L OF ST. LUKE: 1837]

Embeo / e Majaro Lucas. / Brotoboro / randado andre la chipe griega,
acana / chibado andre o Romano, o chipe es / Zincales de Sese. / El
Evangelio segun S. Lucas, / traducido al Romani, / o dialecto de los
Gitanos de Espana. / 1837.

Collation:--Foolscap octavo, pp. 177, consisting of: Title-page, as above
(with Borrow's Colophon upon the reverse, followed by a quotation from
the _Epistle to the Romans_, Chap. XV. v. XXIV.) pp. 1-2; and Text of the
Gospel pp. 3-177. The reverse of p. 177 is blank. There are no
head-lines, the pages being numbered centrally in Arabic numerals. There
is no printer's imprint. The signatures are A to L (11 sheets, each 8
leaves), plus L repeated (two leaves, the second a blank). The book was
issued without any half-title.

I have never seen a copy of the First Edition of Borrow's translation
into the dialect of the Spanish Gypsies of the Gospel of St. Luke in the
original binding. No doubt the book (which was printed in Madrid) was
put up in paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, in accordance with the
usual Continental custom.

Most of the copies now extant are either in a modern binding, or in
contemporary brown calf, with marbled edges and endpapers. The latter
are doubtless the copies sent home by Borrow, and bound in leather for
that purpose. The leaves of these measure 6 x 4 inches.

As will be seen from the following extracts, it is probable that the
First Edition consisted of 250 copies, and that 50 of these were
forwarded to London:

"In response to Borrow's letter of February 27th, the Committee
resolved 'to authorise Mr. Borrow to print 250 copies of the Gospel
of St. Luke, without the Vocabulary, in the Rummanee dialect, and to
engage the services of a competent person to translate the Gospel of
St. Luke by way of trial in the dialect of the Spanish
Basque.'"--[_Letters of George Borrow to the British and Foreign
Bible Society_, 1911, pp. 205-206.]

"A small impression of the Gospel of St. Luke, in the Rommany, or
Gitano, or Gipsy language, has been printed at Madrid, under the
superintendence of this same gentleman, who himself made the
translation for the benefit of the interesting, singular, degraded
race of people whose name it bears, and who are very numerous in some
parts of Spain. He has likewise taken charge of the printing of the
Gospel of St. Luke, in the Cantabrian, or Span