AN INTRODUCTION ΤΟ THE LITERARY HISTORY OF THE BIBLE. BY JAMES TOWNLEY, D.D., AUTHOR OF ILLUSTRATIONS OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE, Second Edition. LONDON: PRINTED FOR JOHN MASON, 14, CITY-ROAD, and 66, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1828. 250. b.231. PREFACE. In the year 1813 the present writer published a small work on the literary history of the Bible, which he entitled " Biblical Anecdotes." Whilst the author was engaged in its compilation, Dr. (now Bishop) MARSH printed his "Historical View of Translations of the Scriptures." This was succeeded in 1815, by "An Historical Sketch of the Translation and Circulation of the Holy Scriptures," designedas a reply to the Bishop's pamphlet, by the Rev. Messrs. THOMSON and ORME, the Secretaries of the Perth Auxiliary British and Foreign Bible Society. Both of these works are replete with important information, but necessarily restricted in the range of their details by their controversial character. A literary history of the Bible, therefore, still appeared to be a desideratum in vi English literature. PREFACE. This deficiency the present writer attempted to supply, by a work entitled "Illustrations of Biblical Literature;" exhibiting the history and fate of the Sacred Writings, from the earliest period to the present century, including Biographical Notices of Translators and other eminent Biblical Scholars, 3 vols. 8vo. To render the work more comprehensive and complete, the author added extended notices of prohibitory Edicts, Expurgatory Indexes, Codices Rescripti, Illuminated Manuscripts, Religious Dramas and Mysteries, the different Substances on which Writing had been successively inscribed, Alphabetical Characters, Superstitious Practices relative to the Bible, as Bibliomancy, &c.; and of curious ecclesiastical events connected with the history of the Sacred Volume. T How far the author succeeded in his attempt he cheerfully leaves to the decision of those Biblical scholars and critics most competent to judge of the difficulty and toil of such an undertaking: With the judgment of those who are the best informed to decide upon its design and execution, he has had every reason to be satisfied.* He may, however, observe, in accordance with the suggestions of several of his friends, that it is his intention, should his life and health be spared, to continue the work to the period when the Rev. JOHN OWEN commences his interesting History of the British and Foreign Bible Society, whenever another edition may be called for by the public, the former one being already nearly or entirely exhausted. * See the Introduction to the Critical Study of the Holy Scriptures, by Thomas Hartwell Horne, M. A. 4 vols. 8vo.-In this valuable work, which has justly been regarded as the most comprehensive in the English language, on subjects relating to the critical study and interpretation of the Sacred Writings; the author, at the close of his remarks on the Versions of Scripture, adds: "Besides the particulars recorded in the preceding sections, there are many interesting circumstances relative to the history of translations and translators, which the limits of this work do not allow to be detailed. For these, and indeed for every thing relative to the literary history of the Holy Scriptures, we refer the reader to the Rev. James Townley's Illustrations of Biblical Literature," &c. Vol. ii, p. 302. See also Orme's Bibliotheca Biblica; Literary Gazette; Literary Chronicle; Eclectic Review; Congregational, Evangelical, Methodist, and Imperial Magazine; Dibdin's Library Companion; Critica Biblica, &c. &c. &c. |