Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature

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Chapter XXIII The First Complete English Bible Printed at Antwerp, 1527-1535, as a Missionary Work of the Dutch. Miles Coverdale in the Service of Jacob van Meteren.

The church of the Middle Ages did not give the bible into the hands of every man. The rhymed-bible of Jacob van Maerlant in the Dutch language, and - hundred years later - the bible of Wicliff in English, began a new movement, and the written copies of these translations came into many hands, but into the reach of the great mass of people the bible came first after the invention of printing, when it was translated and printed in English, Dutch, French, German and other languages. Since that time the printed bible in the vernacular of the people has had an influence on the language and the literature of every Protestant nation, which hardly can be overestimated. The language, the expressions, the stories, the style of the bible became part of the life and the thought of the people, and got a place in the very heart of the nations. The bible became an important element in the development of language and the literature. Therefore, the translation and printing of the bible has been in the history of every nation an event of importance to its language and its literature.

In the Netherlands, the first complete bible in the Dutch language was that of Liesveld, printed at Ant-

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werp in the year 1526. Luther's bible in the German language was completed and printed at first in 1534. And the first English bible, commonly called the bible of Coverdale, was translated and printed during the years 1527-1535, and consequently published in 1535.

It was in the Netherlands that this first bible in the English language was translated, printed and given to the English nation. A wealthy merchant at Antwerp called Jacob van Meteren, the father of the famous historian Immanuel van Meteren, came often to London, and, being a zealous and pious Protestant, wished to do something for the Kingdom of Christ among the English people. Therefore, he took into his service a learned Englishman by the name of Miles Coverdale, who, at that time, happened to be at Antwerp, in order that Coverdale should translate the bible into English. Van Meteren did not ask a translation from the original Hebrew and Greek languages of the Old and New Testament, for which work certainly Coverdale would not have been the right man, but the originals from which he had to translate, and which he could use, were the Dutch version, and the Latin, called the Vulgate, and, furthermore, Jacob van Meteren paid all the expenses for having the whole work printed. His purpose in this expensive work was a missionary one, as he says ‘tot groote bevordering van het Rÿcke Christi in Engelandt’ (to the great fostering of the Kingdom of Christ in England).

Before the publishing of this ‘bible of Coverdale,’ several parts of the bible had been printed, for instance, in ‘The Golden Legend’ of Caxton, and some other parts, as the Pentateuch, and even the New Testament of Tyndale, were printed in Germany.

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But as a complete English bible, this work of Van Meteren, and Coverdale was the first. About this story of Van Meteren we read in the Encyclopaedia Brittannica, ‘Mr. Henry Stevens has pointed out that in a biographical notice of Immanuel van Meteren, appended to his history of Belgium by Simon Ruytinck, the latter states that Jacob van Meteren, the father of Immanuel, had manifested great zeal in producing at Antwerp a translation of the bible into English ‘for the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ in England, and for this purpose he employed a certain learned scholar named Miles Coverdale.’ As Van Meteren had been taught the art of printing in his youth, it seems very probable that he exercised his zeal in the matter by undertaking the cost of printing the work as well as that of remunerating the translator. The woodcuts in Coverdale's bible, but not the type, have been traced back to James Nicolson, printer in St. Thomas' hospital in 1535, and Mr. Stevens connects him with the book and with Van Meteren in the following manner: ‘The London book binders and stationers, finding the market filled with foreign books, especially Testaments, made complaint in 1533-34, and petitioned for relief; in consequence of which a statute was passed compelling foreigners to sell their editions entire to some London stationer, in sheets, so that the binders might not suffer. This new law was to come into operation about the beginning of 1535. In consequence of this law, Jacob van Meteren, as his bible approached completion, was obliged to come to London to sell the edition. We have reason to believe that he sold it to James Nicolson of Southwark, who not only bought the entire edition, but the woodcuts, and probably the punches and type; but, if the latter, they were

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doubtless lost in transmission as they have never turned up in any shape since. All the copies of the Coverdale bible in the original condition, as far as we know, have appeared in English binding, thus confirming this law of 1534. (Caxton Celebration Catal, p. 88-89). It is now evident that Coverdale refers partly, at least to Jacob van Meteren when he says in his dedication: ‘Trusting in His infinite goodness that He would bring my simple and rude labour herein to good effect, therefore, as the Holy Ghost moved other men, to do the cost hereof, so was I boldened in God to labour in the same.’ ‘The discovery of Ruytinck's statement seems to show conclusively that Coverdale completed his translation, after Wolsey's fall, at the cost of Van Meteren, and at Antwerp instead of Cambridge.’ ‘The first of all printed English bibles is a small folio volume measuring 11 3/4 by 8 inches, and bears the title: “Biblia, The Bible, that is, the Holy Scripture of the Olde and New Testament, faithfully and truly translated out of Douche (Dutch) and Latyn into Englyshe MDXXXV,” with the texts 2. Thes. iii-1, Col. iii-16, Josh. i-8 underneath. The colophon is: Prynted in the yeare of our Lord MDXXXV, and fynished the fourth daye of October.’ The title page was, however, for some reason cancelled immediately, and only one perfect copy of it is known. The new title page with the same date, 1535, merely says: ‘faythfully translated into Englyshe,’ omitting the words ‘and truly’ and ‘out of Douche and Latyn.’ Encycl. Britt. in voce: English Bible.

The English publisher thought it unnecessary to mention so exactly that this bible was translated from the Dutch and the Latin, nor did he give a single word to the real story of the translation. Apparently he looked at the matter from the point of view of a business man.