Acquisitions (68): My Favourite Bibles

The Oxford Illustrated Old Testament (1968-69)

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Massive Mairangi Book Fair (14th May 2022)


The Oxford Illustrated Old Testament (1968-69)
[Mairangi Book Fair, Mairangi Bay Presbyterian Church - 14/5/2022]:

The Oxford Illustrated Old Testament: With Drawings by Contemporary Artists. Authorized King James Version. 1611. London: Oxford University Press, 1968-69.

1. The Pentateuch: Genesis to Deuteronomy. With illustrations by Carol Annand, Edward Bawden, Anthony Gross, Francis Hoyland, Cyril Reason, Ceri Richards, Brian Robb, Leonard Rosoman, & Cyril Satorsky (1968)
2. The Historical Books: Joshua to Esther. With illustrations by Edward Ardizzone, Edward Bawden, John Bratby, Cecil Collins, David Hockney, Francis Hoyland, Lynton Lamb, Brian Robb, Leonard Rosoman, Cyril Satorsky, Carel Weight, & Brian Wildsmith (1968)
3. The Poetical Books: Job to The Song of Solomon. With illustrations by Norman Adams, Carol Annand, John Bratby, Cecil Collins, Lynton Lamb, Cyril Reason, Ceri Richards, & Brian Robb (1968)
4. The Prophets: Isaiah to Malachi. With illustrations by Edward Ardizzone, Peter Blake, John Bratby, Edward Burra, Cecil Collins, Alistair Grant, Francis Hoyland, Lynton Lamb, Cyril Reason, Francis Richards, Sheila Robinson, & Carel Weight (1969)
5. The Apocrypha: Esdras to Maccabees. With illustrations by Norman Adams, Carol Annand, Edward Ardizzone, Peter Blake, John Bratby, Edward Burra, Cecil Collins, Alistair Grant, Lynton Lamb, Cyril Reason, Brian Robb, Cyril Satorsky, Carel Weight, & Brian Wildsmith (1969)

The Oxford Illustrated Old Testament (1968-69)

My Favourite Bibles

I suppose being brought up by a Fundamentalist Christian means that you're never too far from a copy of the Good Book. Illustrated editions, Study Bibles, simplified translations - you name it, we had them all.

This dates me a bit, but the predominant text at the time was the Revised Standard Version of 1952. I never particularly liked it. In fact, the moment I could, I retreated to using the (so-called) Authorised Version of 1611 - aka the 'King James' translation - which has had such a strong influence on the whole of English literature subsequent to that date.

I still have quite a few Bibles, though I've tried to cut down the numbers over the years. What really interests me now are versions that are:

1. aesthetically pleasing &
2. easy to read

What was my surprise, then, to see a copy of the five-volume Oxford Illustrated Old Testament (pictured above) sitting on a table at a local booksale the other day, at a knock-down price!

Greene Screen: Barbarella (1968)

Or rather, what I saw were vols 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 of this edition. So far as I could see, it was incomplete, and therefore not of all that much interest. I took a long trawl round the hall, but it kept on coming back to my mind, so I took another look on my return. There it still was. I went over and picked it up. Pretty pretty (to quote Anita Pallenberg in Barbarella).

Glancing over to one side, I saw volume 3. It was in the hands of another gentleman already laden down with theological tomes. He was leafing through it, with evident appreciation. I gazed at him imploringly. He took one more look. Then put it down.

I promptly scooped it up, then thanked him for his forebearance. He nodded in reply, and moved away.

Brian Wildsmith: Illustration for Joshua (1968)

It was probably the pick of the bunch: the Poetic Books (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Song of Solomon). Who wouldn't want to see what a bunch of 1960s English artists - David Hockney among them, for God's sake - would make of those?

David Hockney: Illustration for Nehemiah (1969)

I'm very grateful to my kind fellow-bibliophile, though. I suspect that he would have liked to keep it, but he could see that I was already hogging the other four volumes, and really, what would be the point? Quite a few people would have hung on to it out of sheer perversity, though, and I'm glad that he wasn't that sort.

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1933)

It's now sitting up on my desk beside my Annotated Shakespeare and my Grandmother's Oxford English Dictionary as one of the key texts I feel one should always keep close to hand. It's the kind of Bible that makes you want to sit down and actually read (or, in my case - that Fundamentalist thing again - reread) the whole interminable thing.

Lectio: Bible Design Blog: Bibles for Readers (2012)

Nor, it seems, am I the only one to think so, witness this quote from a exclusively Bible-focussed blogger:

I bought this as a specimen, not expecting to spend a great deal of time with it. Much to my surprise, it drew me in. I started in on Genesis 1 with a few minutes to kill before an appointment. Before I knew it, Noah was building an ark of gopher wood and I was running very, very late! If you appreciate the King James Version, it's rather hard not to get caught up. Here, there is no clutter to interfere with your experience of the text. There are even punctuation marks!

It did get me to thinking, though. What are my favourite Bibles? Which would I recommend to aspiring Bibliomaniacs (defined in one of our favourite childhood texts, the Dr. Seuss-illustrated Pocket Book of Boners, as "someone who incessantly reads the Bible from cover to cover")?

