ISS: Information Services and Systems

Book of the Month

Erasmus's New Testament - September 2004

Novum Testamentum omne, multo quam antehac diligentius ab Erasmo Roterdamo recognitu, emendatum ac translatum ... [&c] In aedibus I. Frobenii, Basileae, 1519. [Rare Books Collection FOL. BS1965.ERA ]

by Jenny Alder, Information Assistant, Foyle Special Collections Library.

Book of the month archive

Portrait of Erasmus by Holbein taken from: Ephraim Emerton. Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam. London: Knickerbocker Press, 1899. [Sion PA 8518.EME]

The publication of Erasmus's New Testament was a landmark in the critical study of Scripture and was the epitome of the humanist's desire for a return to the sources of the Christian tradition. Its production and legacy illuminate the intellectual climate of Western Europe and the growth of a new type of Biblical scholarship based upon humanist philological methods. The edition consisted of the original Greek text and a new translation into classical Latin arranged in parallel columns, and crucially included Erasmus's interpretative Annotations on the text. This text was the first Greek Testament to be published, appearing in 1516, although the New Testament volume of the Complutensian Polyglot, also held in the Foyle Special Collections Library, was actually produced in 1514. Erasmus made alterations to his text and subsequent editions were produced in his lifetime, in 1519, 1522, 1527 and 1535. Although not based on the greater number of manuscripts available to scholars in later centuries, Erasmus's text served as the foundation for critical editions of the Greek New Testament into the modern era.

Humanist scholarship can be said to have begun in Italy at the end of the twelfth century and had spread across Western Europe by the early sixteenth century. Command of classical languages was essential in the public life of the Renaissance man and the medieval approach to letters was superseded. Fifteenth century scholars such as Lorenzo Valla began to utilise skills of textual criticism in the realm of Biblical studies. The influence of these ideas was seen in the editing of texts, the production of translations and the explanation of works which had been edited or translated. A revival of Greek learning was felt to be crucial if a true understanding of classical Latin texts was to be obtained. This approach also influenced the study of the New Testament, originally written by the Apostles in Greek, but which tended to be translated before this period from the Latin Vulgate alone. Humanists such as Erasmus also sought an accurate historical interpretation of what New Testament writings meant to their earliest audiences, rather than interpreting the text through anachronistic scholastic categories of grace and faith, as medieval writers often tended to. For Erasmus the work was treated first and foremost as a text and he used skills of modern editors to analyse it, assembling manuscripts and variant readings and formulating principles of textual analysis. He had a detached historical attitude to the period of Biblical antiquity.

Title page of Erasmus's Novum Testamentum omne, multo quam antehac diligentius ab Erasmo Roterdamo recognitu, emendatum ac translatum ... [&c] In aedibus I. Frobenii, Basileae, 1519 [Rare Books Collection FOL. BS1965.ERA ]

Erasmus began preparing a Latin translation of the New Testament in the early years of the sixteenth century. He had been influenced by his 1504 discovery of Valla's Adnotationes and by John Colet's Oxford lectures on St. Paul, and as a result was inspired to take a critical approach to the text. He soon began to see the need for a reliable text of the Greek New Testament and began to collate manuscripts with a view to editing the Greek text around 1511 to 1512, having gained more experience of Greek and editing manuscripts by a sojourn to Italy. Whilst there he made the acquaintances of the famous printer of Greek Aldus Manutius and also of Giovanni de Medici, later Pope Leo X and dedicatee of the New Testament. By the time his New Testament was published Erasmus was famous across the European intellectual community, and a confidante of religious and secular rulers. Northern humanism was in its ascendancy, and Erasmus was well known for his Adagia of 1508 and 1515 and his On the education of a Christian prince (1516).

The first edition of Erasmus's New Testament, entitled Novum Instramentum, guaranteed to inflame his conservative critics who believed in the sanctity of the existing Vulgate translation. For the second edition of 1519, of which the Foyle Special Collections copy is an example, the title was changed to Novum Testamentum which it remained. The second edition is in many ways the most important. It was greatly expanded and contained more introductory material, with an extended Annotations and a treatise on methodology. As a result it was almost twice as long as the first edition. Centrally he substituted the Vulgate based Latin version of the first edition with another, more radical Latin translation. Erasmus's contribution to Biblical scholarship is heightened by the fact that his Annotations provided an insight into his methodology and editorial decisions. He also outlined his aims, the first of which was to eradicate textual corruptions. Erasmus was acutely aware of the nature of the Scriptures as human documents and so was alert to the possibilities of scribal errors. He also wished to improve the translation in terms of clarity of expression, purity of language and stylistic appeal, as well as ensuring the Latin text better reflected the sense of the original Greek. The fact that he dared to alter the sacred text for purely stylistic reasons meant many in conservative circles greatly disapproved of his translation. But Erasmus believed a godliness he felt to be lacking in his own society would return if people, or at least intellectuals, could engage more fully with the Scriptures. He felt that the solecisms and clumsiness of the Vulgate Latin put off a humanist audience accustomed to reading classical Latin.

