The First Printing of the Wycliffite New Testament

The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
London: John March, 1731. (Prothro B-81)

The Wycliffite New Testament translation of the late fourteenth century began to attract renewed scholarly attention in eighteenth-century England. Historians of the Middle English language and of early English Protestantism considered this early vernacular translation an essential historical document of English cultural heritage. The mezzotint facing the title page of this first printed edition of the Wycliffite text offers an imaginary “portrait” of John Wycliffe (c. 1330–1384).