Sheila Robinson: Illustration for Jeremiah (1969)

Christian believers, of course, have a rather different set of priorities, as do students of Hebrew and New Testament Greek, so I won't be addressing any of those issues specifically. In any case, here's my - very selective - list:

1. The Bible Designed to be Read as Literature (c.1936)
2. The Reader’s Bible (1951)
3. The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament (1958)
4. The Apocryphal New Testament (1924)
5. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (1950)
6. The Bible of the World (1940)
7. A Brief Bibliography of The Bible

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Ernest Sutherland Bates: The Bible Designed to Be Read as Literature (1958)


1. The Bible Designed to be Read as Literature. Ed. Ernest Sutherland Bates. Introduction by Laurence Binyon. London: William Heinemann Limited, n.d. [c.1936].

First of all, there's the one pictured above: Ernest Bates' The Bible Designed to Be Read as Literature. The editor himself said of this:

In this edition the text of the King James Version is followed, except in the case of Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs, where that of the Revised Version is used; the arrangement of the books is by time and subject matter; prose passages are printed as prose, verse as verse, drama as drama; letters as letters; the spelling and punctuation are modernized; genealologies and repetitions are omitted, as well as the whole of Chronicles, the minor Epistles, and similar unimportant passages throughout, to the end that the Bible may be read as living literature.


Tim Powers: The Bible Repairman and Other Stories (2011)


I suppose this enshrines a particular view of the Bible - as an anthology of highlights from ancient Hebrew literature - rather than as some kind of inspired scripture. I have to confess that it does put me in mind of Tim Powers' short story "The Bible Repairman," whose protagonist is accustomed to doctor the text according to his clients' specifications: all mention of adultery excised from one copy, all references to murder in another ...



The Bible Designed to Be Read as Living Literature (1993)


It's certainly a beautifully printed book, though, and - under its US title The Bible Designed to Be Read as Living Literature - remains popular to this day.



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The Readers' Bible (1951)


2. The Reader’s Bible. Being the Authorized Version of the Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha Translated out of the Original Tongues. Designed for General Reading. London: Oxford University Press / Cambridge University Press / Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1951.

My own favourite version, however, is probably the massive, complete, 1985-page Reader's Bible (47 pp. of prelims; 1267 pp. for the Old Testament; 304 pp. for the Apocrypha; 367 pp. for the New Testament) illustrated above. Ever since I bought it in the mid-1970s from a vintage shop just round the corner from here - for the princely sum of $2.50 - this has been my Bible of choice.

It's a little inconvenient for reference: it includes the chapter references but lacks the verse numbers for each book, but it makes up for it in simple ease of reading. As you can see from the pages below, it's a wonderfully uncluttered example of mid-century British bookcraft. It also includes such comparative rarities as the complete 1611 opening remarks of "The Translators to the Reader" - a wonderful piece of seventeenth century prose, generally omitted from modern editions of the Authorised Version. It also includes the complete Apocrypha - a very useful feature.



The Readers' Bible (1951)


I note with interest a ripped corner on pp.353-4 of "The Revelation of John the Divine" which obscures the following words (marked in italics):

And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.

And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, (Rev 10: 4-5)

And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. (Rev 11: 12)

Significant? It's hard to say. I note that they add up collectively to the statement "the seven / angel[s] which I saw stand / [said unto] them, Come up / and [behold] their enemies," which I think you'll agree pretty much speaks for itself ...



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The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament (1958)


3. The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament. The Nestle Greek Text with a Literal English Translation, also a marginal text of the Authorized Version of King James. Ed. Rev. Alfred Marshall. Foreword by J. B. Phillips. London: Samuel Bagster & Sons, Ltd., 1958.

Moving on. The New Testament above is definitely to be recommended to anyone with even a smattering of Greek. It's true that it invites arguments along the lines of, "Well, actually, the original Greek uses two different words where the English says ..." But it also offers you a way to resolve them.



The Greek-English Interlinear ESV New Testament (2018)


Interlinear Bibles do, admittedly, have their pitfalls. Without a knowledge of the syntax of the original language, it's not really possible to make sophisticated judgements about the quality of different translations of the same passage. But they can be handy, nevertheless - as well as having a certain mana in their own right, as embodiments of the actual words of the original texts (or as close as their various editors can get to them - not really the same thing).



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M. R. James: The Apocryphal New Testament (1924)


4. The Apocryphal New Testament. Being the Apocryphal Gospels, Acts, Epistles and Apocalypses, with Other Narratives and Fragments. Trans. Montague Rhodes James. 1924. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1955.

Here's a very useful book which has an extra cachet for me because of its editor (and translator): none other than the great ghost story writer M. R. James. So many of James's stories hinge on exciting discoveries made in old manuscripts and books, that it comes as little surprise that his other main claim to fame is still the series of annotated bibliographies of various libraries he published over the course of many years.



M. R. James: The Apocryphal New Testament (1924)


Who said that reading around and about the Bible needs to be boring? With the intriguing sidelights cast on it by collections like these, not to mention fine illustrations and beautifully printed texts, it can be easily seen to be every bit as fascinating as any of the world's other great books.



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James B. Pritchard: Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (1955)


5. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Ed. James Pritchard. 1950. 2nd ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1955.

