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A B BIBLES C D-E F-G H-J
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BIBLES
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The REFORMERS' “Zurich Latin” & the Vulgate Together for the FIRST TIME
& with
Estienne's Marginal Notes
Bible. Latin. Vulgate & Zurich. 1545. Biblia quid in hac editione praestitum sit, vide in ea quam operi praeposuimus, ad lectorem epistola. Lutetiae: Ex Officina Roberti Stephani, 1545. 8vo (20.5 cm, 8"). [12], 156, 172, 116, 180, 128, [40] ff.
$2875.00
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This is Robert Estienne’s first printing of “the Zurich Bible” — i.e., the Latin text as presented in the Froschauer 1543 printing that first brought together
the Zurich reformers' Old Testament and Apocrypha as prepared with apparatus, prefaces, and commentary by Jud, Bibliander, and Pellikan and a revised version of the New Testament of Erasmus — with Estienne pairing them, for the first time, with a printing of the Latin Vulgate versions set in a parallel column for comparison.
This choice of texts in itself was a statement; and, according to Darlow and Moule, Estienne was more than their printer here: “The margins contain notes which profess to be drawn from memoranda made by friends of the editor during the lectures of F. Vatablus . . . , but they appear to be coloured — to some extent at least — by the religious opinions of R. Stephanus himself. Some of these notes had already appeared, together with a selection of variant readings, in a quarto edition of the Pentateuch printed by R. Stephanus in 1541.”
The volume's title-page shows the simple all-caps word “Biblia” printed within a decorative woodcut frame below which is a version of the Estienne printer's device. The text includes the Apocrypha and Psalms at the end of the New Testament; the inner margin contains subject headings, references, and variants, while the outer margin provides the above-mentioned notes. The edition, in octavo, was Estienne's second venture only at producing a Bible in that format.
This copy is lightly ruled in red throughout.
Binding: 17th-century limp vellum with slightly yapp edges and evidence of ties (now perished), covers ruled in gilt with fleur-de-lis corner devices to form a frame for a gilt center device; spine with gilt rolls and center devices. All edges gilt.
Provenance: 18th-century ownership signature on rear pastedown of Margaret Sizer, Berwick on Tweed.
Renouard 62.2; Adams B1036; Darlow & Moule 6127; Schreiber, Estiennes, 83. Binding as above, with hand-inked spine title; vellum soiled and loosening from the text block, with 2.5" split at front joint (outside). Front pastedown largely lost, remnants with pencilled annotations. Title-page and last page dust-soiled. Overall a good++ copy, handsome on shelf and satisfying in hand. (38197)

Early English Translation of
Moses Parting the Red Sea
Bible. English. Matthew's (a.k.a., Tyndale-Taverner) version. 1549. [single leaf from] The Byble, that is to say all the Holy Scripture: in whych are co[n]tayned the Olde and New Testamente, truly & purely tra[n]slated into English, & nowe lately with greate industry & diligence recognised. Imprynted at London: By Jhon Daye ... and William Seres, 1549. Folio (27.7 cm, 10.75"). [1] f.
$550.00
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Neatly printed leaf from the 1549 Matthew's Bible, a reprinting of the 1537 edition of it (a.k.a., the “Wife Beater's Bible”), a “version, which welds together the best work of Tyndale and Coverdale, [and which is] generally considered to be the real primary version of our English Bible” (Herbert). This offering contains the story of Moses parting the Red Sea as recorded in Exodus 14 (in addition to sections of chapters 13 and 15).
The text is printed in double-column format in an interesting gothic (i.e., “black letter”) type with many sidenotes and two five-line woodcut initials.
An early reader has added two dainty manicules in a faded ink pointing to where God tells Moses he will fight for the children of Israel.
Provenance: From the leaf collection of printing specimens of the Grabhorn press.
STC (rev. ed.) 2077; ESTC S106943; Herbert 74; Rumball-Petre 84; Copinger, Bible and its Transmission, p. 304; Luborsky & Ingram, English Illustrated Books, 1536–1603, 2077. Housed under a black mat in a blue and white paper folder; mat with one crease, folders showing adhesive residue, leaf attached at bottom margin with a small piece of tape. Light age-toning, some staining at edges, readership markings as above.
Early printing of an important passage and a handsome Biblical artifact. (38313)

