The first edition (quarto) of the Large Catechism, of which Roerer
forwarded copies on April 23, 1529, contains, as text, the Commandments,
the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the words of institution of the
Sacraments. The text is preceded by a Brief Preface, which, however,
Luther, considering it a part of the Catechism, did not designate and
superscribe as such. Some instructions and admonitions are inserted
between the Catechism-text, which is followed by the detailed
explanation. Such is the form in which the Large Catechism first
appeared, and which, in the main, it also retained. The second edition
(also in quarto and from the year 1529) reveals numerous textual
corrections and adds a longer section to the Lord's Prayer, _viz._,
paragraphs 9 to 11: "at the risk of God's wrath.... seek His grace."
(699.) This addition, though not found in the German Book of Concord of
1580, was received into the official Latin Concordia of 1584.
Furthermore, the second edition of 1529 adds the "Short Admonition to
Confession;" hence the sub-title: "Increased by a New Instruction and
Admonition to Confession." This addition, however, was embodied in
neither the German nor the Latin Concordia. In the Seventh Commandment
the second edition of 1529 omits the words "with whom [arch-thieves]
lords and princes keep company" (644, 230), which, according to
Albrecht, was due to a timid proof-reader. Numerous marginal notes,
briefly summarizing the contents, were also added to this edition and
retained in the Latin Concordia of 1584. Furthermore, it contained 24
woodcuts, the first three of which were already used in Melanchthon's
fragmentary Catechism sermons of 1528, for which book probably also the
remaining cuts were originally intended. Albrecht remarks: "Let it
remain undecided whether the cuts, which Melanchthon probably was first
to select for his catechism sermons of 1528, were received into the
edition of 1529 (which Luther corrected) upon a suggestion of the
printer Rhau, or Bugenhagen, or Luther himself." (W. 30, 1, 493.)
Two Latin as well as a Low German translation (by Bugenhagen) also
appeared in 1529. The Low German edition, printed by Rhau, seems to have
paved the way in using the aforementioned pictures. Of the Latin
translations, one was prepared by Lonicer and printed at Marburg, while
the other, by Vicentius Obsopoeus, rector of the school at Ansbach, was
printed at Hagenau. After making some changes, which were not always
improvements, Selneccer embodied the latter in the Latin Concordia,
adding the longer Preface from the Frankfurt edition of 1544. In the
Large Catechism this new Preface is found for the first time in Rhau's
quarto edition of 1530. Literal allusions to Luther's letter of June 30,
1530, to J. Jonas have given rise to the assumption that it was written
at Castle Coburg. (Enders, 8, 47. 37.) In the Jena edition of Luther's
Works, the Dresden edition of the Book of Concord of 1580, the Magdeburg
edition of 1580, the Heidelberg folio edition of 1582, and the Latin
edition of 1580, this longer Preface follows the shorter. However, since
the shorter Preface forms part of the Catechism itself, the longer
Preface ought to precede it, as is the case in the official Latin
Concordia of 1584. In the Low German edition of 1531 Bugenhagen defends
the expressions, criticized by some: I believe "an Gott, an Christum" in
the Low German edition of 1529, instead of "in Gott, in Christum." (W.
30, 1, 493.) In Rhau's edition of 1532 and 1535 the morning and evening
prayers are added, probably only as fillers. The changes in Rhau's
edition of 1538, styling itself, "newly corrected and improved," consist
in linguistic improvements and some additions and omissions. Albrecht
believes that most, but not all, of these changes were made by Luther
himself, and that the omissions are mostly due to inadvertence.