An Essay for a New Translation of the Bible, Wherein is shewn from reason and the authority of the best commentators, interpreters and criticks that there is a necessity for a new translation. In two parts. To which is added a table of the texts of Scripture contain'd in both parts

At the Middle-Temple-Gate in Fleet-Street / at the: Printed for R. Gosling; F. Clay; D. Browne; A. Ward, 1727. First Edition Thus. Hardcover. Good. 8vo 8" - 9" tall. Signed by Other. Uber-scarce in the trade, there being currently only one additional copy available on-line and fewer than two dozen copies available in libraries. Printed for a number of different booksellers including R. Gosling at the Middle-Temple-Gate in Fleet Street, England. An apparent Second Edition, Corrected Thus, binding two Parts (volumes) published separately into one for the first time. Author is not stated, but the Page of Dedication is printed/signed by "H.R." and underneath the initials a previous owner has penned "Ross" with a long S, and thus likely having been penned prior to about 1790. The entry in Allibone for "Hugh Ross" suggests that he translated the work that was done in French originally by [Charles] Le Cene, who died in 1703 and who is thought to have been born in 1647. A perfectly serviceable reference copy; nothing fancy, but complete and still pretty sturdy. Published in 1727 in this state from the original edition of 1583. Octavo hardcover format, incorporating perhaps the simple leather, publisher's original boards, but the spine has been rebacked in a creamy calf leather quite nicely, five raised bands thereon, and short title tooled in gilt. Damp-staining to endpapers but dissipating just past title page, and signs of neither odor nor mold thereafter. Bumping to, scuffing of tips, moderate rubbing to panels, edges. Both pastedowns split, heavy string stitches showing, still quite sturdy. Predictably wavy text-block, but easily readable and still quite bright of interior. Front endpapers feature an exorbitant, lengthy note by the previous owner filling three-and-a-half pages, seemingly laying down the writer's thoughts about the importance of the book from author to translator, and quoting contemporary sources. The page of dedication dedicates the book to the bishops and the rest of the reverend clergy of the Church of England. Le Cene published also the following: 1. De 1'Etat de l'Homme apres le Peche et de sa Predestination au Salut, Amsterdam, 1684; 2. Entretiens sur diverses matieres de Theologie, ou l'on examine particulierement les Questions de la Grace Immediate, du franc-arbitre, du Peche Originel, de l'Incertitude de la Metaphysique, et de la Predestination.' Amsterdam, 1685; 3. Conversations sur diverses matieres de Religion, ou l'on fait voir la tolerance que les Chretiens de different sentimens doivent avoir les uns pour les autres et ou l'on explique ce que l'Ecriture Sainte nous dit des alliances de Dieu, de la Justification et de le certitude du salut, avec un Traite de la Liberte de Conscience dedie au Roi de France et a son conseil, Philadelphia (Amsterdam), 1687; and then the present work, 4. Projet d'une nouvelle version Françoise de la Bible. Rotterdam, 1696. William Arthur Shaw's entry about Le Cene in the Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 32, 1885-1900, contains several typographical errors but suggests that the present work was published first as a single part, and then in 1702 was promised a second part by his son the publisher Michel Le Cene, but that project languished. Shaw states this present "incomplete and unfair English translation by H.R." was "probably [by] Hilary Renaud," not Hugh Ross. H.R.'s division of the work into two parts, however, has led to this bibliographical confusion. Later, Le Cene had published by his son, Michel, 5. La Sainte Bible, nouvelle version Françoise, 1741, in two volumes, but it was almost immediately denounced by the church of Utrecht and on 8 Sept. 1742 was "condemned as heretical and full of falsifications" (Shaw). The church attempted suppression of the book but was unsuccessful. The present volume is a lengthy, learned, impassioned essay about how and why new and better translations of the Bible are required. Collated: endpapers and frontis matter; title page, page of dedication, Note to the Reader, The Contents of the First Part, The Contents of the Second Part, thus [15], 1-304, [19] pp. plus a publisher's ad about an upcoming publication of church architectural history. All in, a still sturdy, rebound, clean, and eminently accessible exemplar of an important work of bible translation with a complicated history. From the personal library of Mr. Robert Allen as conveyed to me by his widow, Ms Priscilla (Brownie) Allen, he having been a noted bookseller and appraiser and also editor of a number of volumes of the The Eighteenth Century: a current bibliography series in a project headed at the University of Southern California.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. Additional postage may be required for oversize or especially heavy volumes, and for sets.