Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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trente cinq.” The manuscript, then, was completed in August,
1535, but it took nearly a year to print it.
2. The last improved edition from the pen of the author (the fifth
Latin) is a thorough reconstruction, and bears the title: “INSTITUTIO
CHRI | STIANAE RELIGIONIS, in libros qua | tuor nunc primum
digesta, certisque distincta capitibus, ad aptissimam | methodum:
aucta etiam tam magna accessione ut propemodum opus | novum
haberi possit. | JOANNE CALVINO AUTHORE. | OLIVA ROBERTI
STEPHANI. | Genevae. | M. D. LIX.” The subsequent Latin editions
are reprints of the ed. of 1559, with an index by Nic. Colladon,
another by Marlorat. The Elzevir ed. Leyden, 1654, fol., was
especially esteemed for its beauty and accuracy. A convenient
modern ed. by Tholuck (Berlin, 1834, 2d ed. 1846).
3. The first French edition appeared without the name and place of
the printer (probably Michel du Bois at Geneva), under the title:
“Institution de la religion chrestienne en laquelle est comprinse
une somme de piété.... composée en latin par J. Calvin et
translatée par luy mesme. Avec la préface addressée au tres
chrestien Roy de France, François premier de ce nom: par
laquelle ce présent livre luy esi offert pour confession de Foy. M.
D. XLI.” 822 pp. 8°, 2d ed. Genève, Jean Girard, 1545; 3d ed.
1551; 4th ed. 1553; 5th ed. 1554; 6th ed. 1557; 7th ed. 1560, in
fol.; 8th ed. 1561, in 8°; 9th ed. 1561, in 4°; 10th ed. 1562, etc.;
15th ed. Geneva, 1564. Elzevir ed. Leyden, 1654.
4. The Strassburg editors devote the first four volumes to the
different editions of the Institutes in both languages. Vol, I.
contains the editio princeps Latina of Basel, 1536 (pp. 10–247),
and the variations of six editions intervening between the first and
the last, viz., the Strassburg editions of 1539, 1543, 1545, and the
Geneva editions of 1550, 1553, 1554 (pp. 253–1152); vol. II., the
editio postrema of 1559 (pp. 1–1118); vols. III. and IV., the last
edition of the French translation, or free reproduction rather
(1560), with the variations of former editions.
5. The question of the priority of the Latin or French text is now
settled in favor of the former. See JULES BONNET, in the Bulletin de
la Société de l’histoire du protestantisme français for 1858, vol.
VI. p. 137 sqq., STÄHELIN, vol. I. p. 55, and the Strassburg editors