Here's a case in point. When I first went to university in 1980 (My God, that seems a long time ago now!) I signed up for Egyptian and Akkadian classes, since I was determined to learn to read both hieroglyphics and cuneiform. After a week or so I discovered that my poor little brain couldn't accommodate so much new information, so I dropped the Akkadian and decided to concentrate solely on Egyptian instead.

I fondly imagined myself translating great epic poems and battle narratives, but for the most part we stuck to self-vaunting tomb inscriptions by various pompous pharaohs, not to mention interminable laundry lists of the tribute and booty delivered by those they'd (allegedly) conquered.

I'll certainly never regret making the acquaintance of that complex, Hamo-semitic language, though. Probably one needs to become fluent in Coptic before really mastering Ancient Egyptian - there are, unsurprisingly, no native speakers of the latter left - and I wasn't prepared to go quite that far down the rabbit-hole of Ancient History. I still find myself collecting translations and books about it, though: can't shake off the addiction.



James B. Pritchard: Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (1955)


By far the most handsome and imposing is this massive tome edited by James B. Pritchard in the 1950s (though it's gone through many expanded and revised editions since). The decision to link these other ancient texts so deliberately to the Bible is certainly a debatable one, but I guess it made sense at the time - and probably still does from a purely marketing perspective. And it does make it a book I feel confident shelving with my other 'Biblical' literature.



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Robert O. Ballou: The Bible of the World (1940)


6. The Bible of the World. Ed. Robert O. Ballou with Friedrick Spiegelberg & Horace L. Friess. London: Kegan Paul, Trench Trubner & Co., Ltd, 1940.

This is a lovely oddity of a book whose moment in history was that uneasy period in 1939-40 when it still looked possible that reason might prevail and the world could be prevented from plunging into another suicidally destructive war.

If only everyone agreed to a kind of ecumenical world religion made up of the best of every faith, that is, as the editor explains in his introduction:

The Bible of the World is the result of a diligent attempt on the part of a lay editor, with the advice of two scholars, to put into one volume the scriptural essence of eight great living source religions for the use of the modern English reader. It would be difficult to separate and state the many reasons for entering upon so challenging, so attractive, and at the same time so difficult a project, but some of the impelling stimulants are apparent. Most obvious of these are the facts that the material involved is superb from a purely literary point of view, and that by far the greatest part of it included here is little known to the average reader. Nowhere in literature is there more profound or beautiful poetry than that contained in the earliest scriptures of Hinduism, the Vedic hymns, composed no one knows when, but certainly more than a millennium before the birth of Christ; in the Chinese odes and the Tao-Te-King or in the best of the Psalms of the Judeo-Christian Bible. There are no better stories anywhere than those of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad--Gita, the Puritans, the Hitopadesa, and the Parables of Sri Ramakrishna in Hinduism; the Pali Tripitaka, the Jataka birth stories, and Buddhaghosha's Parables of Buddhism; the Zendavesta and Pahlavi tests of Zoroastrianism; the book of Chuang Tze of Taoism; and the Jewish Old Testament. There is nowhere a more profound or timeless philosophy than is embodied in the more thoughtful and philosophic scriptures of all of these religions.


Robert O. Ballou: The Bible of the World (1939)


Many of the translations included sound awkwardly archaic and clumsy now, but the pious intent of the enterprise remains a noble and not entirely futile one. In any case, it looks very handsome sitting alongside my copy of The Bible Designed to Be Read as Literature.

There are lots of other Bibles and near-Bibles I'd love to include: Robert Graves's immense Nazarene Gospel Restored (1953), for instance, or the 1966 Jerusalem Bible, with its (admittedly minor) contributions by the great J. R. R. Tolkien ... But one has to stop somewhere. There are seven versions listed above. No doubt there are plenty of others you'd like to add yourself.



The Authorised Version (1611)


It all puts me in mind of Rudyard Kipling's late, uncollected short story "Proofs of Holy Writ" (1934), where Ben Jonson brings galley-proofs of the still-to-finalised Authorised Version to be looked over by his old friend Will Shakespeare in his country hideaway sometime in 1610. As you can imagine, they succeed in making considerable improvements to the text: the Book of Isaiah, in particular.

… How goes the ending, Ben?’

‘“Et complebuntur dies luctus tui.”‘ Ben read. ‘”And thy sorrowful days shall be rewarded thee,” says Coverdale.’

‘And the Bishops?’

‘”And thy sorrowful days shall be ended.”‘

‘By no means. And Douai?’

‘”Thy sorrow shall be ended.”‘

‘And Geneva?’

‘”And the days of thy mourning shall be ended.”‘

‘The Switzers have it! Lay the tail of Geneva to the head of Coverdale and the last is without flaw.

He began to thump Ben on the shoulder. ‘We have it! I have it all, Boanerges! Blessed be my Demon! Hear!

“The sun shall no more be thy light by day, neither for brightness the moon by night. But the Lord Himself shall be unto thee thy everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.”

‘He drew a deep breath and went on.

‘“Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw herself, for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.”‘

The rain of triumphant blows began again. ‘If those other seven devils in London let it stand on this sort, it serves. But God knows what they can not turn upsee-dejee!’.

