Scriptorum Illustrium maioris Brytannie quam nunc Angliam & Scotiam vocant Catalogus: à Iapheto per 3618 annos, usque ad annum hunc Domini 1557.
Basel: Apud Ioannem Oporinum, 1557 and, 1559.
Price: $16,000.00
Folio: 30 x 20 cm. Two volumes: I. [28], 742, [2] p. II. [20], 250, [86] p. Collations: I. alpha 6, beta 4, gamma 4; a-z4, A-Z4, aa-zz4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa4. II. alpha 6, beta 4, a-z4, A-T4
FIRST COMPLETE EDITION. The second edition overall (1st ed. 1548).
A very good copy, the text very clean, in 16th c. pigskin (boards worn and slightly bowed, split along upper hinge, wear to corners, wear with loss to the pigskin of the upper corners; lower corners bumped, small defect at foot of spine). The text is very fresh with minor faults as follows: title lightly soiled and with stamp, mild dampstain to outer margin of the title and prelims, short marginal tear on leaf m3, corner of leaf y1 torn, leaf B1 with perforation along the upper blank margin, tiny chip in upper margin of G2, irregular edge on leaf ss4, wear to the lower edge of the outer blank margin of the final 8 leaves, not affecting the text. Verso of final leaf lightly soiled. With Bale's portrait on the verso of both title pages and Oporinus' large woodcut "Arion" device on the verso of the final leaf in both parts. Provenance: Benedictine monastery at Gengenbach (?); J. Tharp Lawrence (armorial bookplate); William R. Whittingham (inscription and inked stamp); ex. General Theological Seminary (bookplate).
Bale’s “Catalogue of Illustrious Writers of Great Britain” is a dramatic expansion and reorganization of his “Summarium”, the first bibliography of English authors ever written. Bale completed the project while living with John Foxe in Europe during his exile. The project was a massive undertaking. For the Tudor period alone, Bale records over 1,500 extant and lost works by 237 writers. For this edition, he added an entire second volume, which included a description of what Bale called the “Irish Library”, that is, his own collection of manuscripts that he had to leave behind when he was forced into exile. Bale has also added the works of 26 poets, including William Langland, John Gower, and John Skelton.
John Bale was a figure of central importance to the Protestant Reformation in England. His radical views, at times at odds with Henry VIII’s own reforms, earned him, like Coverdale, periods of exile from the realm. He undertook the project of compiling a comprehensive British bibliography after Henry VIII's dissolution of the monastic libraries. Bale was encouraged in his efforts by his close friend John Leland, the King’s antiquary, who ultimately lent the fruits of his own bibliographical labors to Bale's project. When Leland descended into madness in 1547, Bale took up his friend's unfinished work, "De Scriptoribus Britannicis", and incorporated it into his own.
While organizing Leland's material, Bale also pursued his own investigations. Britain's libraries were rapidly disappearing and Bale scoured the country for their fragments. His notebooks record visits to libraries, both public and private, in Cambridge, Oxford, Dublin and Frankfurt. In addition to libraries, Bale also combed the bookshops and printers’ offices. He visited bookbinders as well as "grocers, candle makers, and soap sellers"- for fragments. In these diverse locations he reported finding many "notable antiquities" of which he wrote down the titles, dates and incipits.
Before listing an author's works, Bale begins with a brief biography, often citing those who knew the person and, for many of his contemporaries, giving his own assessment of the person's character.
Thomas More:
His biography of Thomas More (p. 655-6) is an excellent example of Bale's ability to report a person's fine qualities and also to excoriate that person:
"In More — so Erasmus says — was an utterly incomparable intellect, a most fortunate memory, a most ready facility of speech. From boyhood he happily drank in Latin letters, and as a young man Greek, under the most learned teachers — Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn... He made progress in sacred letters and touched upon the liberal disciplines not unsuccessfully; in philosophy beyond mediocrity — to say nothing meanwhile of his practice of British law..."