A Protestant Italian Bible — With Woodcuts
Bible. Italian. 1562. Brucioli. La Bibia, che si chiama Il vecchio Testamento, nuouamente tradutto in lingua volgare secondo la verità del testo Hebreo ... Quanto al nuouo Testamento è stato riueduto e ricorretto secondo la verità del testo Greco.... [Geneva]: Stampato Appresso Francesco Durone, 1562. 4to (26.2 cm; 10.375'). [6] ff., 465 (i.e., 467), [1], 110, [18] ff., [1] folding plt. (facsim), [1] folding table (facsim); illus.
$4275.00
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A much revised edition of Brucioli's Old Testament married to Massimo Teofilo's New Testament, printed for Genevan Protestant refugees and meant to be spirited into Italy for crypto-Protestants. Darlow and Moule note that “this edition closely resembles certain contemporary French and English Bibles printed at Geneva. The woodcuts are the same as those in the French Bible of 1560 printed by Antoine Rebul . . . , and the type is that of the English Geneva Bible of 1560.” Of the two variations described in Darlow and Moule, this copy is variant A, meaning that the N.T. has marginal notes similar to those of the rest of the text; Darlow and Moule also tell us that “[t]his revision. . . has been ascribed to Filippo Rusticio, or Rustico.”
The work offers a handsome printer's device on its title-page, along with
24 in-text
woodcuts of various sizes, all located in the Old Testament, and a folding plate, “La forma de la restauration del Tempio.” A second folding plate contains a table of the passion timeline. At the end of the edition's O.T. is a two-page commentary on “Lo stato dei giudei sotto la monarchia dei Romani,” i.e., the state of the Jews in [ancient] Rome.
Adams B1198; Darlow & Moule 5592. For more on Italian editions of the Bible, see: Pelikan, The Reformation of the Bible; the Bible of the Reformation, p. 60. 18th-century vellum over boards with narrow yapp edges, spine ruled in gilt, covers framed in gilt with gilt arabesque centerpiece, remnants of green silk ties; small sticker on spine, front joint just starting, pastedowns lost with turn-ins starting to warp and fly-leaves (due to this) tattered at edges. Light pencilling/inking on inside front board, and evidence of bookplate no longer present. Age-toning variously with light, often very faint waterstaining to most bottom corners; signature on title-page, a few worn edges or unevenly trimmed leaves, one repaired corner, occasionally a spot, and a number of leaves creased across lower outer corner. Folding plate and folding table both in excellent facsimile, laid in.
A sturdy, relatively affordable copy of this beautiful book. (37300)

HEAVILY ANNOTATED — The Gospels & Acts in an Important Edition
Bible. N.T. Greek & Latin. 1588. Testamentum Novum, sive novum foedus Iesu Christi, D.N. Cuius Graeco contextui respondent interpretationes duae: vna, vetus altera, Theodori Bezae, nunc quartò diligenter ab eo recognita... [Genevae]: [Henricus Stephanus], 1588. Folio (33 cm; 13"). [6] ff., 555, [1 (blank)] pp., [8] ff. (lacks final blank leaf); lacks vol. II (Epistles, Revelation).
$2500.00
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An interleaved and heavily annotated copy of the Gospels and Acts of “Beza's third major edition [of the Greek New Testament]. The text follows that of the second major edition (1582) with only five exceptions” (Darlow and Moule).
One should note that the title-page proclaims this “quarta editio,” and that this is Estienne's third folio printing of Beza's N.T.
Beza's New Testament Greek text is here accompanied by his Latin and the Vulgate (i.e., Catholic Latin) translations, the trio appearing in parallel columns on each page with
extensive notes that often fill as much as one-third to one-half of a page and with parallel references additionally set in the margins. The volume's title-page is printed in red and black and bears Henri Estienne's printer's device; a different finely wrought woodcut headpiece opens each book, with each column on those pages bearing a woodcut initial at its head, and a few of the books of the N.T. end with woodcut tailpieces.
Evidence of readership: An interleaved copy with
the vast majority of the leaves bearing an early 19th-century reader's notes and annotations. The notes cite references published as late as 1809 and it is clear that the natively German-speaking scholar was comfortable in Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and English.
Provenance: Ownership signature on title-page of Leon St. Vincent. Later in The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released; no markings).
The paper stock used for the interleaving has the classic ProPatria watermark and that and its countermark match Churchill's 151, which has a starting date of 1799.
Darlow & Moule 4650; Adams B1711. On the interleaves' watermarks, see: Churchill, Watermarks in paper in Holland, England, France, etc., in the XVII and XVIII centuries. 19th-century half vellum with German pastepaper over boards, spine with tinted and tooled label, text recased and new endpapers; vol. I (only) of this production, without the Epistles and Revelation. Title-page creased and dust-soiled, all leaves before pp. 9/10 rodent-gnawed in lower outside corner with loss of paper but not of text or manuscript annotation, and a bit of light waterstaining to rearmost leaves only.
An important edition and a singular copy. (37032)