Ben wriggled. ‘Let be!’ he protested. ‘Ye are more moved by this jugglery than if the Globe were burned.’

‘Thatch – old thatch! And full of fleas! … But, Ben, ye should have heard my Ezekiel making mock of fallen Tyrus in his twenty-seventh chapter. Miles sent me the whole, for, he said, some small touches. I took it to the Bank – four o’clock of a summer morn; stretched out in one of our wherries – and watched London, Port and Town, up and down the river, waking all arrayed to heap more upon evident excess. Ay! “A merchant for the peoples of many isles” … “The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy markets”? Yes! I saw all Tyre before me neighing her pride against lifted heaven … But what will they let stand of all mine at long last? Which? I’ll never know.’


William Shakespeare: The First Folio (1623)




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Michelangelo: God the Father (1508-12)


A Brief Bibliography of The Bible


Texts:


1. Berry, George Ricker. The Interlinear Literal Translation of the Hebrew Old Testament: Genesis & Exodus. Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1951.


2. Marshall, Rev. Alfred. The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament: The Nestle Greek Text with a Literal English Translation, also a marginal text of the Authorized Version of King James. Foreword by J. B. Phillips. London: Samuel Bagster & Sons, Ltd., 1958.

Translations:

English:


3. The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments Translated out of the Original Tongues: and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and revised, by His Majesty’s Special Command. Appointed to be read in Churches / The Psalms of David in Metre. 2 vols. Edinburgh: Alexander Kincaid, 1789.


4. The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments Translated out of the Original Tongues: and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and revised, by His Majesty’s Special Command. Appointed to be read in Churches / The Psalms of David in Metre / Church Hymnary. Oxford & London: University Press & Henry Froude, 1910.


5. The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha. Translated out of the Original Tongues: and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and revised, by His Majesty’s Special Command. Appointed to be Read in Churches. Cambridge & London: University Press & Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, n.d.


6. The Bible Designed to be Read as Literature. Ed. Ernest Sutherland Bates. Introduction by Laurence Binyon. London: William Heinemann Limited, n.d. [c. 1936].


7. The Reader’s Bible: Being the Authorized Version of the Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha Translated out of the Original Tongues. Designed for General Reading. London: Oxford University Press / Cambridge University Press / Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1951.


8. The Oxford Illustrated Old Testament: With Drawings by Contemporary Artists. Authorized King James Version. 1611. London: Oxford University Press, 1968-69.
   1. The Pentateuch: Genesis to Deuteronomy. With illustrations by Carol Annand, Edward Bawden, Anthony Gross, Francis Hoyland, Cyril Reason, Ceri Richards, Brian Robb, Leonard Rosoman, & Cyril Satorsky (1968)
   2. The Historical Books: Joshua to Esther. With illustrations by Edward Ardizzone, Edward Bawden, John Bratby, Cecil Collins, David Hockney, Francis Hoyland, Lynton Lamb, Brian Robb, Leonard Rosoman, Cyril Satorsky, Carel Weight, & Brian Wildsmith (1968)
   3. The Poetical Books: Job to The Song of Solomon. With illustrations by Norman Adams, Carol Annand, John Bratby, Cecil Collins, Lynton Lamb, Cyril Reason, Ceri Richards, & Brian Robb (1968)
   4. The Prophets: Isaiah to Malachi. With illustrations by Edward Ardizzone, Peter Blake, John Bratby, Edward Burra, Cecil Collins, Alistair Grant, Francis Hoyland, Lynton Lamb, Cyril Reason, Francis Richards, Sheila Robinson, & Carel Weight (1969)
   5. The Apocrypha: Esdras to Maccabees. With illustrations by Norman Adams, Carol Annand, Edward Ardizzone, Peter Blake, John Bratby, Edward Burra, Cecil Collins, Alistair Grant, Lynton Lamb, Cyril Reason, Brian Robb, Cyril Satorsky, Carel Weight, & Brian Wildsmith (1969)


9. The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments: The New King James Version. Reference Edition. 1982. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1988.


10. The Holy Bible: A Translation from the Latin Vulgate in the Light of the Hebrew and Greek Originals. Authorized by the Hierarchy of England and Wales and the Hierarchy of Scotland. Trans. Mgr. Ronald Knox. 1945 & 1949. School Edition. 1957. London: Burns & Oates Ltd. / Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1963.


11. The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments. Revised Standard Version Translated from the Original Tongues; Being the Version Set Forth AD 1611, Revised AD 1881-1885 and AD 1901, Compared with the Most Ancient Authorities and Revised AD 1952. 1946 & 1952. Illustrated edition. London & New York: Collins Clear-Type Press, n.d.


12. The Jerusalem Bible: Popular Edition, with Abridged Introductions and Notes. 1966. Ed. Alexander Jones. 1968. London: Darton, Longman & Trodd, 1974.


13. The Layman’s Parallel New Testament: King James Version / The Amplified New Testament / The Living New Testament / Revised Standard Version. 1970. Michingan: Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1978.


