September 2021 Catalogue

95 B a u m a n R a r e B o o k s 1609-10 First Edition Of The First Roman Catholic Old Testament In English 106. (BIBLE) The Holie Bible Faithfully Translated into English, out of the Authentical Latin. Douai, 1609-10. Two volumes. Quarto, period-style full black morocco gilt. $32,000. Scarce first edition of the first Roman Catholic translation of the Old Testament into English, from the Latin Vulgate. “The Douai Bible is, as it professes to be, a literal translation of the Vulgate, and in some places more accurately hands down the very words of the [Biblical] writers than any English translation then existing” (Dore, 316-17). “This version of the Old Testament… came from the same hands as the Rheims New Testament of 1582” (Darlow & Moule, 129), translated by “religious refugees who carried their faith and work abroad. Since the English Protestants used their vernacular translations, not only as the foundation of their own faith but as siege artillery in the assault on Rome, a Catholic translation became more and more necessary in order that the faithful could answer, text for text, against the ‘intolerable ignorance and importunity of the heretics of this time.’ The chief translator was Gregory Martin… Technical words were transliterated rather than translated. Thus many new words came to birth… The resulting Latinisms added a majesty to his English prose, and many a dignified or felicitous phrase was silently lifted by the editors of the King James Version, and thus passed into the language” ( Great Books and Book Collectors , 108). Lack of funds and “our poore estate in banishment” prevented the publication of this two-volume Old Testament until 1609-1610. Bookplate, ink owner signature. Volume I with marginal tear to leaf Cc, marginal stain to Hh2 with marginal stain, old paper repairs to 4P3; Volume II with soiling to Aa, light edge-wear to Aa3, closed marginal tear to 5K4, faint staining to lower corners of 6A4, 6B4, 6C4. Text generally quite clean, with occasional instances of mostly marginal soiling, old paper repairs. A near-fine copy, beautifully bound.