But those who praised him were biased in his favor, and "we" know who More truly was:
"But whatever may be written by those who were excellently fattened and fed at his table: this we know well enough, who were nearer to him — that serving out of greed the cruelty of popes and Pharisees, more ferocious than any tyrant he raged; indeed he was mad against those who denied either the primacy of the Pope, or purgatory, the invocations of the dead, the cult of images, or anything of a similar kind among the diabolical impostures — men so taught by the life-giving truth of God. This Harpagus [i.e., a grasping tyrant] was unwilling to allow that a Christian king [Henry VIII] should be first [i.e., supreme head] in his own realm; nor that what was permitted to David, Solomon, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah — to order priests and Levites within their own domain, having cast off the tyranny of the Nimrods of Rome — should be permitted to the king. Wrapped in darkness, he was the most perverse hater of Evangelical truth.... This shameless adversary of Christ was beheaded on the 6th of July, 1535. His body was interred in the Tower of London, and his head set upon a stake at London Bridge, as is customary for traitors. And by the Papists he is venerated as a new martyr."
Protestant Biographies and Bibliographies:
Bale's work consists of individual bibliographies and biographies of each author. Of special interest are Bale's biographical sketches of his contemporaries, many of whom the author knew personally, including Henry VIII, Thomas More, and the Reformers John Foxe, William Tyndale, Thomas Cranmer, and the martyr Anne Askew (of whose martyrdom Bale had written a contemporary account.)
Tyndale, Coverdale & the English Bible
At the end of his section on Tyndale, Bale inserts a paragraph in which he makes special mention of Tyndale’s translation of the Bible: “In linguam vernaculum transtulit quinque libros Mosi, totum Testamentum Novum…” (“He translated into English vernacular the Moses’ Pentateuch, the entire New Testament….)
Similarly, in his section on Miles Coverdale, Bale mentions Coverdale’s brief annotations on the English New Testament, his explanation of the action of Grace, and his work on Biblical metrics: “Annotationes quoque brevissimas in Novum Testamentum, actiones gratiarum mensam dicendas, ad omnem statum rhithmos, & alia plura edidit.” He also makes mention of Coverdale’s return from his seven-year exile “pro veritatis assertione”, in 1548, the very year that Bale’s work went to press. Bale had returned from exile only the year before.
Wycliffe, “The Morning Star” of the Reformation:
Bale was the first to call Wycliffe the “Morning Star” of the English Reformation; his biography was central in the establishment of Wycliffe’s reputation as a forerunner of the Protestant Reformation. Bale's biography and bibliography of Wycliffe, "the greatest theologian of his age", runs seven pages and records Wycliffe’s English translation of the Bible: "transtulit quoque in Anglicum sermonem Biblia tota, cum quibusdam veterum doctorum tractatibus". A portrait of Wycliffe appears in the preliminary leaves of the book.
Pope Joan:
No discussion of Bale’s “Scriptores” should fail to make mention of a remarkable entry of the colorful biography of Pope Joan (listed in the index under “Ioannes papa, Mulier”). Bale recounts in detail the story of Joan’s remarkable journey to the papacy and ascribes to her one book: “This ingenious and learned woman is said to have put into writing certain necromantic matters in one volume.”
The Bible In England: Translators, Exegetes, Commentators:
John Bale presents a broad account of authors connected to the transmission, translation, and interpretation of the Bible. In addition to the well-known vernacular translators such as John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, and Miles Coverdale, the catalogue incorporates a wide range of figures associated with biblical literature in different forms.
The work includes earlier English writers whose texts were understood to bear on the communication of scripture in the vernacular. Among these are Richard Rolle, to whom are attributed English paraphrases of biblical material, particularly the Psalms; William of Shoreham, associated with vernacular religious verse; and Orm, whose Ormulum consists of homiletic verse based on gospel readings. These figures are presented within a framework that associates vernacular religious writing with the broader history of biblical transmission.
The catalogue also records several figures active in the production, revision, or dissemination of English Bibles during the sixteenth century. These include John Rogers, connected with the Matthew Bible; Thomas Matthew; Richard Taverner, known for his revision of earlier English translations; and John Hooper, whose writings include biblical expositions and annotations.
A substantial portion of the catalogue is devoted to medieval Latin commentators whose works engage directly with the text of scripture. Among these are Bede, author of commentaries on numerous biblical books; Alcuin, associated with biblical revision and exegesis; Anselm of Canterbury, whose writings include scriptural interpretation; and Robert Grosseteste, known for engagement with Greek sources and biblical commentary.
Adams 136; Davies, "John Bale", no. 17; Besterman, "Beginnings", p. 21-23, 62; R.W. Gibson, "St. Thomas More: A Preliminary Bibliography of his Works and of Moreana to the Year 1750", No. 183