Object Record
Metadata
Accession number |
P11 |
Title |
THE HOLY BIBLE, TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN VULGATE: DILIGENTLY COMPARED WITH THE HEBREW, GREEK, AND OTHER EDITIONS, IN DIVERSE LANGUAGES; AND FIRST PUBLISHED BY THE ENGLISH COLLEGE AT DOWAY, ANNO 1609. NEWLY REVISED, AND CORRECTED, ACCORDING TO THE CLEMENTINE EDITION OF THE SCRIPTURES. WITH ANNOTATIONS FOR ELUCIDATING THE PRINCIPAL DIFFICULTIES OF HOLY WRIT |
Date |
1790 |
Notes |
This is the first American edition of the Latin Vulgate in English, using the Rheims- Doway version, and it is the first quarto edition of the Bible in English printed in America. The publisher Mathew Carey was born in Ireland and became a controversial journalist. His opposition to the English government and exposure of persecution of the Irish Catholics led to imprisonment there. As a young man seeking refuge in France, he was befriended by the Marquis de Lafayette and Benjamin Franklin. In 1784 he escaped to the United States, setting up as a printer and publisher in Philadelphia. The market of a Catholic Bible in the country was small. Less that five hundred subscriptions were obtained, despite a prospectus that carried an appeal to liberal-minded Protestants as well as Catholics: "It is worthy the attention of every candid Protestant to consider whether a comparison of the present translation with his own would not remove from his mind those doubts and difficulties which are fatal to true religion. . . . We fondly hope that our subscription list, by uniting together the names of members of various and hitherto hostile denominations of Christians, will afford one proof of the rapid advances that America have made in the divine principle of toleration." The type was made especially for this edition and cast by Baine & Co. of Philadelphia. Carey's firm grew to become one of the largest bookselling and printing companies in the country and was the most important Bible printing house, issuing over sixty editions of the King James Version in addition to several of the Catholic Bible. Copies of this first Vulgate are very rare. |
Collection |
Framed Bible Leaves |
Subjects |
Bible Leaves Bible History |