Author: SCHMIDT (Erasmus):
Title: Novi Testamenti Jesu Christi Græci, Hoc Est, Originalis Linguæ Tameion (aliis Concordantiæ) Hactenus Usitato Correctius, Ordinatius, Distinctius, Plenius, Jam dudum a pluribus desideratum: Ita Concinnatum, Ut Et Loca reperiendi, & Vocum veras Significationes; & Significationum diversitates per Collationem investigandi, Ducis instaresse possit. Opera Erasmi Schmidii, Graec. L. & Mathem. Prof. Cum gratia & Privilege Elect. Saxon.
Description: Wittebergae, Impensis haeredum Clementis Bergeri Bibliopol: Ex Officicina Typographica Jobi Wilhelmi Fincelii. 1638. FIRST EDITION. Folio, 345 x 220 mms., unpaginated but collating [ii4] A - Kkk6 (including final blank), printed title-page in red and black, fine engraved title-page, contemporary vellum (soiled); uniformly lightly foxed, but a very good copy, with several inscriptions, viz., on the front pastedown endpaper, "F. J. Reuchlin / 1731 " and "A present from Joshua Wilson, Esq. / John Frost / Turvey, 1832"; and on the recto of the front free endpaper several inscriptions, including one in pencil by another bookseller, and " 'The best Greek Concordance / to the New Test. ever published.' Horne"; and "See a very excellent condensed edition / by Greenfield, published by Bagster." Erasmus Schmidt (1570-1637) made his mark at the University of Wittenberg, where he was educated and where he became Professor of Greek in 1597. He was both a classical scholar and a mathematician. His best-known scholarly work is his history and edition of Pindar's fragments (1616). He completed this concordance to the Greek New Testament shortly before his death. William Greenfield's edition was published in 1830, and the abridged version alluded to in the inscription (above) was published a few years later (undated). Several candidates for the presentation suggest themselves, although Joshua Wilson is almost certainly the barrister of that name (1795 - 1874), as the Oxford DNB notes that he "collected works of protestant theology and hagiography..." John Frost is a bit more problematic. The Chartist John Frost (1784 - 1877) is unlikely, given that he lived mostly in Newport and was convicted of treason in 1839. Also unlikely is John Frost (1803–1840), the medical entrepreneur, who fled the country in 1832 to escape his creditors. The radical John Frost (1750 - 1842), who was trained as a lawyer, is the most likely prospect. After various political escapades and an association with John Horne Tooke that ended unhappily after an incident between Frost and Horne Tooke's maid, returned without much success to the practice of law in 1815. The present copy of Schmidt's concordance was owned in succession by the prominent Lutheran theologian Friedrich Jacob Reuchlin (1695-1788), professor of theology at the University of Strasbourg, then Joshua Wilson (1795-1874), one of the great patrons in the history of Congregationalism in England (four thousand books from his shelves became the foundational collection of the Congregational Library), who in turn presented the book in 1832 to John Frost (1808-1878) of Turvey, Bedfordshire, and of Cotton End, Bedfordshire. The year 1832 is underscored in the inscription. What happened in 1832? That was the year Frost "accepted the pastorate of the church at Cotton End, where he remained until his death in 1878" (Dissenting Academies Online). A few years later in 1840, John Frost became the head of the much-discussed, newly-formed Cotton End Academy, where he would educate scores of Congregational ministers for several decades, a number of whom journeyed forth as missionaries after their tutelage under Frost. It seems most likely that Wilson gave this volume to Frost specifically as an encouraging gift in his new position at Cotton End in 1832. Later, as head of the academy, Frost was known as a "dedicated and popular teacher" (Alex Danchev, Oliver Franks: Founding Father [Oxford: Clarendon Press], 1993, p. 3), and Cotton End Academy became one of the more prominent dissenting institutions of the Victorian Period. With this gift to Frost in 1832, Joshua Wilson's generosity to the cause of Congregationalism -- here as elsewhere -- proved distinctly propitious.

Keywords: New Testament provenance prose


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