Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

a half pages. The next half-page contains "Names and Order of all the Books of the O. & N. Test." The Bible throughout has no paging. The New Testament title-page is the same as that of the edition of the previous year, 1781. It reads as follows:

THE NEW

TESTAMENT

OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR
JESUS CHRIST;

NEWLY TRANSLATED OUT OF THE
ORIGINAL GREEK;

AND WITH THE FORMER

TRANSLATIONS

Diligently compared and revised.

PHILADELPHIA:

PRINTED AND SOLD BY R. AITKEN, BOOKSELLER
Opposite the Coffee House, Front Street.

MDCCLXXXI.

The title-page also contains a wood-cut of a hat and flute. On the back of the same page is this line:

NAMES AND ORDER OF THE BOOKS OF THE N.T.

Below, in large letters, are found the initials "R. A."

The publication of this Bible was not a financial success. It had to compete with imported Bibles that could be sold cheaper, because the cost of printing was less. Moreover, the book

was a small one and did not compare with larger Bibles as a specimen of the printer's art. Mr. Aitken seems to have been seriously embarrassed by his undertaking, and had the sympathy of good people, who regretted the loss to which he was subjected. At a Synod of Presbyterians, held in Philadelphia on the 24th of May, 1783, it was "Resolved, As Mr. Aitken, from laudable motives, and with great expense, hath undertaken and executed an elegant impression of the Holy Scriptures, which, on account of the importation of Bibles from England, will be very injurious to his temporal circumstances, the Synod agree that the committee to purchase Bibles for distribution among the poor purchase Aitken's Bible and no other, and earnestly recommend it to all to purchase such

in preference to any other." The Aitken Bible is now the rarest of all early Bibles printed in America. It can be safely said that at the outside there are not more than twenty-five copies in existence, and the number actually located falls below this statement. The list of owners is a very short one.1 It is only about once in a generation that a copy is offered for sale, and consequently it commands a high price. A few years ago, at the Washington sale, held in Philadelphia, the two volumes of this Bible brought $650.

The Aitken Bible should animate the interest of Americans, inasmuch as it was the first Bible printed in the English language in America, and also because of the association of Congress with it. It is a part of our national history, for which we should be grateful, because it sets forth the fact that the founders of this Republic were men who were not ashamed of the revealed Truth. The term "Bible Congress," applied to our law-makers in that day, whether intended in derision or otherwise, was 1 Appendix G.

Whatever in power,

an epithet of honor. progress, and grandeur we have attained as a nation, we owe largely to the respect and reverence which our fathers paid to the precious Word of God.

THE FIRST DOUAY VERSION.

THE first quarto edition of the Bible in English printed in America was published in Philadelphia in 1790. It was the Douay version made from the Latin Vulgate. Proposals for printing this Bible by subscription were sent out in 1789 by Matthew Carey, a native of Ireland, located at Philadelphia as printer. It was proposed to issue the book in forty-eight numbers, delivered weekly at a cost of "six Spanish milled dollars" for the entire volume of 984 pages. Only about three of the numbers were delivered, when certain changes were made. The plan of issuing the Bible in numbers was given up, and it was announced that it would be published in two volumes. The firm was also changed to Carey, Stewart & Co. As an induce

« PredošláPokračovať »