14. Alter, Robert, trans. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary. 3 vols. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2019.
    1. The Five Books of Moses: Torah (1996 & 2004)
    2. Prophets: Nevi'im (1999 & 2013)
    3. The Writings: Ketuvim (2007, 2010 & 2015)

Gaelic:


15. Tiomnadh Nuadh ar Tighearn agus ar Slanuighir Iosa Criosd air a Tharruing o 'n Ghreugais chum Gaelic Albannaich; agus Air a Chur a Mach le H-Ughdarras ard-shean-aidh Eaglais na H-Alba. Edinburgh: Printed by Anderson and Bryce for the Edinburgh Bible Society, 1838.

Latin:


16. Biblia Sacra iuxta Vulgatam Clementinam. Nova Editio. Ed. Alberto Colunga & Laurentio Turrado. 1959. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1965.

Apocrypha:


17. Hennecke, Edgar. New Testament Apocrypha. Volume One: Gospels and Related Writings. 2 vols. 1904. Ed. Wilhelm Schneemelcher. 1959. Trans. R. McL. Wilson et al. Philadelphia: The Wetminster Press, 1963.


18. Hennecke, Edgar. New Testament Apocrypha. Volume Two: Writings Relating to the Apostles, Apocalypses and Related Subjects. 2 vols. 1904. Ed. Wilhelm Schneemelcher. 1964. Trans. R. McL. Wilson et al. Philadelphia: The Wetminster Press, 1965.


19. James, Montague Rhodes, trans. The Apocryphal New Testament: Being the Apocryphal Gospels, Acts, Epistles and Apocalypses, with Other Narratives and Fragments. 1924. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1955.


Anthologies & Secondary Literature:


20. Alter, Robert, & Frank Kermode, ed. The Literary Guide to the Bible. 1987. London: Fontana Press, 1989.


21. The Bible of the World. Ed. Robert O. Ballou with Friedrick Spiegelberg & Horace L. Friess. London: Kegan Paul, Trench Trubner & Co., Ltd, 1940.


22. Bruce, F. F. The English Bible: A History of Translations. London: Lutterworth Press, 1961.


23. Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. London: Oxford University Press, 1957.


24. Cruden’s Concordance to the Old and New Testament Scriptures (Complete). Ed. Rev. Alfred Jones. London: Morgan and Scott, n.d.


25. Davie, Donald, ed. The Psalms in English. Penguin Poets in Translation. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1996.


26. Fox, Robin Lane. The Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible. 1991. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992.


27. Grant, Robert M. & David Noel Freedman. The Secret Sayings of Jesus. With an English Translation of the Gospel of Thomas by William R. Schoedel. Fontana Books. London: Collins, 1960.


28. Graves, Robert, & Joshua Podro. The Nazarene Gospel Restored. London: Cassell & Company Limited, 1953.


29. Graves, Robert. Adam’s Rib and Other Anomalous Elements in the Hebrew Creation Myth: A New View. With Wood Engravings by James Metcalf. 1955. New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1958.


30. Graves, Robert, & Raphael Patai. Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis. 1964. An Arena book. London: Arrow Books Limited, 1989.


31. Graves, Robert. The Song of Songs: Text and Commentary. Illustrated by Hans Erni. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., Publisher, 1973.


32. Layton, Bentley. The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations and Introductions. 1987. London: SCM Press Ltd., 1987.


33. Metzger, Bruce M., & Michael D. Coogan, ed. The Oxford Companion to the Bible. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.


34. Pritchard, James, ed. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. 1950. 2nd ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1955.


35. Quispel, Gilles. The Secret Book of Revelation: The Last Book of the Bible. Trans. Peter Staples. 1984. London. William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1979.


36. Strong, James. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order; together with Dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek Words of the Original, with References to the English Words. 1890. Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers, n.d.


37. Vermes, Geza. The Dead Sea Scrolls in English. 1962. A Pelican Book. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973.



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• category - Psychology & Religion: Christianity


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Acquisitions (18): Shakespeare's Sources

Raphael Holinshed: Chronicles (Folio Society, 2012)

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Raphael Holinshed: Chronicles (1577)

Shakespeare's Sources: Raphael Holinshed etc.
[Acquired: Atlantis Books, Rotorua, Thursday, September 7, 2018]:

Raphael Holinshed. Chronicles. Introduction & Selection by Michael Wood. 1577 & 1587. London: Folio Society, 2012.

The Essayes of Michael, Lord of Montaigne. Trans. John Florio. 1603. 3 vols. The World’s Classics, 65-67. London: Henry Frowde, 1904.

William Painter. The Palace of Pleasure: Elizabethan Versions of Italian and French Novels from Boccaccio, Bandello, Cinthio, Straparola, Queen Margaret of Navarre, and Others. 1566-67, 1575. Ed. Joseph Jacobs. 1890. 3 vols. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1966.

Plutarch’s Lives. 1517. Trans. Sir Thomas North. 1579. The Temple Plutarch. Ed. W. H. D. Rouse. 10 vols. London: J. M. Dent, 1898.

Shakespeare’s Plutarch: The Lives of Julius Caesar, Brutus, Marcus Antonius, and Coriolanus in the translation of Sir Thomas North. Ed. T. J. B. Spencer. Peregrine Books. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1964.

T. J. B. Spencer, ed.: Shakespeare's Plutarch (1964)

Then to the well-trod stage anon,
If Jonson's learned sock be on,
Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child,
Warble his native wood-notes wild.

