Note 54 — Chapter XV
Reading edition
Habes in hoc Libro, prudens Lector, utriusque Instrumenti novam Tralationem editam a Reverendo sacræ theologiæ Doctore Sancte Pagnini. Lugdun. 1527-28, fol. Such is the title of this, which we presume to be the first edition of Pagnini’s Bible. Between it and the one of Cologne of 1541, edited by Melchior Novesianus, we find no other until we come to that of Villanovanus. Pagnini is said in the letter of J. F. Pico de Mirandola, which precedes the text, to have been twenty-five years engaged on the work. It is accompanied by no fewer than two commendatory epistles from Popes Adrian VI. and Clement VII., and is said to be the first edition of the Bible that is found divided into chapters. Richard Simon (Hist. du vieux Testament, liv. ii.) speaks slightingly of its merits; but it has been highly prized by others, as good judges as he. To us it appears a very admirable version, our own English Bible being generally so like it, that we fancy it must have been used by our Translators.