The work was printed by Johann Froben of Basel, whose press attracted many learned scholars. Erasmus described his experiences at the press in his correspondence, saying how he spent hours working at the press whilst the type was being set, correcting the manuscript as he went along. The first edition of around 1000 pages per copy was printed in only 6 months, a phenomenal achievement for the time. Criticisms of mistakes in the first edition were part of the reason for the appearance of the much altered second edition, and Erasmus himself partly blamed the pressured environment of the print room for the mistakes. The position of Froben's press helped ensure a high profile for Erasmus's text, as Basel was a convenient location as a publishing centre for German, French, Flemish and even Italian customers. The dominance of his Greek version over that of the Complutensian Polyglot was ensured when he obtained a privilege for the exclusive use of his edition for four years within the Holy Roman Empire. In contrast the Complutensian scholars had no license to bind and distribute their work until 1520, by which time the Erasmian text was already entrenched.

Christ from : Erasmus's Novum Testamentum omne, multo quam antehac diligentius ab Erasmo Roterdamo recognitu, emendatum ac translatum& ... [&c] In aedibus I. Frobenii, Basileae, 1518, 1519 [Rare Books Collection FOL. BS1965.ERA ]

This New Testament was arguably Erasmus's greatest achievement. Before his work the vast majority of printed Bibles reflected only traditional interpretations of the text, and he was one of the first to produce an edition of the Bible based on principles modern editors would find familiar. Erasmus died in 1536 but his text had a long legacy. It was incorporated into Robert and Henri Estienne's Greek edition of the New Testament and from there into the Elzevier Textus Receptus and down to us today through the Authorised Version. Erasmus's work was also very important in the translations of vernacular Bibles, not least that of Luther, also held in the Foyle Special Collections Library. Although in his later years the rising tensions of the Reformation period meant Erasmus was forced into a kind of conservative reaction, his work remained an inspiration both to early Protestants and Catholic intellectuals at a time of vigorous religious debate and subsequently to generations of scholars and readers.

King's College London acquired this work through an anonymous donation by a Fellow in 1959 in honour of the services rendered to the College by Robert Hutton, Librarian from 1931 to 1958. The Foyle Special Collections Library copy is well preserved and an excellent example of the work. It is in a sixteenth century blind-stamped German binding. It still retains its original clasps, one of which is completely preserved. Parts of an older manuscript work complete with red and blue lettering have been re-used as part of the binding. The copy is also interesting in that the text has been extensively annotated throughout in Latin in a sixteenth century hand.

Also of interest

The Foyle Special Collections Library has strong holdings of Bibles in many vernacular languages as well as classical. Relevant texts to note here include:

Complutensian Polyglot Bible: [Biblia complutensis] [edited by Antonio de Lebrixa, Demetrius Ducas, Fernando Nunez de Guzman et al]. Academia Complutensi [Alcalà de Henares]: Industria Arnaldi Guilielmi de Brocario, 1514-1517. [ Marsden Collection R2/1]

See also: www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/iss/library/speccoll/religion/comp/html

Estienne's Greek New Testament: Nouum Iesu Christi D. N. Testamentum. Ex Bibliotheca Regia. Lutetiae: Ex officina Roberti Stephani, 1550. [Rare Books Collection Adams FOL.]

Elzevier Greek New Testament: Novum Testamentum. Lugd. Batavorum: ex officina Elzeviriorum, 1633. [Rare Books Collection 17th cent. Fol.]

Luther's Bible in Low German: Biblia, Dat ys. Magdeborch: [Gedrücket dorch Wolffgang Kirchner], 1578.[Marsden Collection FOL. 1/9]

Further reading

Jerry H. Bentley. Humanists and Holy Writ: New Testament scholarship in the Renaissance. Princeton: Princeton University Press,1983
[Maughan Library Humanities Books BS2350.B44]

King's College London. Exhibition of Bibles from the collection in the College Library. London: published by King's College London, 1961.[College History Collection Z7770.EXH]

Erika Rummel. Erasmus' 'Annotations' on the New Testament: from philologist to theologian. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1986.
[Maughan Library Humanities Books BS2335.E65 R86]

Cuthbert HamiltonTurner. The early printed editions of the Greek New Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924. [Maughan Library Humanities Books Z7770.T9]