A Catholic Bible The Second Edition, REVISED Vervliet, 1600
Bible. N.T. English. 1600.
Rheims. The New Testament of Iesus Christ, faithfully translated into English, out of the authentical Latin, diligently conferred with the Greeke, and other editions in divers languages. Antwerp: By Daniel Vervliet, 1600. Small 4to (21 cm; 8.25"). [18] ff., 745, [1] pp., [13] ff.
$3200.00
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The second edition of the Roman Catholic new Testament in English. The translation is the work of a number of English Catholic priests, but principally of Gregory Martin, who fled to France in 1568 because of persecution in their native land, and, under the direction of Dr. (later, Cardinal) William Allen, founded the English College at Douai. (The college moved for a short time to Rheims, but subsequently returned, as the title-page here attests.)
The first edition of this translation was issued at Rheims in 1582, in over-sanguine hopes that its sale would be successful enough to underwrite the cost of a prompt production of the Old Testament. The two-volume O.T. did not appear, however, until 1609/1610.
The second edition of the Rheims N.T. is a revision of the first, not merely a reprinting of it, and contains a “Table of Heretical Corruptions” not found in the 1582 printing and a new preface. In an era of noticeable decline in the art of printing, this Testament enjoys far better than average typography.
Darlow & Moule 198; Herbert 258; STC 2989; ESTC S102510. Late 17th-, early 18th-century English calf, with concentric blind panels on covers in contrasting tones of brown and tan, all edges deep red; covers with scrapes and bumps, rebacked with hinges (inside) strengthened, new endpapers with 1906 owner's inscription on front free one. Title-page dust-soiled and torn in upper margin with some loss of decorative border, page skillfully remargined with blank paper. Some foxing and age-soiling in early leaves; this similarly at rear (starting around p. 640 and most notable in Tables), with also some dust-soiling and with light waterstaining across a good number of upper outer corners. Overall a good to very good copy, sturdy and appealing. (33612)

KJV Bifolium, 1611
Bible. English. 1611. Authorized (i.e., “King James Version”). Bifolium extracted from the Old Testament of the first edition of the King James Version of the Bible. London: Imprinted ... by Robert Barker, 1611. Folio (39.8 cm, 15.625"). [2] ff. (i.e., 4 pp.).
$500.00
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Nehemiah 7:11–9:29, from the first edition of the English translation best known to the vast majority of the English-speaking world, i.e., the King James Bible. The text is printed in large English black-letter (i.e., gothic type) with the occasional use of roman, composed in double-column format with 59 lines per column and marginal notes, all sections ruled in black.
Present on this bifolium are two large woodcut initials, one being an “A” on a field of foliage and another an “N” within an arabesque square.Provenance: From the leaf collection of printing specimens of the Grabhorn press.
STC (rev. ed.) 2216; Darlow & Moule 309. Disbound. Light age-toning, a few very short tears along edges and creases at corners, with one chipped edge and evidence of three small wormholes. (38319)

Fulke's Refutation — THE ENGLISH CATHOLIC BIBLE
Bible. N.T. English. Rheims–Bishops' version. 1633. The text of the New Testament of Iesus Christ, translated out of the vulgar Latine by the Papists of the traiterous Seminarie at Rhemes ... Whereunto is added the translation out of the original Greeke, commonly used in the Church of England. London: Pr. by Augustine Mathewes on[e] of the assignes of Hester Ogden, 1633. Folio (33.3 cm, 13.25"). Frontis., engr. t.-p., [58], 912, [18], 25, [1], 206, [2], 17, [1 (blank)] pp.
$2775.00
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When the Jesuit scholars at Rheims succeeded in printing their Catholic translation of the New Testament into English (first edition, 1582), the event affected various English Protestant scholars in different ways: Some were offended or outraged, others intrigued, and yet others spurred to action. William Fulke, of Pembroke College, Cambridge, was among those offended, outraged, and spurred: In 1589 he produced the first edition of his work attempting to refute the Rheims New Testament. His approach, however — which was to print the Rheims NT in parallel columns with the Bishops' NT (the then accepted version of the Church of England), supplying accompanying notes and explanations — had unforeseen consequences.
As Darlow and Moule comment, “by printing the Rheims Testament in full, side by side with the Bishops' version, [Fulke] secured for the former a publicity which it would not otherwise have obtained, and was indirectly responsible for the marked influence which Rheims exerted on the Bible of 1611.” Alan Thomas elaborates by observing that “many a dignified or felicitous phrase was silently lifted by the editors of King James's Version, and thus passed into the language” (Great Books and Book Collectors, p. 108).
This is the fourth edition, “wherein are many grosse absurdities corrected.” A portrait of William Fulke precedes the engraved title-page, both done by William Marshall. The Biblical text is followed (as issued) by Fulke's Defense of the Sincere and True Translation of the Holy Scriptures into the English Tongue, against the Manifold Cavils, Frivolous Quarrels, and Impudent Slanders of Gregorie Martin.
STC (2nd ed.) 2947; Darlow & Moule 371; ESTC S121246; Herbert 480. Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed and panelled in gilt double fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, all edges gilt; binding rubbed, leather moderately acid-pitted, joints cracked, rectangle of leather lost at upper inner corner of front cover. Lower edges of closed book rubber-stamped; free endpapers excised; lower outer corners lightly waterstained at rear; pages otherwise slightly age-toned but notably clean. A sound, good copy. (24066)

