The translation of the Bible by William Tyndale (c.1494–1536) is one of the most important moments in the history of the English language. Tyndale’s ‘Bible’ is in fact only partial: only the New Testament (1526, 1534), Pentateuch (1530), and Book of Jonah (1531) were published before his arrest and execution at the hands of the Catholic authorities in Brussels. Yet these landmark translations—at first outlawed and publicly burned in England, then permitted to circulate after Henry VIII’s break from Rome—brought religious as well as linguistic reform. Tyndale's work made the Word of God accessible in the common tongue, and shaped future translations into English, particularly the King James Bible of 1611. ‘Let there be light’ is a Tyndale turn of phrase; the ‘peacemakers’ of Matthew 5:9 likewise owe their name to that brilliant and versatile translator.

This is a copy of the scarce fourth edition of Tyndale’s New Testament, printed in England during the reign of Edward VI. It contains the English translation alongside the Latin version compiled by the Dutch humanist Erasmus (d. 1536), and a calendar of scripture readings ‘for the use of the churche of England nowe’. Although Tyndale’s translations had been incorporated into the Coverdale Bible (1537), Matthew Bible (1537) and Great Bible (1539), his New Testament remained a popular choice for English printers.

This copy has been annotated by at least two early owners. The title page bears a contemporary inscription by an Edward Grafton, who also wrote a macaronic poem before the calendar:

     Iste liber pertinet
     leave it well in mynde

     Ad edouardū Graftonū
     bothe curtise and kynd

     A vinculo dolores
     Jhesu him bringe

     Ad vitam eternam
     to everlastinge ende.

Edward may be the son of Richard Grafton (died c.1572), who was the King's Printer under Henry VIII and Edward VI.