A copy of the rare edition of Luther's translation of the Bible, printed
at Wittemberg in 1541, was bought, through Messrs. Payne and Foss, for
fifty guineas, at the sale, in London, of the library of the Archdeacon
de la Tour, of Hildesheim, which was said to have been formerly the
property of the English Benedictine Monastery of Landspring, and which
was then, it appears, in the possession of Mr. -- Solly. It contains some
texts on the fly-leaves in the autograph, and with the signatures, of
both Luther and Melanchthon, which seem to have been unnoticed at the
time of the sale. A facsimile of a part of Luther's inscription is
given in plate xxxi. in Mr. Leigh Sotheby's _Illustrations of the
Handwriting of Melanchthon_[317]. The book is now exhibited in a glass
case, in one of the windows of the Library.
[317] A copy of this edition, with MS. notes by Luther, Melanchthon,
Bugenhagen and Major, was sold to the British Museum, at Hibbert's sale
in 1829, for £267 15_s._!