Printers from early 1800s desired pure edition

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Printers from early 1800s desired pure edition

Postby bibleprotector » 27 May 2014, 17:42

William Savage, in his Dictionary on the Art of Printing under the head of “Bible Orthography”, wrote, “Many religious works with numerous extracts from the Holy Scriptures without any reference tot he Book, Chapter, or Verse, and as they are frequently made from memory, they are generally inaccurate. I am clearly of opinion that wherever a quotation is made, it should be given literally as it appears in the work from which it is taken, otherwise it is worse that useless, — for it misleads. With regard to extracts from the Bible, I hold it indispensable that they should be given without the slightest variation for the original; but as many words in the Bible vary in their orthography from Johnson’s Dictionary, which is the book of reference generally in use, and as the authorized editions of the Scriptures differ in this respect from each other in many instances, I have collated the King’s Printers, the Oxford, the Cambridge, and the Edinburgh editions with Johnson’s Dictionary wand with each other, for the purpose of enabling the printer to preserve uniformity in orthography with little trouble to himself in reprints of the Bible, in extracts occurring in religious works, according a the author may prefer any of these editions.
These variations from each other do not extend to words but are confined to orthography, and to the difference of the same expression being given in one word, in two words, or in being made a compound word; thus in the Cambridge and the Edinburgh Bibles there are a great number of compound words,. while in the King’s Printers and Oxford Bibles the same words are given either joined together as one word or made into two words; and we find very few compound words, except in proper names. I have also given the Bible orthography where Johnson gives two ways of spelling a word. The result will be seen in the following Table; which also shows the variations, to a certain degree, that have taken place in the language during the last two hundred years.
The late Mr. Thomas Bensley, who was printer to the University of Oxford, told me, about the year 1805, that they had a sealed copy there, as a standard to read from; if this be the case, it is difficult to account for their copies of late years having numerous variations from the earlier editions. I would think it very desirable that there should a standard edition that we could refer to, as a pure text; and it would also be desirable to known on what authority these variations are made in the holy Scriptures, for every word, nay every capital letter, I believe, was carefully considered before it was adopted in the first edition of the authorized version in 1611, and this too by a considerable number of the most learned men of the kingdom, who had any direction of the work.
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