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16. Benjamin Motte, The Lord's Prayer in above a hundred languages, versions, and characters. Oratio Dominica ... plus centum linguis, versionibus, aut characteribus reddita & expressa (London, 1700)
This collection of translations of the Lord's Prayer is attributed to Benjamin Motte (d. 1710), printer to the parish clerks of London. It shows the fascination of the early modern period with languages and systems of writing, expressed in translations of the most familiar Christian prayer. Later versions of the book included not only authentic texts derived from missionary sources such as the Chinese Jesuits, but also an invented 'Formosan' language by the notorious eighteenth-century fraudster George Psalmanazaar.
Citation:
16. Benjamin Motte, The Lord's Prayer in above a hundred languages, versions, and characters. Oratio Dominica ... plus centum linguis, versionibus, aut characteribus reddita & expressa (London, 1700),
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed December 6, 2025,
https://www.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/574

