PREFACE. THE following work is designed to furnish the means of easy reference to the most useful books in the important department of biblical literature. Under this head are included, Polyglots, and editions of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures; Concordances, Lexicons, and Introductions to the Bible; works relating to its geography, chronology, and antiquities; translations and commentaries; books which treat of the principles of sacred criticism, hermeneutics, and philology; and numerous productions of a miscellaneous nature, which furnish illustrations of the sacred writings. Of the importance of such a work, there can be but one opinion among theologians; but the difficulties which belong to its successful accomplishment are very considerable. The biographical notices, which stand at the head of each article, seldom extend farther than to the name and profession of the author, his age and country. They will in most cases enable the reader to form some idea of his religious sentiments and circumstances, and of what may be expected from his writings. Short as they are, it has frequently been found more difficult to supply them than to furnish the longer account of the works which follow. Books often survive, when the history and even the names of their authors are irrecoverably lost. As the Bibliotheca is necessarily and avowedly but a selection, it may be proper to mention the principles on which it has been made. The list of editions of the original Scriptures is comparatively limited; and it would have been omitted entirely, but that the work would have been incomplete without it. It is therefore confined to the principal critical editions. To have attempted more, would have required an inconvenient enlargement of the plan, and led to the repetition of much that has been already published, and is generally accessible. In the selection of foreign works, there will be found many of the most valuable of the early continental critics and commentators, and a considera |