- Milton, 'L'Allegro'

That's all very well. No doubt it's true that Ben Jonson did make more of a show of his classical learning, but when it comes to works in the vernacular, 'sweetest Shakespeare' was a bit more than 'Fancy's child.' He certainly made extensive use of Holinshed's Chronicles (1577, expanded 1587), since they were the basis not just of his history plays, but also of King Lear.

Sir Thomas North, trans.: Plutarch’s Lives (1899)

What else do we actually know that he read? Well, Plutarch's Parallel Lives, clearly - presumably in Sir Thomas North's then recent 1579 translation from Amyot's French version, rather than in the original Greek ('little Latin and less Greek,' remember?) They were the source for his four Roman plays, Julius Caesar, Antony & Cleopatra, Titus Andronicus and Coriolanus ...

John Florio, trans.: The Essayes of Michael Lord of Montaigne (1906)

Then there's John Florio's translation of Michel de Montaigne's Essays, which first appeared in 1603. Montaigne's essay on the cannibals definitely influenced The Tempest. There are also echoes of him in some of the other late plays.

William Painter: The Palace of Pleasure (Dover Books, 1966)

Another vital source for Shakespeare was William Painter's Palace of Pleasure (1566-67, enlarged edition 1575), a somewhat random assortment of French and Italian short stories and novellas translated into English from a variety of sources (including Boccaccio's Decameron and Marguerite de Navarre's Heptameron). Timon of Athens and All’s Well That Ends Well definitely came from there, along with Romeo and Juliet and The Rape of Lucrece.

That doesn't exhaust the subject, of course. Shakespeare's sources were many and various, as Geoffrey Bullough recorded in his presumably definitive 8-volume compilation Narrative And Dramatic Sources Of Shakespeare:

• Volume I: Early Comedies, Poems, Romeo and Juliet
• Volume II: The Comedies 1597-1603
• Volume III: Earlier English History Plays
• Volume IV: Later English History Plays
• Volume V: The Roman Plays
• Volume VI: Other Classical Plays
• Volume VII: Major Tragedies
• Volume VIII: Romances

Geoffrey Bullough, ed.: Narrative And Dramatic Sources Of Shakespeare (1957-75)

This, however, I do not possess (alas) - unlike all the other tomes mentioned above.

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• category - Drama: Theatre

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Acquisitions (2): William Shakespeare

Titlepage

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William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's Plays in Quarto (1981)

[Acquired: Thursday, August 23, 2012]:

Slipcase

Allen, Michael J. B., & Kenneth Muir, ed. Shakespeare’s Plays in Quarto: A Facsimile Edition of Copies Primarily from the Henry E. Huntingdon Library. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.

Contents

This is a truly massive book, presumably intended as a companion volume to Charlton Hinman's 1968 facsimile edition of the First Folio. It comes in a handsome slipcase, and includes photographic reprints of all of the quartos (good, bad, and indifferent) in the list above. I've coveted it for quite some time. I was a bit surprised, though, when I first opened my copy, to find the letter reproduced below. It turns out that this copy was sent to the book designer by one of the other members of the production team. I now have it placed between Hinman and the 1987 Oxford Shakespeare: three huge tomes in a row ...

Czeslaw Gricz: Letter to Paula Schlosser (15/7/82)

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William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

William Shakespeare
(1564-1616)

Works:


1. Mr William Shakespear’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies: A Facsimile Edition. 1623. Ed. Helge Kökeritz. Introduction by Charles Tyler Prouty. 1954. New York: Yale University Press, 1955.


2. Hinman, Charlton, ed. The First Folio of Shakespeare. The Norton Facsimile. London: Paul Hamlyn, 1968.


3. Allen, Michael J. B., & Kenneth Muir, ed. Shakespeare’s Plays in Quarto: A Facsimile Edition of Copies Primarily from the Henry E. Huntingdon Library. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.


