Robert Witham
Robert Witham as a student
Robert Witham as a student
Robert Witham as President of Doway College (Ushaw College)
Robert Witham as President of Doway College (Ushaw College)
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Title Annotations / on the / New Testament / of / Jesus Christ / in which / I. The literal sense is explained according to the / Expositions of the ancient Fathers. / II. The false interpretations, both of the ancient and / modern Writers, which are contrary to the received / Doctrine of the Catholic Church, are briefly exa- / mined and disproved. / III. With an account of the chief differences betwixt the / text of the ancient Latin-Version, and the Greek / in the printed Editions, and MSS. / The First Volume. [of two] / By RW. D. D. / With Permission and Approbations / Anno. 1730.
Date 1730
Publisher Unknown Publisher (Douay?)
Contents The New Testament text revised from the original Rheims Version of 1582 and new annotations by Father Robert Witham (1667? - 1738).
References HERBERT 1009, POPE 669-4, COTTON 226, CHAMBERLIN 536, Taliaferro-BVE CN00187, Taliaferro-EELBV 7135.
Images Title page
Comments Father Witham was President of the English College at Douay (France) from 1715 until his death. Although initially well received, his New Testament translation would soon be overshadowed by the series of revisions shortly to by published by his one-time subordinate at Douay, Richard Challoner.
Provenance This copy was one owned by Father Henry Rutter (1755-1838), whose Gospel Harmony first published in 1803 sometimes "had recourse to Dr. Witham's approved version, which occasionally expresses the sense with greater ease and perspicuity [than Challoner's revisions]."

flickr:19187873236

Title Annotations / on the / New Testament / of / Jesus Christ / in which / I. The literal sense is explained according to the / Expositions of the ancient Fathers. / II. The false interpretations, both of the ancient and / modern Writers, which are contrary to the received / Doctrine of the Catholic Church, are briefly exa- / mined and disproved. / III. With an account of the chief differences betwixt the / text of the ancient Latin-Version, and the Greek / in the printed Editions, and MSS. / The First Volume. [of two] / By RW. D. D. / With Permission and Approbations
Date None on Vol. I title; Vol II title dated 1730.
Publisher Unknown Publisher (Douay?)
Contents The New Testament text revised from the original Rheims Version of 1582 and new annotations by Father Robert Witham (1667? - 1738).
References Recusant History, Vol. 29, No. 1, May 2008, article by skodouay.
Images: Title page
Comments This is an apparent hurried reissue of the first edition with the date left off the Volume I title page. Volume II has the date 1730. Another possibility is that it is the actual first printing of the first edition, which accidentally forgot to include the date on the Vol. I Title page, then remembered for the Vol. II Title page. It seems more likely that a re-issue would ADD a line and not the reverse. Unless there is some positive evidence to support the "hurried reissue" conjecture, it seems unlikely. It can be easily imagined that after a certain number of sheets were printed the omission was noted and corrected right away. After all, there is ALREADY a reissue noted below with additional Title page text. The supposed printer being Douay, of which Robert Witham was not only the President, but also his work being printed. It seems doubly unlikely that careless negligence was at work. If the first title page above is examined closely with the one for this entry, it will be noticed that "MENT" in "TESTAMENT", and "THE FIRST" in "THE FIRST VOLUME" have a characteristic wavy quality that is exactly the same in both Title Pages. This means that the Title Page was still all blocked up for printing when the "reissue" occurred. In other words, the date line would have to have been REMOVED, if the "hurried reissue" conjecture were true, whereas, the likeliest scenario, is that is was ADDED in once the omission was caught. What if the original Witham manuscript failed to include the date, and with his busy schedule, did not catch it himself until after "x" number of copies were printed. So the question is; how many copies lacking the date actually were printed? Several? a hundred? That is why this seems like the most probable turn of events, unless of course, there is some actual positive evidence to the contrary, supporting the "hurried reissue."

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Title Annotations / on the / New Testament / of / Jesus Christ / Translated from the Latin-Vulgat, / Diligently compared with the Greek. / First publish'd at Rheims an. 1582. / The Second Edition. / in which / I. The obsolete words, and expressions are chang'd. / II. The literal sense of the more obscure and difficult / places, is explain'd according to the Expositions of / the ancient Fathers, and the best Interpreters. / III. The false and mistaken Interpretations, both of the an- / cient and later writers, are briefly examin'd and disprov'd. / IIII. With an account of the chief differences betwixt the / text of the ancient latin version, and the printed Greek / Editions, and other readings in several Greek Manus- / cripts, which are found to agree with the approv'd / Latin-Vulgat. / The First Volume. [of two] / By RW. D. D. / With Permission and Approbations / Anno. 1730.
Date 1730
Publisher Unknown Publisher (Douay?)
Contents The New Testament text revised from the original Rheims Version of 1582 and new annotations by Father Robert Witham (1667? - 1738).
References Recusant History, Vol. 29, No. 1, May 2008, article by skodouay. Taliaferro-EELBV 7135
Images Title page
Comments Recently discovered "Second Edition," published in the same year as the first and with no significant textual changes, but in which the title page adds the wording "First publish'd at Rheims" and "The obsolete words and expressions are chang'd," to clarify Witham's work was not intended as a new translation, but as a revision of the Rheims NT.


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