{"id":100,"date":"2019-11-11T17:22:56","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T17:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.www.huronresearch.ca\/impressions-clone\/?p=100"},"modified":"2025-08-18T14:45:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T14:45:00","slug":"bcp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.huronresearch.ca\/impressions\/2019\/11\/11\/bcp\/","title":{"rendered":"The Book of Common Prayer + Psalms"},"content":{"rendered":"

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History<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0 Forensics<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Binding<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ownership<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Written Notes<\/a><\/h5>\n

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The Booke of Common Prayer<\/strong> (London: Christopher Barker, 1586?)
bound with<\/strong><\/em>
The Whole Booke of Psalmes<\/strong> (London: John Day, 1583)<\/h4>\n

Call Number: BX5145.A4 (Huron)<\/p>\n

The Booke of Common Prayer (London: Christopher Barker, 1586?)<\/strong>
Quarto in 8s (4\u00ba in 8s)
STC 16311.4
ESTC lists 2 copies (Oxford, Pembroke College and University of Texas at Austin (Harry Ransom Center).
1 column, black letter
C of sig. C1 is under e of water. See note in ESTC<\/a><\/span><\/em>.
ESTC collation: Signatures: &8<\/sup> 2&6<\/sup> A-2I8<\/sup> 2k4<\/sup>
Huron’s copy matches the above except for the following: &1-8<\/sup>, 2&1<\/sup> and T8r missing. Titlepage has been replaced with a later version, likely from a Barker edition of 1589 or later.
Title page within ornamental border in black and red (McKerrow & Ferguson 165a). See \u201cForensics<\/a>\u201d section in post below for more details.
Tears to leaves X3<\/sup>, 2B5<\/sup>, 2F1<\/sup>, 2F8<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Bound with The Whole Booke of Psalmes (London: John Day, 1583)<\/strong>
Quarto in 8s (4\u00ba in 8s)
STC 2466.5
ESTC lists 5 copies (St. Andrews, U. of Chicago, U of Illinois, U Penn VanPelt Dietrich, Zion Research Library).
1 column, black letter
The \u201ci\u201d of sig. E1 under \u201cr\u201d of Embrace. See note in ESTC<\/a><\/span><\/em>.
ESTC collation: Signatures: A4<\/sup> B-Y8<\/sup> 2A-2F8<\/sup> 2G4<\/sup>
Huron copy matches the above except for the following: F1<\/sup>, F8<\/sup>, 2F1<\/sup> and the G and H gatherings are missing and the final section beginning \u201cA Forme of Prayer to be used in Private Houses\u201d (2F4-8<\/sup>, 2G4<\/sup>) is also missing but here has been replaced with leaves from a different edition.
Title page within ornamental border in black and red (McKerrow & Ferguson 113).<\/p>\n

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Historical Context and Print History.<\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Book of Common Prayer (BCP for short) and the Metrical Psalms were two of the most popular of early English books, seeing hundreds of editions printed throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Shown above is Huron\u2019s copy of the two works bound as one. The Whole Booke of Psalmes collected into Englishe Metre<\/em> has the year 1583 at the bottom of the title page, but The Booke of Common Prayer<\/em> has no date on its title page. This is not uncommon in books of this period, but it can prove challenging for dating them.<\/p>\n

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It is not surprising to find these two books bound together. Both were regularly used in English church services from the 1540s onward. In fact, it is quite common to find copies of both works bound together or with Bibles from the period, as seen in Huron’s 1638 and 1732 editions of the BCP.<\/p>\n

The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) has been the core liturgy, or guide to worship for the Church of England, now the Anglican Church, since its creation by Thomas Cranmer in 1549. Revised and modified over the century since its inception, the BCP would see significant changes in the editions of 1552, 1559, 1604, and 1662.[1]<\/span><\/sup>
Huron\u2019s copy captures this history of revision since a later, seventeenth-century owner has annotated the copy with manuscript notes to reflect the changes made to the important edition of 1662. What we have then is an edition of the late sixteenth century modified for a Vicar working in an English parish church a century later.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/span> For a fuller discussion of these changes see David N. Griffiths, The Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1549-1999<\/em>. London; New Castle, DE: British Library\u202f; Oak Knoll Press, 2002.<\/p>\n

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