyndale) and the date, 1534 scrawled across the spine. The end papers are in situ and appear to be burnt to the edges as does a few of the edges of the book. The pages are very fragile and aged browned to all the edges, many creased. One of the end pages to the back of the book has antiquarian notes in a neat hand, to a blank page. Considering the age and rarity of this Book, its really in fine collectable condition. We at Felix Rare Books would be looking at serious offers for this unique,  New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ;- Published in1534 by William Tyndale/ Martin de Keyser. 

The Tyndale New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ of 1534, also conforms with Herbert’s Historical Catalogue of Printed Edition of the English Bible 1525-1961 and is Number 13 on the list. page 6 of Herbert’s . All the 39 woodcuts called for, are present, as is the Order of the Books, Index and two Title Pages, with the Date 1534 to the second Title Page. The Tyndale New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ of 1534; appears to be the original binding with old antiquarian hand-written notes, here and there within the old leather parchment binding.  There appears to be old antiquarian hand-written notes, very faded, to the binding with the beginning of a few letters of a name, which we worked out is, we think;-  Osney Abbey or Oseney Abbey, Now according to Tudor History a John Leland raided the Abbeys of England on the instructions of Henry VIII and stole all the books for his Master Henry VIII. The Tyndale New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ of 1534 shows the influence of Luther's 1522 German Translation, and was at times called, Luther's Testament in English. 

Library tours of John Leland, 1533-6

In 1533, Henry VIII appears to have entrusted John Leland with a document, "a moste gratius commission" (or principis diploma as he called it in Latin), which authorised Leland to examine and use the libraries of all religious houses in England.  Leland spent the next few years travelling from house to house, for the most part shortly before they were dissolved, compiling numerous lists of significant or unusual books in their libraries. About 1535, 

In 1536, not long after the First Suppression Act  commanding the dissolution of lesser monasteries was passed, Leland lamented the spoliation of monastic libraries and addressed Thomas Cromwell in a letter seeking aid for the rescue of books. He complained that

"The Germans perceive our desidiousness, and do send daily young scholars hither that spoileth [books], and cutteth them out of libraries, returning home and putting them abroad as monuments of their own country.”

In the 1530s and 1540s, the royal library was reorganised to accommodate hundreds of books that were previously kept in monastic collections. John Leland himself describes how Henry's palaces at  Greenwich, Hampton Court and Westminster, were adapted for the purpose. John Leland's part in this is uncertain. In humanist fashion, Leland styled himself antiquarius, a title which was at one time interpreted as referring to a formal appointment as "king's antiquary": however, it is now understood to have been merely Leland's own preferred way of describing himself. There is no evidence that he personally oversaw the relocation of the books to their new home or received a librarian's wages. What he did do was to compile his lists of important volumes, and to take measures to encourage their preservation. Even after the dissolution, John Leland did not abandon his hunt for books. 

The Printer, Merten de Keyser, in 1528, published William Tyndale's "The obedience of a Christen Man", and in 1530 Tyndale's "The Practyse of Prelates" as well as Tyndale's translation of "The Pentateuch". A year later Merten de Keyser, issued Tyndale's "Exposition of the fyrste Epistle of seynt Ihon", and George Joye's translation of "Isaiah", and also Tyndale's translation of "Jonah", the latter two apparently intended as a twin-publication. Thomas Abell's "Invicta Veritas", criticising Henry VIII's divorce, saw the light of day also in the workshop of Merten de Keyser in 1532. In 1533. Merten de Keyser printing house, posthumously printed John Frith's "Answer to Thomas More", which Frith composed while imprisoned in the Tower of London. In 1534 De Keyser printed the second, revised edition of Tyndale's "New Testament" as well as George Joye's new edition of the "Davids Psalter" based on Zwingli's Latin Psalter, and George Joye's translation of the book of "Jeremiah". These Old Testament translations were the first English translations of these biblical books ever in print. Furthermore, according to the discovery of Guido Latré in 1997, it was also Merten de Keyser who printed the first complete English Bible, known today as the Coverdale Bible. The place of publication of the 1535 edition was long disputed. The printer was assumed to be either Froschover in Zurich or Cervicornus and Soter (in Cologne or Marburg). Since the discovery of Guido Latré  in 1997, the printer has been identified as  Merten de Keyser in Antwerp.  

 The "New Testament" were  published in 1534 personally revised by Tyndale himself. Tyndale's "Pentateuch" was published at Antwerp in the Low Countries;-  by Merten de Keyser in 1530. His English version of the book of "Jonah" was published the following year. This was followed by his revised version of the book of Genesis in 1534. Tyndale translated additional Old Testament books including Joshua, Judges, first and second Samuel, first and second Kings and first and second Chronicles, but they were not published and have not survived in their original forms. When Tyndale was martyred these works came to be in the possession of one of his associates, a  John Rogers. These translations would be influential in the creation of the Matthew Bible which was published in 1537.

Tyndale used a number of sources when carrying out his translations of both the New and Old Testaments. When translating the New Testament, he referred to the third edition (1522) of Erasmus’s Greek New Testament, often referred to as the Received Text. Tyndale also used Erasmus' Latin New Testament, as well as Luther’s German version and the Vulgate. Scholars believe that Tyndale stayed away from using Wycliffe's Bible as a source because he didn’t want his English to reflect that which was used prior to the Renaissance. The sources Tyndale used for his translation of the Pentateuch however are not known for sure. Scholars believe that Tyndale used either the Hebrew Pentateuch or the Polyglot Bible, and may have referred to the Septuagint. It is suspected that his other Old Testament works were translated directly from a copy of the Hebrew Bible. He also made abundant use of Greek and Hebrew grammars.

We were asked to give a lecture on rare books and manuscripts in Cahir Hotel tonight. We had a great turnout and really enjoyed sharing our books. Here are some pictured from the night. This was a great chance to touch and feel these wonderful books in the flesh...no white gloves😄