An exhortacyon to the dylygent study of scripture:

by ERASMUS, Desiderius.

$30,746 · Offered by Biblio

First edition

[London:] Robert Wyer,, [c.1534]. Erasmus on reading the Bible in the vernacular Rare English translation of Erasmus's Paraclesis, "a cogently argued text in support of the Bible in the vernacular, and it is this particular thrust of the work that must have drawn the early English reformers to it, since they too, like Erasmus, spoke eloquently, and at length... in support of the Bible in English" (Douglas H. Parker). Based on a translation variously attributed to either William Joy or George Joye, which was first printed at Antwerp in 1529, this is one of two editions printed for the first time in England in 1534. While the 1529 Antwerp edition had included a translation of Martin Luther's commentary on 1 Corinthians 7, both 1534 editions replace Luther's text with another Erasmus text, "An exhortacyon to the study of the Gospell". This is the only copy to have appeared in commerce in the past 45 years. Octavo (135 x 94 mm), in two parts. Woodcut opening initials, printer's devices [McKerrow 67c and 68, 69], "dieu et mon droit" woodcut on I8r. Twentieth-century brown pigskin, spine lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers. Fore-margins restored throughout affecting woodcuts on final leaf and occasional shoulder notes, numerous short wormtracks filled, some just into text, some mostly marginal staining, washed, still a presentable copy, carefully restored, of a notably rare book. STC 10494 (four copies only: British Library, Oxford, Huntington, and the present copy).

• Year: 1534
• Edition: First Edition
• Binding: unknown

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