4. Shakespeare, William. The New Arden Shakespeare (1946-1982)
   1. All’s Well That Ends Well. Ed. G. K. Hunter. 1959. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1982.
   2. As You Like It. Ed. Agnes Latham. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1975.
   3. The Comedy of Errors. Ed. R. A. Foakes. 1962. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1963.
   4. Love’s Labour’s Lost. Ed. Richard David. 1951. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1977.
   5. Measure for Measure. Ed. J. W. Lever. 1965. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1972.
   6. The Merchant of Venice. Ed. John Russell Brown. 1955. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1972.
   7. The Merry Wives of Windsor. Ed. H. J. Oliver. 1971. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1973.
   8. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ed. Harold F. Brooks. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1979.
   9. Much Ado About Nothing. Ed. A. R. Humphreys. 1981. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1984.
   10. The Taming of the Shrew. Ed. Brian Morris. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1981.
   11. Twelfth Night. Ed. J. M. Lothian & T. W. Craik. 1975. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1977.
   12. The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Ed. Clifford Leech. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1969.
   13. King John. Ed. E. A. J. Honigmann. 1954. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1973.
   14. King Richard II. Ed. Peter Ure. 1956. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1959. .
   15. The First Part of King Henry IV. Ed. A. R. Humphreys. 1960. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1978.
   16. The Second Part of King Henry IV. Ed. A. R. Humphreys. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1966.
   17. King Henry V. Ed. John H. Walter. 1954. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1970.
   18. The First Part of King Henry VI. Ed. Andrew S. Cairncross. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. / Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1962.
   19. The Second Part of King Henry VI. Ed. Andrew S. Cairncross. 1957. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1969.
   20. The Third Part of King Henry VI. Ed. Andrew S. Cairncross. 1964. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1982.
   21. King Richard II. Ed. Antony Hammond. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1981.
   22. King Henry VIII. Ed. R. A. Foakes. 1957. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1968.
   23. Antony and Cleopatra. Ed. M. R. Ridley. 1954. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1975.
   24. Coriolanus. Ed. Philip Brockbank. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1976.
   25. Hamlet. Ed. Harold Jenkins. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1982.
   26. Julius Caesar. Ed. T. S. Dorsch. 1955. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1973.
   27. King Lear. Ed. Kenneth Muir. 1952. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1975.
   28. Macbeth. Ed. Kenneth Muir. 1951. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1979.
   29. Othello. Ed. M. R. Ridley. 1958. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1979.
   30. Romeo and Juliet. Ed. Brian Gibbons. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1980.
   31. Timon of Athens. Ed. H. J. Oliver. 1959. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. / Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1965.
   32. Titus Andronicus. Ed. J. C. Maxwell. 1953. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. / Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1963.
   33. Troilus and Cressida. Ed. Kenneth Palmer. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1982.
   34. Cymbeline. Ed. J. M. Nosworthy. 1955. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1974.
   35. Pericles. Ed. F. D. Hoeniger. 1963. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1979.
   36. The Tempest. Ed. Frank Kermode. 1954. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1979.
   37. The Winter’s Tale. Ed. J. H. P. Pafford. 1963. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1971.


5. Shakespeare, William. The Complete Works: The Text and Order of the First Folio with Quarto Variants & a Choice of Modern Readings Noted Marginally: To Which are added Pericles and the First Quartos of Six of the Plays with Three Plays of Doubtful Authorship: Also the Poems according to the Original Quartos and Octavos. 4 vols. Ed. Herbert Farjeon. 1929. Introduction by Ivor Brown. London & New York: The Nonesuch Press & Random House, 1953:
   • The New Nonesuch Shakespeare: The First of Four Volumes: Comedies, with the Prefatory Matter from the First Folio, the Note on the Text by Herbert Farjeon and a New Introduction by Ivor Brown.
   • The New Nonesuch Shakespeare: The Second of Four Volumes: Histories, and Troylus and Cressida, According to its Placing in the First Folio.
   • The New Nonesuch Shakespeare: The Third of Four Volumes: Tragedies, and Pericles. With Three Plays of Doubtful Authorship Namely: Two Noble Kinsmen; Edward III; Sir Thomas Moore.
   • The New Nonesuch Shakespeare: The Last of Four Volumes: Poems: Venus and Adonis; The Rape of Lucrece; The Sonnets; A Lovers Complaint; The Passionate Pilgrime; Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Musicke; The Phoenix and the Turtle.


6. Craig, W. J., ed. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. 1905. London: Geoffrey Cumberlege / Oxford University Press, 1949.


7. Evans, G. Blakemore, ed. The Riverside Shakespeare. General Introduction by Harry Levin. With Notes and Introductions by Herschel Baker, Anne Barton, Frank Kermode, Hallett Smith, Marie Edel & Charles H. Shattuck. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974.


8. Shakespeare, William. The Annotated Shakespeare: The Comedies, Histories, Sonnets and Other Poems, Tragedies and Romances Complete. Ed. A. L. Rowse. 3 vols. London: Orbis Publishing Limited, 1978.
   • The Annotated Shakespeare: Complete Works Illustrated. Vol. 1: Comedies (1978)
   • The Annotated Shakespeare: Complete Works Illustrated. Vol. 2: Histories and Poems (1978)
   • The Annotated Shakespeare: Complete Works Illustrated. Vol. 3: Tragedies and Romances (1978)


9. Shakespeare, William. The Annotated Shakespeare: The Comedies, Histories, Sonnets and Other Poems, Tragedies and Romances Complete. Ed. A. L. Rowse. 3 vols. 1978. 2nd ed. London: Orbis Publishing Limited, 1979.
   1. The Annotated Shakespeare: Complete Works Illustrated. Comedies
   2. The Annotated Shakespeare: Complete Works Illustrated. Histories and Poems
   3. The Annotated Shakespeare: Complete Works Illustrated. Tragedies and Romances


10. Shakespeare, William. The Complete Works. Ed. Stanley Wells & Gary Taylor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986.


11. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, with a Life of the Poet by Charles Symmons, D. D., A Glossary and Fifty Embellishments. London: Ramboro Books, 1993.


12. Greenblatt, Stephen, & Walter Cohen, Jean E. Howard & Katharine Eisaman Maus, ed. The Norton Shakespeare: Based on the Oxford Edition. Ed. Stanley Wells, Gary Taylor, John Jowett & William Montgomery. 1986 & 1988. With an Essay on the Shakespearean Stage by Andrew Gurr. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1997.


