Metrical Bible

This material is held atUniversity of Manchester Library

  • Reference
    • GB 133 Eng MS 170
  • Dates of Creation
    • 18th Century
  • Name of Creator
  • Language of Material
    • English
  • Physical Description
    • 190 x 118 mm. 1 volume (170 folios); Binding: 19th-century binding of full polished calf.

Scope and Content

An outline version of the Metrical Bible in rhyming couplets. The pages of the Old Testament carry the running heading, Christus Velatus in T[estamento] Veteri, and those of the New Testament, Christus Revelatus in T[estamento] Novo. As the headings and the prologue makes clear, the author's concern is to draw parallels between passages of the Old Testament and those in the New Testament; the former, the type, foreshadow the latter, the antitype. The margins contain numerous cross-references to related passages of Scripture. There is a colophon in Latin on p. 291 recording the circumstances of the manuscript's composition, and on p. 1 a prologue, signed 'J.D.', which begins:

'By faith the Holy men of old, | Did to Messiah Look, | By Promise, Prophecy or Type, | Set forth in every Book. | Which here in order you shall find | Scriptures Canonical, | (none may deny) and as you read | Compare Proofes marginal | Whereby of Type and Antitype | in scriptures old & new, | Promise performd, Prophecy fulfild | you'l have the cleerer view.'

Access Information

The manuscript is available for consultation by any accredited reader.

Acquisition Information

Purchased by the John Rylands Library from J. Hartley (vendor for Mrs Shaw) in July 1918.

Note

Description compiled by Henry Sullivan, project archivist.

Other Finding Aids

Catalogued in the Hand-List of the Collection of English Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, 1928 (English MS 170).