An Eternally Popular Version of PSALMS — A Tall, Folio Edition
Bible. OT. Psalms. English. Paraphrases. 1638. Sternhold & Hopkins. The whole booke of psalmes. Collected into English meeter.... London: E. Griffin & I. Raworth, 1638. Folio (35.1 cm, 13.75"). [2], 113, [9] pp.
$1500.00
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Sternhold and Hopkins's influential and enduring metrical psalmody, which first appeared in 1562. Opening with a large woodcut headpiece incorporating the lion and unicorn, the text is printed in two columns of roman type, with
music included.
When produced in folio, with elegant layout as here, this familiar “title”breathes grace.
ESTC S122133; STC (2nd ed.) 2676. Later period-style black morocco framed and panelled in double gilt fillets and gilt roll with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-ruled raised bands; boards slightly bowed, gilt showing small spots of rubbing. Lower (closed) page edges (only) institutionally rubber-stamped. Last few leaves with portions of inner and outer margins waterstained; pages slightly cockled, age-toned with occasional small spots. (31319)

English Black Morocco, Gilt Extra
Bible. English. Authorized (i.e., “King James Version”). 1648. The Holy Bible containing the Old Testament and the New. Newly translated out of the originall tongues, and with the former translations diligently compared and revised by his Majesties speciall command. London: Printed by John Field, 1648. 4to (23 cm; 9"). OT: [478] ff. NT: [148] ff. [bound with] Bible. O.T. Psalms. 1655. The whole book of Psalms: collected into English metre by Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins, and others. Lonodn [sic]: Pr. for the Company of Stationers, 1655. 4to. [1] f., 122 pp., [2] ff.
$1500.00
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Two issues occur of this Bible, this being the one without the engraver's name on the title-page and with the printer's name spelled out and not abbreviated; the issues are the same after the first two leaves. This copy is without the Apochrypha, but with the final two leaves of the 1655 Psalms, which leaves are lacking in some reported copies.
Provenance: On blank leaf before Psalms, “William Ingram His Booke 1660.” Later in the Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).
Binding: 18th-century black morocco, spine with raised bands. Gilt-tooled on covers with concentric frames incorporating foliate corner devices and particularly elegant, delicate side toolings; these last notably well complement the similarly refined tools used to compose the gilt-extra spine. Gilt rolls on turn-ins, French combed endpapers, all edges gilt.
Whole Bible: Darlow & Moule 469; Herbert 606; Wing (rev. ed.) B2225; ESTC R43605. Psalms: Wing (rev. ed.) B2458; ESTC R39598. Binding as above, lightly rubbed. Ex-library: Bookplate, small rubber-stamp in lower margin of engraved title, charge pocket at rear. Three leaves torn and repaired; some upper and lower margins closely trimmed affecting or costing captions, catchwords, signature marks, etc.; some foxing, dust-soiling, age-toning; waterstain to rear endpapers and faintly into final four leaves of the Psalms. Contemporary ownership note as above. Faults noted, this is yet a handsome mid-17th-century Bible — and, solid. (34195)

Gutbier's Labor of Love — Printed on the
Editor's Own Press
Bible. N.T. Syriac. 1664. Novum domini nostri Jesu Christi Testamentum Syriace, cum punctis vocalibus, & versione Latina Matthaei ... plene & emendate editum, accurante Aegidio Gutbirio. Hamburgi: Typis & impensis authoris, 1664. 8vo (17.2 cm, 6.75"). [32], 218, 281–604 pp.
$750.00
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First edition of Gilles Gutbier's acclaimed Syriac New Testament,
produced at the author's own expense using types he cut himself. Gutbier (1617–67), a distinguished professor at Hamburg, was universally recognized as one of the leading Orientalists of his era. His work on this New Testament was based on all of the previously published Syriac editions and on two unpublished manuscripts, one of which had belonged to the emperor Constantine. Darlow and Moule note that Gutbier also includes the previously missing “five books, the 'pericope de adulter' and the 'comma Johanneum.'”
This copy has the additional engraved title-page (dated 1663) but is not one of the variant issues that include the supplementary pieces mentioned on that title. The printed title-page present here matches Darlow and Moule's state d.
Binding: Contemporary calf, round spine, gilt spine extra, handsome metal and leather closures with gilt tooling on the leather; very pretty, simple single gilt-roll border on each board. German floral paste-decorated endpapers and all edges red.
Provenance: Ownership signatures of I. Duvarus (1774); J.G. Drunnburg (1822) Johann O. Nordendam (1830) on front fly-leaf.
Darlow & Moule 8966; Graesse 103. Leather “shellacked” and shiny; volume now solid with front board reattached using the long-fiber method and areas of spine similarly improved. A sophisticated copy: four leaves of the prefactory matter (b1–4) are inserted from a small copy (possibly even a different edition). Some early underscoring; overall
very decent as a text and very attractive on shelf or in hand. (36974)

