The Text of the New Testament of Jesus Christ, Translated out of the vulgar Latine by the Papists of the traitorous seminarie at rhemes. With arguments… whereunto is added the translation … used in the Church of England, with a Confutation… de William Fulke - 1617: Fulke's Confutation

London: Thomas Adams, 1617. Folio (13" x 8.5"). The third edition of Fulke's New Testament with the Rheims translation and the Bishops' version side by side in parallel columns. The text is bound with his Defense in which he discusses the principles and practice of Bible translation.

Description: General title page (1617) with architectural border featuring a lamb bound at the altar, and at the bottom is cup from which a vine springs that swirls around the columns on either side. The design is dated 1574. Twenty-three preliminary leaves. Text in two columns with the Rheims translation in Roman type and the Bishops' version in italics. All of the marginal notes, chapter arguments, and annotations of the 1582 Rheims are reprinted, and interspersed with the Confutations. Text ends with a Table of Controversies (13 pp.). Bound with A Defense of The Sincere and True Translation of the Holy Scriptures Into English Tongue… with title page (1617) which contains Fulke's apology of the translation of the Bible and the ensuing debate between himself and Martin. First chapter floriated woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, and colophons throughout.

Collation: [par]^6, A-B^6, C^8 (Prelims); D-Z^6, Aa-Zz^6, Aaa-Zzz^6, Aaaa-Llll^6, Mmmm^4.

Binding: Rebacked in light brown near-matching calf with spine laid down. Contemporary mottled calf board with double blind ruled border. Spine with six raised blind ruled bands and a later morocco label with the words "Fulkes Rhemes Testament." Corners and edges slightly worn. Plain endpapers. All edges lightly dyed red.

Condition: Quite clean with good margins in the main. Upper marginal damp stain throughout the volume, but not entering text or headlines; Three signatures starting but holding quite well; Good margins throughout with minimal browning or staining. Blank leaf and front endpaper with eighteenth century signatures of John and Abraham Abbott.

Note: Gregory Martin (1542-1582), translator of the Rheims New Testament, and William Fulke (1536-1589), Protestant apologist, had been engaged in debate since 1582 when Martin published A Discovery of the Manifold Corruptions of the Holy Scriptures by the Heretics. Fulke had answered twenty-one Roman Catholic works since 1558 and issued a response to Martin (A Defense) the following year in 1583. Martin argued that the Greek text was corrupt while the Latin text was definitive. Fulke's ultimate response to Martin's claims was the parallel New Testament or Confutation against the Rheims' text with many annotations. To accomplish this work, he lodged with two assistants for nine months in 1587. The resulting controversy between Fulke and Martin brough the Rheims text into the limelight and to the notice of the committee of translators for the King James Bible.

References: Herbert 359; STC 2917; ESTC 006178787; DNB 10224.