13. The Handy-Volume Shakspeare. Ed. Q. D. 13 vols. London: Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., n.d.


14. Brooke, C. F. Tucker, ed. The Shakespeare Apocrypha: Being a Collection of Fourteen Plays Which Have Been Ascribed to Shakespeare. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908.


15. Shakespeare, William. Shakespeares Werke in Fünf Bänden. Trans. August Wilhelm von Schlegel, Dorothea und Ludwig Tieck, & Wolf Heinrich Graf von Baudissin. Rev. ed. 1908-1923. 5 vols. Campe Klassiker. Hamburg: Hoffmann und Kampe, 1966.

Comedies:


16. Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night or, What You Will. A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare. Ed. Horace Howard Furness. 1901. New York: Dover, 1964.

Tragedies:


17. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare. Ed. Horace Howard Furness. 1877. 2 vols. New York: Dover, 1963.


18. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet: The First Quarto, 1603. Ed. Albert B. Weiner. Foreword by Hardin Craig. New York: Barrons’ Educational Series, Inc., 1962.


19. Shakespeare, William. King Lear. A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare. Ed. Horace Howard Furness. 1880. New York: Dover, 1963.


20. Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare. Ed. Horace Howard Furness. 1873. New York: Dover, 1963.


21. Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare. Ed. Horace Howard Furness. 1871. New York: Dover, 1963.

Romances:


22. [Mr William Shakespear’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. Published According to the True Original Copies. The Third Impression. And Unto this Impression is added Seven Playes, never before printed in Folio, viz, Pericles Prince of Tyre. The London Prodigal. The History of Thomas Ld Cromwell. Sir John Oldcastle Lord Cobham. The Puritan Widow. A York-shire Tragedy. The Tragedy of Locrine. 1664. London: Methuen, 1905. “Pericles, Prince of Tyre,” pp. 1-20.]


23. [Allen, Michael J. B., & Kenneth Muir, ed. Shakespeare’s Plays in Quarto: A Facsimile Edition of Copies Primarily from the Henry E. Huntingdon Library. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981. “The Play of Pericles Prince of Tyre,” pp.751-86]


24. [Shakespeare, William. The Complete Works: Original Spelling Edition. Ed. Stanley Wells & Gary Taylor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986. “Pericles Prynce of Tyre,” pp. 1169-1200.]


25. [Shakespeare, William. The Complete Works: Original Spelling Edition. Ed. Stanley Wells & Gary Taylor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986. “A Diplomatic Reprint of ‘Pericles’,” pp. 2102-21; Stanley Wells & Gary Taylor. William Shakespeare. A Textual Companion. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987. “Pericles,” pp. 130-31 & 556-92


26. Shakespeare, William. The Winter’s Tale. A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare. Ed. Horace Howard Furness. 1898. New York: Dover, 1964.


27. Shakespeare, William, & John Fletcher. The Two Noble Kinsmen. Ed. N. W. Bawcutt. 1977. The New Penguin Shakespeare. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981.

Sonnets & Poems:


28. Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Ed. Martin Seymour-Smith. London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., 1963.


29. Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Ed. W. G. Ingram & Theodore Redpath. 1964. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1978.


30. Shakespeare, William. The Poems. Ed. F. T. Prince. 1960. The Arden Shakespeare. University Paperbacks. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1976.

Secondary:


31. Boyce, Charles, & David White, ed. The Encyclopedia of Shakespeare A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Plays, His Poems, His Life and Times, and More. Foreword by Terry Hands. A Roundtable Press Book. New York: Facts on File, 1990.


32. Clarke, Mary Cowden. The Girlhood of Shakespeare’s Heroines. 1850-1852. 3 vols. Everyman’s Library. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd. / New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., n.d.


33. Duffin, Ross W. Shakespeare’s Songbook. Foreword by Stephen Orgel. New York: W. W. Norton, 2004.


34. Gordon, Giles, ed. Shakespeare Stories. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1982.


35. Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. Jonathan Cape. London: Random House, 2004.


36. Greg, W. W. The Shakespeare First Folio: Its Bibliographical and Textual History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955.


37. Halliday, F. E. A Shakespeare Companion. 1952. Penguin Shakespeare Library. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.


38. Halliday, F. E. The Cult of Shakespeare. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., 1957.


39. Hotson, Leslie. The First Night of Twelfth Night. 1954. London: Mercury Books, 1961.


40. Schoenbaum, S. William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life. 1975. Revised Edition with a New Postscript. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.


41. Schoenbaum, S. Shakespeare’s Lives: New Edition. 1970. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.


42. Shapiro, James. 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare. London: Faber, 2005.


43. Shapiro, James. Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.


44. Shapiro, James. 1606: William Shakespeare and the Year of Lear. London: Faber, 2015.


45. Sher, Antony. Year of the King. London: Methuen, 1985.


46. Spencer, T. J. B., ed. Shakespeare’s Plutarch: The Lives of Julius Caesar, Brutus, Marcus Antonius, and Coriolanus in the translation of Sir Thomas North. Peregrine Books. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1964.


47. Spurgeon, Caroline. Shakespeare’s Imagery and What It Tells Us. 1935. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965.


48. Taylor, Gary. Reinventing Shakespeare: A Cultural History from the Restoration to the Present. London: The Hogarth Press, 1990.

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• category - Drama: Theatre

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