Christian Works : Francis Fry, A description of the Great Bible (1865)

Christian Works

SSS.3.17 is a copy of Francis Fry's A description of the Great Bible, which was first printed in 1865. Fry (1803-1886) was a Quaker and a partner in his family's chocolate business (J.S. Fry & Sons) that was based in Bristol. Fry was also a renowned bibliographer who took a particular interest in the collecting of bibles. Much of Fry's collection was purchased by the British & Foreign Bible Society after his death. This collection of over 1,200 bibles now resides in the Bible Society Library, which is itself housed within Cambridge University Library. From the 1860s onwards, Fry used his collection of bibles to produce a series of facsimile reproductions of early English Bibles and works which discussed their production. Fry's Description is the largest of these works and measures 28 cm wide by 39.5 cm long. Printed in folio, and in black and red ink, the Description contains an impressive fifty-one plates which detail typographical, decorative and illustrative features of the first seven editions of the Great Bible (1539–1541) and the early folio editions of the King James Bible (1611–1640). Fry intended this work 'to serve not only as a bibliographical description...but also as a key whereby to identify the [different] editions' of the Great Bible. The Great Bible, the first English Bible to be authorized for use in English churches, was printed in seven editions between 1539 and 1541. Fry's text was intended to help a reader identify which edition their copy was and to enable them to check if it was a 'perfect, clean copy' or a copy that had had missing pages supplied with leaves from a different edition. Fry added a large fold-out table at the end of the plate section. Spanning 80 cm wide and 74 cm long, this detailed table was a summary of Fry's comparison of forty-five copies of the King James Bible in folio and how different printed sheets had been reused across these early editions. Fry's working notebooks and the preliminary versions of parts of the Description are also held at the University Library (<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/6hgl01/44CAM_ALMA21483621890003606'>BSS.201.E50.22</a>, <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/6hgl01/44CAM_ALMA21483621890003606'>BSS.201.E50.23</a> and <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/2/resources/9006'>MS Add.9751</a>).The title page to Fry's Description includes a small engraving of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556), which draws on the famous <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw01563/Thomas-Cranmer'>contemporary portrait of Cranmer</a> painted by Gerlach Flicke c. 1545–1546. Although Archbishop Cranmer was not formally involved in the production and translation of the Great Bible, he wrote a prologue which appeared in the second edition and those thereafter. For this reason, the Great Bible is often referred to and even catalogued as the 'Cranmer Bible'. One can see this logic at play in the full title of Fry's Description, which terms the first edition the 'Great Bible' but the six subsequent editions as 'Cranmer's'.Over the course of a decade Fry travelled around British and European collections to view one hundred and forty-six copies and so assemble what he deemed a complete and perfect set of all seven editions of the Great Bible. From these Fry produced the many plates included in this work and the series of facsimiles that he commissioned to complete his own imperfect copies. Fry often provided facsimiles of bible leaves for other collectors who contacted him. Letters of authentication written by him can also be found in many of the early English bibles which passed through his hands and are often cited in auction catalogues. As with Fry's other reproduction projects, special paper was 'made expressly' to replicate that used in the original editions he was reproducing. This copy is one of a small number of his Description that was printed on vellum and sold for £20, compared to the standard price of £5. The introduction and notes are printed double-sided whereas all of the plates are printed single-sided, except the first. Pasted into the start of this copy is the four-page advertisement that Fry had produced to detail this work and his many others, notably his earlier facsimile reproduction of William Tyndale's New Testament. Copies of this work, including vellum editions, are held in the University Library and Bible Society collections too (for instance, <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/t9gok8/44CAM_ALMA21337131850003606'>Young.166</a>, <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/t9gok8/44CAM_ALMA21337131850003606'>SSS.30.25</a> [on vellum], and <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/33iul/44CAM_ALMA21378980200003606'>BSS.201.E63.2</a>).As a final flourish, Fry included at the back of every copy of his work an original leaf from each of the editions of the English Bible that he described in the text. This means that each copy of Fry's Description contained fourteen leaves from a sixteenth- or seventeenth-century bible. The addition of these leaves to each copy means every one is distinct. In this copy, Fry has provided an original leaf of fol. 7/sig. A7 (from The Book of Joshua) from all seven editions of the Great Bible and sig. Nn2 (from 2 Kings) from the first seven editions of the King James Bible.Fry was part of a wide circle of Victorian bibliographers who had an interest in the early history of the English Bible. Fry dedicated his Description to the 4th Earl of Ashburnham (1797–1878). The Earl's collection of rare books and manuscripts – one of the most significant private collections amassed in the nineteenth-century – had been of importance to Fry's investigation into the production of the Great Bible. SSS.3.17 was originally presented by Francis Fry to Sir William Tite (1798-1873). Tite had been elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1839 and stood as a sponsor for Francis Fry's election as a fellow there in 1862. Fry and Tite had also sold and exchanged with each other several books and manuscripts throughout the 1860s, including a rare copy of William Tyndale's New Testament. Fry presented other deluxe editions of his earlier works to Tite too.This copy was sold at the auction of Sir William Tite's collection on 22nd May 1874 at Sotheby's. It appears as lot 1151 in the sales catalogue and was purchased for £11 10s. The copy was donated to the University Library as part of the bequest of Samuel Sandars (1837–1894), whose bookplate is pasted on the inside cover. Sandars might have purchased the copy from the sale at Bowden & Co., where it sold as no. 41, seeing as a cutting from this catalogue has been pasted in the preliminary pages. Sandars had also collected copies of Fry's other works, including luxury copies of them printed on vellum (<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/t9gok8/44CAM_ALMA21337131850003606'>SSS.30.25</a> and <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/t9gok8/44CAM_ALMA21378978390003606'>SSS.30.26</a>). Indeed, Sandars might have primarily been interested in Fry's use of vellum rather than the texts themselves. Vellum printing was of special interest to Sandars and he produced a catalogue of books printed on vellum found university and college libraries in Cambridge (see <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/t9gok8/44CAM_ALMA21328062000003606'>SSS.49.11</a>). Note:Since the original leaves contained within this copy are each from a book of different date of production, they are described here in separate Parts. A link to a copy or copies of the corresponding bible is provided for each and, where possible, these links are to Fry's own copies, which now reside in the Bible Society Library.Dr Harry Spillane Munby Fellow in Bibliography 2024-25 Cambridge University Library