Highlights of the Exhibition
The Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Bible Collection
at
Bridwell
Library
1996-2006
September 7-November 18, 2006
The Bible Translated by Miles Coverdale
Biblia. The Bible that is, the Holy Scripture of the Olde and New Testament, Faithfully and Truly Translated out of Douche and Latyn in to Englishe. Translated by Miles Coverdale. [Marburg: Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], 1535.
In 1534 Henry VIII declared himself head of the Church of England. After more than a century of a strict prohibition against English translations of the Bible, an English Bible was suddenly a necessity. One of Tyndale’s former assistants, Miles Coverdale, quickly prepared a new translation of the Bible into English based on the Vulgate, Tyndale’s work, the Latin translation of Santi Pagnini (1470–1541), the Zurich Bible, and the German translation of Martin Luther, rather than the original scriptural languages. Although Coverdale was not the scholar his former William Tyndale had been, the Bible contained a politically expedient dedication to Henry VIII and a eulogistic prologue to the same, and became quite popular. This exhibition includes a first edition of Coverdale’s translation from 1535, open to John 1:1.
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