A.D. 1830
A copy of the rare edition of Luther’s translation of the Bible, printed at Wittemberg in 1541, was bought, through Messrs. Payne and Foss, for fifty guineas, at the sale, in London, of the library of the Archdeacon de la Tour, of Hildesheim, which was said to have been formerly the property of the English Benedictine Monastery of Landspring, and which was then, it appears, in the possession of Mr. — Solly. It contains some texts on the fly-leaves in the autograph, and with the signatures, of both Luther and Melanchthon, which seem to have been unnoticed at the time of the sale. A facsimile of a part of Luther’s inscription is given in plate xxxi. in Mr. Leigh Sotheby’s Illustrations of the Handwriting of Melanchthon317. The book is now exhibited in a glass case, in one of the windows of the Library.
Notes
317 A copy of this edition, with MS. notes by Luther, Melanchthon, Bugenhagen and Major, was sold to the British Museum, at Hibbert’s sale in 1829, for £267 15s.!