630
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
McDy pnblUhed at London, dther to gratify private interest, or to promote public measures, though some of them are mistiudngly supposed to hare been printed at Edinburgh.*
1662, Mo!) 17. French Oceurrenett, No. 1.
1662, May 17. Intelligenae of the Civil War ra /Vanec, No. 1.
1062, Jime 38. Mereuriu$ Herodittu : or, the Weeping Philosopher, No. 1.
1M2, Jufy 26. Mercuriut BriUatnieui, No. 1.
1662. HUreurim Can^ro-Britanniau; or. News from Wales.
1662, Aug. 11. Mtrcuriui Civicw, No. 1.
1662, Aug. 20. Mereuriu* Mtutix, faithfully lading all Seoutt, Mercuriei, Postt, Spyei, and olhen. No. 1.
1662, Sep. 8. 7%e Laughing Mercury; or, true and perfect news from the antipodes, No. 22.
1662, Sep. 8. The Dutch Intelligencer, No. 1.
1662. The Weepen; or, characters of the Diumals.
1662. ifercuriuM Democritut hii hut Will and Tettament.
1662, Nov. I. Mercuriut Britannicut: for James Cottrell, No. 16.
1662, Dec. 4. The Flying Eagle, No. 1.
16S2. Moderate Publitlier of every dayt In- telligence.
1662, Dee. 27. A true and perfect Diurnal.
1662. 2%e Army's Scout.
1662. Neva from France; or, a description of the libraiT of cardinal Mazttrinef before it was utterly nuned. Sent in a letter from monsieur 6. Naudeus, keeper of the public librair. Lon- don, 1662, 4to, six pages. Reprinted in the third rolume of the Harleian Miscellany. vV 1663. Advertisement of Walton's Angler.
\. There it published a Booke of Fighteen-pence, called the Compleat Angler, or the Conten^flative man'* Reereatton; being a Diteourte on Fith and Fishing. Not unworthy the perusal. Sold by Richard Marriott in St. Dunttan's Church- yard, Flete-ttreet.
Izaak Walton, was born at Stratford, August 30, 1693,and became atradesman under the royal exchange, where he acquired a good fortune. His Complete Angler is a standard oook on the sub- ject He was also the author of the Lives of Dr. Donne,t Hooker, Wotton, Herbert, and bishop Saundetson.{{ At the restoration he wrote a cougratulatory paetoral. He died at Winchester, December 16, 1683, and was buried in the cathedral of that dty.
• See Araot'i BiUary of Eiimhurgh, which elves an ■ceoant at the eatablUhment of newspapen In ScoUuid, ttutU very saperfidal, and Inwcnnte. See Spalding*! HMi>rtoftkeTrmMetof8eatlaHd,vo\.\.f.33a. "Now, [December 1643J printed papers daily came ftom London, called Dhtrnat Oecwmtua, dedariny what Is done in Parliament." Spalding then lived at Abikoiin.
t Julias Mazarine, an eminent cardinal and minister of ■late In France, daring the minorttr of Louis XTV. He was born at Pisclni. in Italjr, July it, lOoa, and died March }, iMl . His Letters have been published in two volumes.
t John Donne, dean of .St. Paul's, in London, who stands at the bead of our metaphysical poets, was born in urs, and died March SI, 16si. Burled In St. Paul's cathedral.
I Dr. Robert SaundCTBOn, bishop of Lincoln, an eminent polemic writer and casuist, was born 1587, &nd died IMs.
1663. John Field, priBter to the mdwcni^ of Cambridge, printed an edition of the VSkit, in 24mo. and which is commonly called the Pearl Bible, alluding, no doubt, to a diiaiiRi- tive type so called, for it could not derive ila name from its wordi. To contract the BiUc into this dwarfishness, all the Hetnew text pve- fixed te the Ptalms, explaining the occanon aad the subject of their compositicni, is wh<^ly ex. pnnged. This curiosity may be inspected ninn»t the ^[Tcat collection of our Enirlish bibles, at iW British museum, and is set off by many notable errata, of which the following axe noticed :—
Romans vi. 13. — ^Neither yield ye your mem- bers as instruments of rigklemunti* unto na — for wnrighteoumea.
First Corinthians Ti. 9. — Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God? — for ihtdl not inherit.
Now when a reverend doctor in divinity did mildly reprove some libertines for their licentioas life, they produced this text from the autbori^r of this corrupt edition, in justification [of tkeir vicious and inordinate conversations.
This Field was a great forger; aad it is said that he received a present of j£1600 from the independents to corrupt a text in Acts vL 3, to sanction the right of uie people to appoint their own pastors. The corruption was ue easiest possible; it was only to put a fe instead of nr; so that the right in Field's bible emanated froa the people, not from the apostles. Butler, in his Huaibras, makes a happy allusion to this extraordinary state of our bibles at this period :
Bellgion spawned, a various rout
Of petulant, capridoos sects,
Tna MAoooTS or coaaomn tsxts.
In other bibles by Hills and Field we nay find such abundant errata, reducing the text to nonsense or blasphemy, making the scriptures contemptible to the multitude, who came to pny, and not to scorn.
It is affirmed, in the manuscript account already referred to, that one bible swarmed with six thousand faults! Indeed, from another source we discover that " Sterne, a solid scholar, was the first who summed up the three thousand and six hundred faults, that were in our printed bibles of London."* If one book can be made to contain near four thousand errors, little inge- nuity was required to reach to six thousand; but perhaps this is the first time so remaikahic an incident occurred in the history of literature, that has ever been chronicled. And that famont edition of the Vulgate, by pope Sixtus Y., a memorable book of blunders, which conunaods such high prices, ought now to fall in value, before the pearl bible, in 24mo. of Hills and Field.
Mr. Field, and his worthy coadjutor, seem to have carried the favour of the reigning po«en over their opponents; for I find a piece of thdr secret history. They engaged to pay JE600 per annum to some, " whose names I forbear or mention," warily observes the manuscript writer;
- O. Garrard's Letter to the Earl of Stratlbrd, vd i.
VjOOQ IC
