No. VII. SIGNATURE OF M JO. KNOX. xxxiv
augusti 18 a^o 1581
$ADVERTISEMENT$.
This publication of the Works of JOHN KNOX, it is supposed, will extend
to Five Volumes. It was thought advisable to commence the series with
his History of the Reformation in Scotland, as the work of greatest
importance. The next volume will thus contain the Third and Fourth
Books, which continue the History to the year 1564; at which period his
historical labours may be considered to terminate. But the Fifth Book,
forming a sequel to the History, and published under his name in 1644,
will also be included. His Letters and Miscellaneous Writings will be
arranged in the subsequent volumes, as nearly as possible in
chronological order; each portion being introduced by a separate notice,
respecting the manuscript or printed copies from which they have been
taken.
It may perhaps be expected that a Life of the Author should have been
prefixed to this volume. The Life of Knox, by DR. M'CRIE, is however a
work so universally known, and of so much historical value, as to
supersede any attempt that might be made for a detailed biography; and
none of the earlier sketches of his life is sufficiently minute or
accurate to answer the purpose intended. In order to obviate the
necessity of the reader having recourse to other authorities, I have
added some chronological notices of the leading events in his life;
reserving to the conclusion of the work any remarks, in connexion with
this publication, that may seem to be requisite.
I was very desirous of obtaining a Portrait of the Reformer, to
accompany this volume. Hitherto all my inquiries have failed to discover
any undoubted original painting, among several which have either been so
described, or engraved as such.[1] In the meantime, a tolerably accurate
fac-simile is given of the wood-cut portrait of Knox,[2] included by
Theodore Beza, in his volume entitled "ICONES, _id est_, Veræ Imagines
Virorum Doctrina simul et Pietate illustrium," &c., published at Geneva,
in the year 1580, 4to. It is the earliest of the engraved portraits,
and, so far as we can judge, it ought to serve as a kind of test by
which other portraits must be tried. A similar head engraved on copper,
is to be found in Verheiden's "Præstantium aliquot Theologorum, &c.,
Effigies," published at the Hague, in 1602, folio; but this, I
apprehend, is merely an improved copy from Beza, and not taken from an
original painting. It does not retain the expressive character of the
ruder engraving, although the late Sir David Wilkie, whose opinion in
such matters was second to none, was inclined to prefer this of
Verheiden to any at least of the later portraits of the Reformer.[3]
It may not here be superfluous to mention, that this publication was
projected by the Editor many years ago, and that some arrangements had
been entered into for having it printed in England. When the WODROW
SOCIETY, therefore, expressed a willingness to undertake the work, I
proposed as a necessary condition, that I should have the privilege of
causing a limited impression to be thrown off, for sale, chiefly in
England; and the Council, in the most liberal manner, at once acquiesced
in this proposal. Instead however of availing myself to the full extent
of their liberality, which some circumstances rendered less desirable,
but in order to avoid throwing, either upon the Society or the Editor,
the extra expenses which have been incurred in various matters connected
with the publication, it was finally arranged that a much more limited
impression than was first proposed, should be thrown off on paper to be
furnished by the BANNATYNE CLUB, for the use of the Members of that
Institution.