In Gothic & Anglo-Saxon & With an Extensive Glossary
Bible. N.T. Gospels. Gothic. 1665. Quatuor D.N. Jesu Christi evangeliorum. Versiones perantiquae duae, Gothica scil. et Anglo-Saxonica. Dordrechti: Typis & sumptibus Junianis; Excudebant Henricus & Joannes Essaei, 1665. 4to (20.5 cm; 8"). 2 parts in 1 vol. [9] ff., 565, [3] pp.; [12] ff., 431 pp.
$3000.00
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This is the first printing of the Gospels in Gothic and the second of them in Anglo-Saxon; it is also the first edition of Ulfila's Gothic version of the Gospels — based on the Codex Argenteus — parallel with the Anglo-Saxon version, which is based on the 1571 Day printing of the Anglo-Saxon Gospels. The presentation is double-column, with the Gothic to the left. The volume opens with a handsome architectural engraved title-page by A[braham Dircksz van] Santvoort (1624–69), featuring the four evangelists with their symbols and the tetragrammaton, preceding the typographic one.
Thomas Marshall (1621–85) was the work's chief editor and later was rector of Lincoln College, Oxford. His assistant on the large project was François du John, the Younger, (1589–1677), whose Gothic–Latin dictionary with its own pagination ([12] ff., 431 pp.) and title-page — “Gothicum glossarium, quo pleraque Argentei Codicis vocabula explicantur ... praemittuntur ei Gothicum, Runicum, Anglo-Saxonicum, aliáque alphabeta. Operâ Francisci Junii” — follows the Gospels.
Darlow and Moule (4557) observe: “Beyond their interest to the student of textual criticism, these fragments possess special value for the philologist as preserving what is 'by several centuries the oldest specimen of Teutonic speech.'”
Provenance: The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).
Darlow & Moule 1604 & 4557; Brunet, II, 1118. Late 17th- or early 18th-century Cambridge style calf; recently well rebacked with blind-tooled device in four of the five spine compartments, a very dark brown leather spine label neatly gilt, and new endpapers. Despite provenance, NO library markings.
A very nice copy. (36163)

Printed in England in 1665 & Bound in
AMERICA in 1829
Bible. O.T. Greek. Septuagint. 1665. [four lines in Greek, then] Vetus testamentum graecum ex versione Septuaginta interpretum, juxta exemplar Vaticanum Romae editum. Cantabrigiae: Excusum per Joannem Field, 1665. 12mo (14 cm; 5.5"). [1] f., 19, [1], 755 [i.e. 767, 1], 516 pp. (without the initial blank).
$1800.00
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The second English edition of the Septuagint. There are different issues: This a copy of the one with the third word of the Greek title readiing “Diathēche” and not “Diathēke” and with the printer's device showing the man holding the sun in his left hand. Thus, this is Darlow and Moule issue “B.”
Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of one of the issues of this edition.
Provenance: Manuscript ownership inscription of John Ray dated 1716 (on retained fly-leaf); ownership signature of Robert L. Wilson, New York, 1818 (on title-page); gilt supra-libros of Barzillai Slosson, dated 1829. Later in the Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).
Binding: American binding of dark blue goat, richly gilt, with wide floral border on covers and spine distinctively gilt using rules and floral roll. Board edges with a gilt roll; turn-ins gilt tooled. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Gilt supra-libros of Barzillai Slosson as above. Unsigned.
Barzillai Slosson may have been related to the lawyer of the same name who was active in Kent, CT, at the end of the 18th century and into the fourth decade of the 19th, whose account books are in the Yale Law Library; perhaps, the Barzillai who graduated from Columbia College in 1818 and later moved to Geneva, NY, where he was active and successful in business and civic affairs.
Wing (rev. ed.) B2719. Darlow & Moule; 4702; ESTC R236848; Sowerby, Catalogue of the library of Thomas Jefferson, 1473. Binding as above, lightly rubbed. Pages closely cropped in the 19th-century rebinding and some initial or final letters touched or lost. Very good. (34786)

TRI-LINGUAL Protestant New Testament with a
Handsome Engraved Title-page
Bible. N.T. Polyglot. 1684. Le Nouveau Testament, c'est a dire La nouvelle alliance de Nostre Seigneur Iesus Christ. The New Testament. of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. Het Nieuwe Testament, ofte alle boeken des nieuwen verbonts onses Heeren Iesu Christi volgens het besluyt der Sinode van Dordrecht inde iare 1618 en 1619. Amsterdam: By de weduwe van Steven Swart, Jacobus vander Deyster, en Aert Dircksz, 1684. 12mo (16.5 cm; 6.5"). [2] ff., 601, [1 (blank) pp.
$950.00
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Presented in triple-column format are the New Testament in French (text the Geneva version), English (text the Authorized version), and Dutch (text the States-General version). The French and English are printed in roman and the Dutch in gothic (i.e., black letter). The title-page is engraved and has an architectural frame around the title, with a cartouche at the base bearing imprint information.
Provenance: The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).
Wing (rev. ed.) B2801aA; Darlow & Moule 1450 (Polyglot), 626 (English), 3329 (Dutch), 3768 (French).; ESTC R212805. Contemporary dark calf, modestly ruled in blind; spine label gilt-tooled, front free endpaper lacking. Ex-library as above with bookplate, charge pocket, and date due slip, but no stamps on any pages.
Ambitious yet compact, and comfortable when handheld, this is an attractive production. (36320)

