18 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 166. 



Kent. It was a vulgar error that a man was not 

 liable to the bride's debts, if he took her in no 

 other apparel than her shift." J. Y. 



Saffron Walden. 



EDITIONS OF THE PRAYER-BOOK TRIOR TO 1662. 



(Vol. vi., pp. 435. 564.) 



As Mr. Sparrow Simpson invites additions to 

 his list from all quarters, I send him my contri- 

 bution : and as I see that he has included trans- 

 lations of our Liturgy into other languages, I do 

 the same : 



1552. Worcester. Jo, Oswen. Folio. 



1560. London. Jugge and Cawood. 4to. 



1565. London. Jugge and Cawood. 8vo. 



1607. London. Folio. 

 1629. London. Folio. 

 1629. Cambridge. Folio. 



1632. London. 4to. 



1633. London. 4to. 



1634. London. Folio. 



1635. London. 4to. 



1638. Cambridge. 4to. 



1639. London. Folio. 

 1641. London. 4to. 

 1660. Cambridge. Folio. 



1644. Tlie Scotch, by Laud and the Scotch bishops. 



Printed by John Jones. 8vo. 



1551. Latine versa, per Alex. Absium. Lipsije. 4to. 

 1594. „ „ London. 8vo. 



s. A. „ by Reginald Wolfe. London. 4 to. 



1638. In Greek. London. 8vo. 



1616. In French. London. 4to. 



1608. In Irish. Dublin. Folio. 

 1612. In Spanish. London. 4to. 

 1621. In Welsh. London. 4to. 



All the foregoing editions are in the Bodleian 

 Library. I may add to them the following three : 



1. — 1551, Dublin, by Humfrey Powell. Folio. 



2. — 1617 (?). Dublin. Company of Stationers. 4to. 



3—1637. Dublin. 



ThQ first of these, which is the first book printed 

 in Ireland, is extremely rare. I believe only two 

 copies are certainly known to exist ; one of which 

 is in the library of Trinity College, Dublin ; and 

 the other in that of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. 

 Both are in very fine condition. 



The second is in my possession. The book is 

 quite perfect ; but some wiseacre has carefully 

 erased the date. The Almanac for xxvi Yeares 

 tells nothing, being for the years 1603 to 1628. 

 But the book contains a prayer for " Frederick, 

 the Prince Elector Palatine, and the Lady Eliza- 

 beth, his wife, with their hopeful issue." He 

 married the princess in 1613 ; and in 1619 he was 

 elected King of Bohemia, and thenceforward would 

 be prayed for under his higher title. If the Sun- 

 day letter in the calendar is to be trusted, the book 

 was printed (according to De Morgan's Book of 



Almanacs) in 1617. The Dublin Society of Sta- 

 tioners Avas established in that year; and it is not 

 unlikely that they commenced their issues with a 

 Prayer-Book. I have never seen nor heai'd of 

 another copy, with which I might compare mine, 

 and thus ascertain its date. 



The thii'd^ of 1637, is reported; but I have 

 never met with it. H. Cotton. 



Thurles. 



etymology of pearl. 



(Vol. vi., p. 578.) 



The inquiry of your correspondent Ifigfowl 

 respecting the etymology of the word pearl does 

 not admit of a simple answer. The word occurs 

 in all the modern languages, both Romance and 

 Teutonic : perla, Ital. and Span. ; perle^ French 

 and German, whence the English pearl. Adelung 

 in V. believes the word to be of Teutonic origin, 

 and considers it as the diminutive of beere, a 

 berry. Others derive it from perna, the Latin 

 name of a shell-fish (see Ducange inperla; Diez, 

 Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen, vol. i. 

 p. 235.). Neither of these derivations is probable : 

 it is not shown that beere had a diminutive form, 

 and perna was a local and obscure name : see 

 Pliny, N. H. xxxii. ad fin. Salmasius {Exercit. 

 Plin., p. 40. ed. 1689) thinks that perla is formed 

 i'rom. pe7mla, for sperida, the diminutive oi' sphcei'a. 

 A more probable origin is that the word is formed 

 from the Latin pirum, as suggested by Diez, in 

 allusion to the pear-shaped form of the pearl. 

 Ducange in v. says that the extremity of the nose 

 was called pirida nasi, from its resemblance to the 

 form of a pear. But piims was used to denote 

 a boundary-stone, made in a pyramidal shape 

 (Ducange in v.) ; and this seems to have been 

 the origin of the singular expression ptirula nasi, 

 as being something at the extremity. Another 

 supposition is, that the word perla is derived from 

 the Latin perula, the diminutive of pei'a, a wallet. 

 A wallet was a small bag hung round the neck ; 

 and the word perula, in the sense of a small bag, 

 occurs in Seneca and Apulcius. The analogy of 

 shape and mode of wearing is sufiiciently close to 

 suggest the transfer of tbe name. Pei'ida and 

 peruliis are used in Low Latin in the sense of pearl. 

 Ducange cites a passage from a hagiographer, 

 where perula means the white of the eye, evi- 

 dently alluding to the colour of the pearl. 



The choice seems to lie between perula as the 

 diminutive of pera or of pirum. Neither deriva- 

 tion is improbable. It is to be observed that the 

 modern Italian form of pirum, the fruit of the 

 pear, is pera; the modern feminine noun being, 

 as in numerous other cases, formed from the plural 

 of the Latin neuter noun (see Diez, ib. vol. ii. 

 p. 19.). The analogy of unio (to which I shall 



