Martin luther died on the 18th of February, 1546, and the first publication of his “Table Talk”—Tischreden—by his friend, Johann Goldschmid (Aurifaber), was in 1566, in a substantial folio.  The talk of Luther was arranged, according to its topics, into eighty chapters, each with a minute index of contents.  The whole work in a complete octavo edition, published at Stuttgart and Leipzig in 1836, occupies 1,390 closely printed pages, equivalent to 2,780 pages, or full fourteen volumes, of this Library.

The nearest approach to a complete and ungarbled translation into English was that of Captain Henry Bell, made in the reign of Charles the First, under the circumstances set forth by himself; but even that was not complete.  Other English versions have subjected Luther’s opinions to serious manipulation, nothing being added, but anything being taken away that did not chance to agree with the editor’s digestion.  Even the folio of Captain Bell’s translation, from which these Selections have been printed, has been prepared for reprint by some preceding editor, whose pen has been busy in revision of the ages he did mean to reprint.  In these Selections every paragraph stands unabridged, exactly as it was translated by Captain Bell; and there has been no other purpose governing the choice of matter than a resolve to make it as true a presentment as possible of Luther’s mind and character.  At least one other volume of Selections from the Table-Talk of Martin Luther will be given in this Library.

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