Sumptuous
GILT Black Goat Binding, Text Completely Ruled in Red, Edges Gilt & Gauffered
Bible. English. Authorized (i.e., King James version). 1690. The Holy Bible, containing the Old Testament, and the New. London: Printed by Charles Bill & Thomas Newcomb, 1690 [or possibly 1692]. 8vo (20 cm; 8"). [573] ff. [also bound in at rear] Bible. O.T. Psalms. English. Paraphrases. 1693. Sternhold & Hopkins. The whole book of psalms. Collected into English metre. London: Printed for the Company of Stationers, 1693. 8vo. 87, [1] p.
$2500.00
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A handsomely bound late 17th-century printing of the King James Bible, this begins with an engraved title-leaf featuring the title within an architectural frame; the text of the Bible is printed on thin paper in double-column format.
The entire volume has been ruled by hand in red.
The title-page of the New Testament is dated 1694 and bears the imprint “Printed by Charles Bill and the Executrix of Thomas Newcomb, deceas'd,” and the signing of the signatures is absolutely continuous from the O.T. — that is the last leaf of the O.T. is Iii6 and the title-leaf of the N.T. is Iiii7. Curiously, on the engraved main title-page the date area shows erasure of a date that might have been 1692 or 1682 in roman numerals. It is possible that the 1690 date in roman is in excellent pen and ink facsimile.
Binding: Contemporary black goat with a complicated and beautiful overall pattern of gilt tooling using acorn, star, and flower devices, a leaf-vine roll, a double- and a triple-fillet, hashed triangles, and a few other tools. The tall slim central panel is accented at all corners with heart forms, these revealed by three survivors on the back cover to have been
red leather onlays. Spine also elaborately gilt-tooled with some of the same tools reappearing and with two compartments incorporating capital letters hard to make out: “H OP K / I N S”? All edges gilt and gauffered.
Provenance: The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).
The collation by signatures of this edition of the Bible does not match that in any of the bibliographies or databases listed below for an 8vo Bible dated 1682, 1690, or 1692.
Not in Darlow & Moule; not in Herbert; not in Wing (rev. ed.); not in ESTC. Binding as above, with light overall abrading; some portions of board edges and the four corners of the boards restored, with some still/again abraded; gilt faded in some portions and elsewhere bright. Red-ruled text has been spared trimming of captions or catchwords; very occasionally a sidenote has been just touched. The leaf on which Jesus declares that he is the way, the truth, and the life is firmly dog-eared.
Overall a handsomely produced and well-cherished King James Bible, with S&H, in a still very impressive Restoration binding. (34788)

Beautifully Bound Bible with
Uncommon Book of Psalms
Bible. English. 1703. Authorized. The Holy Bible containing the Old Testament and the New: Newly translated out of the original tongues; and with the former translations diligently compar'd & revis'd by His Mats special command appointed to be read in churches. London: Printed by Charles Bill & the executrix of Thomas Newcomb, 1703. 8vo (19.9 cm; 7.875"). 2 vols. I: engr. t.-p., [302] ff. II: [270] ff. [bound with] Bible. Psalms. English. 1705. Sternhold and Hopkins. The Whole book of Psalms: Collected into English metre by Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins, and others. London: Printed by G. Croom, for the Company of Stationers, 1705. 85, [3] pp.
$850.00
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A handsome Bible and separately printed Book of Psalms are here nicely bound in two gilt morocco volumes. The Bible, this edition not containing the Apocrypha, opens with an
engraved general title-page featuring the Royal Arms atop a series of columns; the New Testament has its own printed title-page, also dated 1703; and the perennially popular Sternhold and Hopkins version of Psalms, printed neatly in two columns, has a title-page dated 1705.
Binding: 18th-century black morocco, spine compartments gilt extra with covers double-ruled and panelled in gilt with floral stamps at sides and corners; board edges and turn-ins with zig-zag gilt rolls. Marbled endpapers, all edges gilt.
Provenance: The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released), with library bookplates on front pastedowns and Howell's booklabels at back.
Searches of COPAC, WorldCat, and the NUC show only one U.S. institution, the New York Public Library, as holding the Whole Book of Psalms in this edition.
On the Bible, see: ESTC N32302; Herbert 874; Darlow & Moule 682. On the Psalms, see: ESTC T195264. Bound as above, two covers expertly reattached; gently rubbed with corners bumped, gilt faded with light ink marking on bottom edge of one volume. Library bookplates as above, pencilling and numerical stamp on general title-page verso and one blank verso; old oval institutional rubber-stamp on fly-leaves, general title-page, and four leaves of text. Light age-toning generally, this moderate to heavy in the Psalms, some headings in the Bible closely trimmed with some words partially shaved; five leaves with a marginal chip or missing corner, a few more with spots or staining, one small annotation (correcting a tense in I Chronicles) in ink.
Overall, a very pleasant set to read and handle. (37044)

