CHAPTER I. EDITIONS OF THE "LITURGIA," AND OTHER VERSIONS. "Of translations, the better I acknowledge that which cometh nearer to the very letter of the very original verity.”—HOOKER. THE Scarcity of "Liturgia: " Durel's title of Ed. 1670. HE first edition of Durel's Latin Prayer Book was published in 1670, and the book is now of no ordinary rarity. A copy of the title-page forms the frontispiece of this work without professing to be a facsimile, it is a close and exact imitation. The Prayer Book is excellently printed, and we find "i" and "j," and "u" and "v," according to the modern mode of use. It will bear favourable comparison with any book of the seventeenth century that we have seen, almost the only difference from modern type being the ancient form of "s." The type of the Catechism is similar to that of our reprint. We have examined copies of this edition in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (from which copy the text of the Catechism is taken), the University Library at Cambridge, the collated. British Museum, and the Cathedral Library at Norwich. Unfortunately the Catechism is torn out of the Norwich copy. The removal of valuable testimony which bears upon religious controversy is, sad to say, not uncommon ; ' and impartial students of truth cannot be too grateful for a Library I Copies Mutilation. Eg. From a letter of Alfricus, archbishop of Canterbury (end of tenth century), in Bennett College Library, the following important passage opposed to Transubstantiation has been erased. Fortunately, it remains in another copy:-" Non fit tamen hoc sacrificium corpus ejus in quo passus est pro nobis, nec sanguis ejus quem pro nobis effudit: sed spiritualiter corpus ejus efficitur et sanguis" (L. xii. 156). "Yet this sacrifice does not become his body in which he suffered for us, nor his blood which he shed for us: but is spiritually made his body and blood." like that in the British Museum, where such unremitted diligence is displayed in the collection and preservation of documentary evidence. It is interesting to observe that the former owner of this Norwich copy has filled in the initials subscribing the dedication thus—Joän Durell: this owner was evidently a cotemporary, as the MS. date is 1673, three years after the publication of the book. The Bodleian. copy is especially interesting, as it was presented by Dr. Durel himself to Dr. Barlow, and this fact is recorded on the title-page in the handwriting of the latter (see Part I. ch. 2, p. 19). Bodleian copy. "Commu With regard to the title itself it should be noted that in all previous Latin Prayer Books we find "Publicarum," not "Communium," whereas Durel's word "Communium" is retained even nium" in by Harwood, and so up to a comparatively late date. title. In the title of the Act of Uniformity, 1 Eliz., we have "Common Prayer," and in the title of the Act of Uniformity, 14 Car. II., "Publick Prayers"; but in the body of that Act "Common Prayers." Upon perusing both Acts it appears that "Publick Prayers" had come to mean, not "Open Prayers," which was a general term for any prayers "for other to come unto, or hear, either in Common Churches, or private Chappels," etc., but the ordinary services of Morning and Evening Prayer. That the term did not include all the services of the Church is seen from the title of 14 Car. II., "Publick Prayers, and Administration of Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies;" so that it was practically equivalent to "Common Prayer," in the sense of "Gyffredin" in the title of the Welsh Book, that is, "Ordinary Prayer" as opposed to the special services. as carum.' But such is not the use of the Latin word "Publicarum," at all Not same "Publi- events in the title of Queen Elizabeth's Latin Prayer Book, for there we have, "Liber Precum PVBLICARVM, SEV ministerij Ecclesiasticę administrationis Sacramentorum, aliorūq'; rituū," etc.; which shows that "Publicarum" included even the administration of the Sacraments. When therefore Durel had to translate The Book of Common Prayer, And [not or] Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites, etc., he could not say, "Precum Publicarum," which would have included all the rest, but was obliged to use the expression "Precum Communium," which was a term of limited import. Precision of version. A new translation. The same precision of language and freedom from undue copying of previous Prayer Books is very noteworthy in Durel. His is not a revised, but a new version; a translation, not a compilation; and not only a translation, but an interpretation. Many marks of independence will be pointed out in the notes on the Catechism, but one may be mentioned here in our English Book, at the end of The Order how the Psalter is appointed to be read, there is a note that "the Psalter followeth the Division of the Hebrews, and the Translation of the great English Bible," etc.; at this place in Durel's "Liturgia" the following note is added:-"* Hoc intelligitur de Psalterio in Editione Anglicana Liturgia; Nam in hac Special order Latina Editione, sequuti sumus Vulgatam Latinorum Versionem, quemadmodum in Epistolis & Evangelis," ie., "This is understood of the Psalter in the English Edition of the Liturgy; For in this Latin Edition, we have followed [note, not "sequutus sum," in the singular; it is difficult to say whether "we" may refer to the king, or to Durel and the other translators] the Latin Vulgate Version, just as in the Epistles and Gospels." for Psalter. There is a smaller edition published at the same Sam Mearne's, King's Bookseller, and dated MDCLXXX. : a copy is in the British Museum, where we have seen it, and collated Ed. 1680. it on the most important passages. In this and subsequent editions the Dedication is omitted. The next copy we have fully collated is that of 1685. There is one in the Bodleian Library, and we have also had access I Ed. 1685. to two in private hands. It has, verbatim, the same title as the first edition of 1670, with changes in the formation of letters, I One of the latter, very kindly lent to us by the Rev. J. O. Brook, has a frontispiece representing Charles II.; but we are inclined to doubt whether this belongs to the book, or has been bound up in mistake: this copy originally belonged to William Pitt. The other has no frontispiece. it being, like the edition of 1680, a smaller book. The imprint is different: "LONDINI, Apud CAR. MEARNE, Bibliopolam Regium ad Insignia Regia prope Charing-Cross. MDCLXXXV." The copy in the Bodleian has a frontispiece of an angel bringing from heaven a scroll, with LITURGIA ECCLESIÆ ANGLICANÆ inscribed upon it; underneath is, "Apud Carolum Mearne Bibliopolam Regium ad Insignia Regia prope Charing Crosse i685." It will be noticed that the King's Bookseller was still one of the family of Mearne. We also have in our own library a copy of the edition of 1687. The frontispiece is precisely the same as that of 1685, Ed. 1687. and bears, in fact, the same date, "i685." The titlepage is printed from the same type, excepting the imprint, "LONDINI, Apud Henricum Bonwick, ad insigne Leonis rubri in Cœmeterio D. Pauli. MDCLXXXVII ;" and the whole book is word by word and letter by letter the same, even to the binder's marks, except that Carolus is changed to Jacobus, and there is the requisite alteration in the prayer for the Royal Family. The death of Charles II. and the accession of James II. rendered the reprint of the Latin Prayer Book necessary; but upon comparing the edition of 1687 with that of 1685, we find sufficient proof that the form of 1685 was not broken up, and that the edition of 1687 was printed from that form. All the misprints of 1685 are retained in that of 1687, though these are, indeed, wonderfully few. The title-page of the edition of 1696 is the same verbatim, except the imprint, which runs: "LONDINI, Excudebat E. Ed. 1696. Fones, Impensis A. Swall & T. Childe, ad insigne Monocerotis in Cœmeterio D. Pauli, MDCXCVI." It has the same engraving for a frontispiece as the editions of 1685 and 1687, but it is now said to be, "Impensis Abelis Swall," etc., and is dated 66 MDCXCVI." A copy of this edition we have inspected in the Bodleian. We have also seen another edition of the same date in the British Museum, but with a different imprint; in place of "ad insigne MDCXCVI" is "& Prostant apud Jacobum Knapton ad insigne Coronæ in Cœmeterio Another Ed. 1696. |