Chiswick Auctions this week sold the first ever printed edition of the Bible in English for £37,500 over four times its’ low pre-sale estimate of £8,000 to a private collector.
Described as the most important book in the English Language, the ‘Tyndale Bible’ was the first to be translated directly from Hebrew and Greek, by William Tyndale.
This copy is Tyndale’s Final revision and is the first of seven editions, dating from 1536. Most of the early copies of Tyndale’s New Testament are in bad condition, or have been destroyed, as although thousands of them were smuggled into England, they were vigorously hunted and destroyed by ecclesiastical authorities, thus making this exceptionally rare.