First Complete Bible Printed in the NEW WORLD
in a European Language
An Imperfect Copy (Priced Accordingly!) Still Treasurable!
Bible. German. 1743. Luther. [Biblia, das ist: Die Heilige Schrift Altes und Neues Testaments, nach der Deutschen Uebersetzung D. Martin Luthers, mit jedes Capitels kurzen Summarien, auch beygefügten vielen und richtigen Parllelen {sic}. Germantown: Gedruckt bey Christoph Saur, 1743]. 4to (26.3 cm, 10.375"). [2] ff. (supplied in facsimile), 995, [1 (blank)], 277, [1] pp., [1] f.
$6000.00
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1743 saw the first complete Bible in a European language printed in the New World, in — of all places — Germantown, Pa., and in — of all languages — German. The colonial powers had granted monopolies for Bible printing to “home” publishers and their products were priced sufficiently low to discourage illegal printing by colonial printers, which left it to German-Americans — a people here as independent settlers, not “colonists” — to first print a Bible of their own. Christopher Saur (or Sower, as he Englished it) was something of a renaissance man, university educated and a physician, and he used his connections in Germany to obtain the gift of the fraktur type used in this Bible. It was printed in an edition of 1200 copies, and cost 18 shillings. Another complete American Bible did not follow until Saur’s son, also Christopher, published a further edition in 1763.
Arndt lists three states for this edition, of which this appears to be C, based on the absence of a two-leaf addendum giving a short history of Bible translation — that a buyer could choose to have bound in or not.
Rumball-Petre, Rare Bibles, 159; Darlow & Moule 4240; O’Callaghan 22; Wright, Early Bibles of America, 24–44; Evans 5127–28; Sabin 5191; Arndt, The First Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America, 47C; Hildeburn, The Issues of the Press in Pennsylvania, 1685-1784, 804. Contemporary calf over bevelled boards; binding scratched and abraded with tears to spine leather, hinges (inside) open. First two leaves lacking (i.e., main title-page and preface) and title-page supplied in facsimile. A printed poem has been affixed to the front pastedown, over a strip of cloth. Ownership inscriptions in German (in gothic cursive) and English on endpapers. Pp. 1–2 with loss of part of margins, some text, and part of headpiece, repaired with paper. Lightly age-toned with darker brown-spotting, some waterstaining, occasional dog ears, and some holing or chipping in the margins — some of the latter repaired with paper. The New Testament title-page is present. (5689)

New Testament from
the Saur Press
Bible. N.T. German. 1775. Luther. Das Neue Testament unsers Herrn und Heylandes Jesu Christi, nach der deutschen Uebersetzung D. Martin Luthers, mit kurzem Inhalt eines jeden Capitels, und vollständiger Anweisung gleicher Schrift-Stellen. Wie auch aller Sonn- und fest-tägigen Evangelien und Episteln. Germantown: Gedruckt und zu finden bey Christoph Saur, 1775. 8vo (16.8 cm; 6.75"). 10, 13–529, [3] pp. One leaf in facsimile and one leaf lacking.
$450.00
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German language New Testament from the first press to print a complete Bible in a European language in the New World, here in the seventh edition, variant A with “Siebente Auflage” on the title-page. This edition is printed in double columns in fraktur with references also in fraktur.
This is the last New Testament that the Saur family printed in the 18th century.
Provenance: The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).
ESTC W4523; Evans 13837; O'Callaghan p. 29; Hildeburn, Pennsylvania, 3245; German Language Printing in the U.S., 454 (explaining the variants). 18th-century calf, simple brass clasps, covers gently rubbed; rebacked with gilt lettering and ruling on spine, new endpapers. Moderate to heavy age-toning and spotting; several leaves trimmed closely with the loss of a letter or two per line. One leaf lacking, another in facsimile, two leaves at front of Matthew supplied from a different copy. Signs of heavy use include chipped edges on first and last few leaves, a few bent corners or short tears, and the occasional mark in ink or (in one case) old crayon. Only library markings are a five-digit stamped inventory number and call number pencilled on verso of title-page.
A good, typical example of a Saur German-American testament. (36376)

