Beschreibung:

BIBLE, New Testament -- Novum Testamentum , in Greek and Latin, translated and edited by Desiderius Erasmus (1466?-1536). Basel: Johann Froben, March 1519. 2° (316 x 210mm). Without, as often, the 2-quire index. Greek and roman types, italic types for marginalia. Woodcut full historiated border on title, dedication, and openings of 4 Books, four-part border to 6 leaves, including one by VG opening Matthew, half-page woodcut by HF, small text woodcut, woodcut canon tables, woodcut headpieces, historiated and decorated initials, including a set of Byzantine Greek initials, printer's device on final verso. (Small wormholes and -tracks, light spotting on a few leaves, one border just shaved.) 17th-century English calf over pasteboard, panelled sides with fleurons at corners (somewhat restored); 20th-century black half morocco slipcase (small tear at foot of spine). Provenance : THOMAS CRANMER (1489-1556), Archbishop of Canterbury (scribal title inscription as Abp.; autograph annotations on pp. 424-449; library confiscated in 1553 by the crown and passed to:) -- [Henry Fitzalan (?1511-1579), 12th Earl of Arundel; passed to his son-in-law:] -- John, Lord Lumley (?1534-1609; title inscription; Jayne & Johnson, eds., Lumley Catalogue , no. 311) -- Thomas Leigh (d.1686), Master of Bishop's Stortford Grammar School (title inscription; Bishop's Stortford Grammar School sale, 27 July 1893, lot 109, £10 to Quaritch) -- purchased from Bernard Halliday, Leicester, 6 October 1938, £45. CRANMER'S COPY OF THE SECOND EDITION OF ERASMUS' NEW TESTAMENT IN GREEK AND LATIN. Within months of his consecration as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1533, Cranmer freed Henry VIII from his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, crowned Anne Boleyn Queen of England, and continued to construct a theological framework for Henry VIII's assumption as Supreme Head of the Church of England. In prosecution of his duties, first as a scholar and Cambridge university fellow and thereafter in the service of the crown, Cranmer amassed one of the largest private libraries in Renaissance England. His was a working library, and the present volume contains his autograph Latin glosses on certain Greek words probably written soon after the book's publication in 1519, towards the end of his theological studies. The volume indicates Cranmer's close study of the original Greek text of the Bible and exemplifies his participation in the humanist 'new learning', which advocated a return to original sources for new -- and more accurate -- interpretations of Scripture and other writings. Cranmer's early biographer Strype singled out for particular comment the Archbishop's study of Erasmus. Cranmer owned multiple editions of numerous works by Erasmus, including his edition of the New Testament (he owned the fourth and fifth, as well as the present second, edition). As it was for Erasmus, Biblical study was the foundation of Cranmer's scholarship, his theological arguments in favour of Henry VIII, and his subsequent rewriting of English liturgical texts. Adams B-1680; D & M 4597 (including the Annotationes ); Selwyn, Library of Thomas Cranmer (1996), 40. CRANMER, Thomas (1489-1556). Reformatio legum ecclesiasticarum . London: T. Harper and R. Hodgkinson, for Laurence Sadler, 1640. 4° (189 x 140mm). Woodcut and type-ornaments and initials, type-rule borders. Contemporary calf, blind-ruled border, red edges (sections of spine renewed, corners worn). Provenance : J.W. Joyce, June 1851 (flyleaf inscription). Second edition. STC 6007. (2)