The Bible in Spain: Or, the Journeys, Adventures, and Imprisonments of an Englishman, in an Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the PeninsulaBorrow, George
Religion
The Bible in Spain: Or, the Journeys, Adventures, and Imprisonments of an Englishman, in an Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula
Borrow, George
Borrow, George, 1803-1881 -- Travel -- Spain; Spain -- Description and travel; Spain -- History -- 19th century
I shall not enter here into unnecessary details, which could possess but
little interest for the reader; suffice it to say that, within three
months from this time, an edition of the New Testament, consisting of
five thousand copies, was published at Madrid. The work was printed at
the establishment of Mr. Borrego, a well-known writer on political
economy, and proprietor and editor of an influential newspaper called El
Español. To this gentleman I had been recommended by Isturitz himself,
on the day of my interview with him. That unfortunate minister had,
indeed, the highest esteem for Borrego, and had intended raising him to
the station of minister of finance, when the revolution of the Granja
occurring, of course rendered abortive this project, with perhaps many
others of a similar kind which he might have formed.
The Spanish version of the New Testament which was thus published, had
been made many years before by a certain Padre Filipe Scio, confessor of
Ferdinand the Seventh, and had even been printed, but so encumbered by
notes and commentaries as to be unfitted for general circulation, for
which, indeed, it was never intended. In the present edition, the notes
were of course omitted, and the inspired word, and that alone, offered to
the public. It was brought out in a handsome octavo volume, and
presented, upon the whole, a rather favourable specimen of Spanish
typography.
The mere printing, however, of the New Testament at Madrid could be
attended with no utility whatever, unless measures, and energetic ones,
were taken for the circulation of the sacred volume.
In the case of the New Testament, it would not do to follow the usual
plan of publication in Spain, namely, to entrust the work to the
booksellers of the capital, and rest content with the sale which they and
their agents in the provincial towns might be able to obtain for it, in
the common routine of business; the result generally being, the
circulation of a few dozen copies in the course of the year; as the
demand for literature of every kind in Spain was miserably small.
The Christians of England had already made considerable sacrifices in the
hope of disseminating the word of God largely amongst the Spaniards, and
it was now necessary to spare no exertion to prevent that hope becoming
abortive. Before the book was ready, I had begun to make preparations
for putting a plan into execution, which had occupied my thoughts
occasionally during my former visit to Spain, and which I had never
subsequently abandoned. I had mused on it when off Cape Finisterre in
the tempest; in the cut-throat passes of the Morena; and on the plains of
La Mancha, as I jogged along a little way ahead of the Contrabandista.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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