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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
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adherents of the old religion, in Cornwall , Devon- shire, and other parts of England. Among other articles, the malcontents required, that, the mass should be celebrated in Latin ; and that the bible in English should be suppressed ; to which an excellent and powerful reply was drawn up by archbishop Cranmer, in which he successmlly defended the use of the Bible and Liturgy in the mother tongue. From another of the articles proposed by the rebels, we obtain the curious information, that so late a period as this reign, the Cornish language continued to be very gene- rally spoken in Cornwall, and was given as a reason for rejecting the English church -service, and requesting the Latin.
1549. The first edition of Stemhold's version of a portion of the Psalms, which was printed by Edward Whitchurch, with the following title : — All such psalms of David, as Thomas Slemholde lategromt of the hinges majesties rohes, did in his iyfe time drawe into Englyshe metre. This book is dedicated to Edward' VI. by the author, and seems, therefore, to have been prepared by him for the press.*
1549. Canterbury received the art of print- ing about the close of the reign of Henry VIII. John Mychell is the onlv printer whose name is recorded, and his first dated book, as given by Herbert, is of this date. He resided in St. Aus- tin's, where he printed a Chronicle, cumprivilegio ad imprimendum solum. Not more than eleven or twelve of these early Canterbury books are known.
1549. Robert Stephens has the honour of the invention, if it be entitled to such a name, ti subdividing the larger divisions, or chapters of the New Testament tnto verses. A great part of this undertaking he is said to have performed on horseback, while on a journey from Paris to Lyons. This invention proved so generally acceptable, and obtained so great authority, that all editions of the New Testament were in a manner superceded, which did not conform to this device of Robert Stephens.
In 1551, Robert Stephens reprinted the New Testament in Greek, in two volumes, (or parts) placing the Greek text between the vulgate lAtin, and the version of Erasmus, and affixing a number or cipher to every verse. He followed the same plan in his impression of the Old Tes- tament of 1557. These were the earliest im- pressions of the scriptures in which Chevillier had seen the verses dutinguisfied by figures : an
- Stendiold, according to Wood's coi^ecttire, was born
in HampAiie. HolUnsbead saya, at Sonttaampton ; but R. Atkinn, Id his History 0/ QkmeetterMre, expressly afllnns that he was born at Aqi«, a parish about twdve miles from Oloncester, and adds that his posterity turned papists, and left the place. Haring passed some time at Oxford, he became groom of the robes of king Henry VIII., who bequeathed Iilm lOO marlcs. He was continued in the same ofllce under king Edward VI. He appears to have been a man of sincere piety, and a steadCist adherent to the principles of the ReformUion ; and undertook his translation of the Psalms as an antidote to the profane and wanton songs of the courtiers, hoping they would sing them instead of their Ucentloua sonnets, as iqipears ttom the title-page of his version, which has beat continued in all the printed copies. He died in IM9, having lived only to veraUy tlfty-one of the psalms.
example soon generally followed ; with thii difference however, that in the bibles and new testaments of Robert Stephens, and those of th( ministers of Geneva and Basil, all these venet begin a new line : a form which is not observe<i in the bibles of Sixtus V. and Clement VII excepting in the book of Job, the Psalms, and Proverbs. Chevillier further observes, that from the time of Robert Stephens, the holy bible luts been usually printed with Arabic ciphers, tc distinguish the verses; but Faber Stapulensie had already introduced them into his Psalterium Quincuplex, printed in 1509, and 1513, by Henry, the lather of Robert Stephens ; ana Richard de Mans, a Franciscan of Paris, had edited the Psalter in like manner, in 1541 ; and Chevillier has no doubt that Robert Stephens had taken the idea from these impressions ; but adds that Faber Stapulensis caused the first letter of every verse in his psalter to be printed in red ink, a plan which was followed by Gene- brard in his Psalterium, 8vo. Paris, 1581. But this singularity Robert Stephens did not think it proper to adopt.
1549, Died, Daniel Bombebo, commonly called the star of Hebrew printers. He was a native of Antwerp, but settled at Venice, where he commenced the art of printing. Having learnt Hebrew of Felix Pratensis, a converted Jew, he printed several editions of the Hebrew Bible, the most celebrated of which were those which he published with the Targums, Rabbini- cal commentaries, and Masorah. The first edi- tion of Romberg's Great, or Rabbinical Bible, was commenced in 1517, and finished on the 27th of November of the ensuing year, 1518. This edition, however, was not held in estimation by the Jews, on account of what they re^rded as the apostacy of the editor, Felix Pratensis. Another and improved edition, in 4 vols, folio, was published by Romberg in 1525 — 1526, who employed R. Jacob ben Chaim, a learned Jew, of Tunis, as editor. A still more ample and complete edition was printed by him in 1547 — 1649, 4 vols. fol. under the inspection of Cor- nelius Adelkind, another erudite Jew, with a curious preface by the former editor Jacob ben Chaim, of which a Latin translation is given in Kennicott's Dissertations on the state of the printed Hebrew Text, Diss. II. pp. 229—244. Oxon, 1759. Dr. Adam Clarke (Gen. Pref. to Com- ment, p. iv.l characterises this edition as " the most useful, the most correct, and the most valuable Hebrew Bible ever published." In 1520, Romberg began an edition of the Talmud, which he finished after some years, in 4 vols. fol. This he reprinted twice, and each edition is said to have cost him 100,000 crowns. As a printer, he was highly zealous for the honour of nis ait, spared no cost in embellishments, and is said to have retained about 100 Jews as correctors ol his press, the most learned he could find. In printing only, he is thought to have expended in the course of his life, ^ur millions, others say three millions of gold crowns; and Vossius seems to think, that he injured his fortune by
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