CONRAD LINDBERG (ed.), King Henry's Bible: MS Bodley 277, The Revised Version of the Wyclif Bible. Volume IV: The New Testament.

Abstract

WITH this volume, Conrad Lindberg draws to a close his painstaking work on what he calls the ‘Revised Version of the Wyclif Bible’. His edition of Oxford, Bodleian MS Bodley 277 (also called ‘King Henry's Bible’ because of an inscription recording the King's donation of the manuscript to a Carthusian house near London) includes not only a scrupulously transcribed text, conservatively emended, but also minute comparisons to Forshall and Madden's edition of the early and late versions of the Wycliffite Bible. Here he finds variants drawn from both versions, and states on the basis of his evidence that the text represents the final stage of a translation project described in the General Prologue to the Wycliffite Bible, since the variants illustrate (to Lindberg, at least) a redactor's conscious choice of readings for the sake of correcting the late version. Lindberg records even the hairline strokes, puncti elevati, and colons in the manuscript. The level of detail here testifies not simply to an exemplary dedication to exactitude, but also to Lindberg's commitment to his thesis regarding this particular text. Whether or not one agrees with Lindberg's conclusion, he has produced an admirable edition of a very important manuscript, which, with his edition of Oxford MS Christ Church 145 (an early-version text), will provide critical stepping-stones to a much-needed, updated edition of the Wycliffite Bible.