The Bunyan Collection of the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

• Published in: Bunyan studies no. 6; p. 78
• Main Author: Alblas, Jacques B H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.1995
• Subjects: British & Irish literature; Brown, John; Bunyan, John (1628-1688); English literature
• ISSN: 0954-0970

Interestingly, in the catalogue of Bunyan's books on the final leaf H 6 the number of titles and their order is radically different from the set-up of Charles Doe's well-known list of the same year in Works. Next to the 1692 Works there are copies of the collected works of 1736-7, 1767-8, 1769 and 1771. [...]there are, for instance, copies of two editions of the abridgement of The Pilgrim's Progress (1766 and 1796) by John Wesley, who asterisked the passages he considered important and thus manipulated the reader's attention. There are a great many illustrated editions, annotated ones and versions for children and adults with a limited reading competence. [...]there is a tiny volume abridging, adapting and explaining The Pilgrim 's Progress to the capacities of children, in a dialogue between a child and his mother. Having made up his mind to present scenes from the allegory as emblems it is small wonder that he should have capitalized on the emblematic potential of Bunyan's book and thus offered pictorial versions of the complete series of seven scenes in the House of the Interpreter. Since he demonstrably based himself on an early Dutch edition illustrated by Jan Luyken he not surprisingly utilized these illustrations.