B. Thorpe's edition of the West Saxon Gospels (1842)
Benjamin Thorpe, Ða Halgan Godspel on Englisc: The Anglo-Saxon Version of the Holy Gospels Edited from the Original Manuscripts (London: J. G. F. and J. Rivingston and J. H. Parker, 1842).
This is the third oldest edition of the West Saxon Gospels published by Benjamin Thorpe in 1842 (its editio princeps was published by John Foxe in 1571, and the second oldest edition was published by Francis Junius in 1665). It mostly consists of the actual Old English text of the four gospels bookended by a very brief, two-page preface at the beginning and equally very brief notes at the end.
I have two copies: one with a standard binding; and the other with a handsome, leather binding. Both are somewhat interesting. Judging from the inscription on the title page, saying 'H. B. Wilson, St John's College, Oxford', the copy with a normal binding seems to have belonged to Henry Bristow Wilson (1803-1888), Rawlinsonian Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford from 1839 to 1844. Whereas Wilson did not leave any other inscription, an anonymous former owner of the leather-bound copy left many neat inscriptions in pencil mostly in Greek or Latin, referring to corresponding words or phrases in Greek and/or Latin versions of the gospels.
The current edition of the work is R. M. Liuzza, ed., The Old English Version of the Gospels, 2 vols. EETS os 304, 314 (Oxford: OUP, 1994, 2000).