The “Gun Wad” Bible — The First Bible Printed
from
Type Cast in America
Bible. German. 1776. Luther. Biblia, das ist: Die ganze Göttliche heilige Schrift Alten und Neuen Testaments. Germantown: Gecruckt und zu finden bey Christoph Saur, 1776. 4to. 2 pts. in 1 vol. [2] ff., 992 pp,; 277, [1] pp., [1] f.
$6500.00
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Popularly known as the “Gun Wad” Bible, this is the third edition of the first American Bible in a European language and it precedes the first American Bible in English by six years. It is known as the “Gun Wad” Bible from Isaiah Thomas's recounting of the sale of Saur's estate in 1778, wherein he says that during the Battle of Germantown the purchaser of the unbound sheets of the 1776 Bible “sold a part of [them] to be used as covers for cartridges, proper paper for the purpose being at that time not to be obtained” in the dislocations of the Revolution — well, maybe.
What is not open to question is the fact that this is the first Bible printed from type cast in America. There are several variants of the edition: In this copy the main title-page is printed in black only and on the New Testament title-page the place of printing is given as “Germantown.”
Provenance: On a front blank, “Joseph Price junr his Bible”; on front pastedown, “Abraham Price was born the 22. Day of June 1770.”
Evans 14663; Hildeburn, The Issues of the Press in Pennsylvania, 1685–1784, 3336; Arndt & Eck, German Language Printing in the U.S., 475; O'Callaghan, p. 29; Rumball-Petre 162; Thomas, History of Printing in America, pp. 411–13. Contemporary calf, very plain in style with minimal tooling and no spine label ever; rebacked and old spine reattached. One leather and metal clasp remaining. Hinges (inside) strengthened and free endpapers reattached. The usual foxing, staining, and browning only; perhaps somewhat less than usual — a clean, untattered copy. Now housed in a quarter brown leather folding slipcase. (27227)

The Index of
First Lines Here Is Impressive
Bible. O.T.
Psalms. English. Selections. 1787. Toplady. Psalms and hymns for public and private worship. London: C. Watts, 1787. 12mo. [22], 418 pp.
$800.00
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Second edition, following the first of 1776: Augustus Toplady's collection of metrical hymns. Toplady was a
Calvinist divine, noted for his “controversial venom against Wesley and his followers” (DNB), of whom Bishop J.C. Ryle said, “Of all the English hymn-writers, none perhaps, have succeeded so thoroughly in combining truth, poetry, life, warmth, fire, solemnity, and unction as Toplady has.”RARE: ESTC locates only two copies in the U.S. (Emory, Duke) and three in Britain (two at Rylands, other at Congregational).
ESTC T175579. Contemporary calf, covers framed in gilt roll; rubbed, worn, and rebacked with library buckram, spine with typed paper label; hinges (inside) reinforced with cloth tape. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate. Title-page (and one other) with pressure-stamp, pastedowns and verso of title-page rubber-stamped. A few instances of faint foxing, pages otherwise clean. (19509)

Typeset in Scotland Printed in New York
Bible. English. 1792. Authorized. The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments: translated out of the original tongues; and with the former translations diligently compared and revised. New York: Printed & Sold by Hugh Gaine, 1792. 12mo (17 cm; 6.75"). [408] pp.
$775.00
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An early American Bible with a fascinating creation story. According to Margaret Hills, “The ruby type of this edition is said to have been set up in Scotland and imported [by Hugh Gaine] in page form, ready for printing. The type was apparently kept standing.” It is said that Isaiah Thomas bought five hundred copies of this Bible in sheets, due to the delay in the completion of his school edition of the Bible.
Provenance: Timothy Hall's family bible ca. 1800). Later in the Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).
Evidence of Readership (or Something else — Engagement?): Former owners and their children have filled the blank endpapers with names and scribbles in pencil and ink; the New Testament title-page verso and an endpaper record important family dates, such as Timothy Hall's marriage to Elizabeth Morgan and Harry Harmon Hall's birth in 1801, while endpapers and blank sections of the Bible have provided scribble space and handwriting practice for Harry and a presumably different Timothy.
All of this endearing, none of it off-putting.
ESTC W4514; Evans 24098; Hills, English Bible in America, 40; Sabin 5175; O'Callaghan 45–6. 18th-century calf, spine with raised bands; well-rubbed with leather crackled and loss at spine extremities, especially to top compartment. Ex-library as above, light pencilling on t.-p., pencilled call number and accession number on title-page verso; family penmanship and genealogical contributions as noted. One torn corner, a short tear on N.T. title-page, a handful of leaves trimmed closely with loss of a letter per line; light to moderate age-toning with the occasional spot.
An interesting Bible bibliographically, and a “family” Bible in every sense. (36652)

“It Is Hoped, the
Psalms Will Be Freed From All Objections”
Bible. O.T. Psalms. English. Episcopal Church. 1795. The psalter or Psalms of David, pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches. With the order for morning and evening prayer daily throughout the year. New-London [Conn.]: Printed by Thomas C. Green, on the Parade, 1795. 12mo (15.6 cm; 6.125"). [83] ff.
$250.00
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Early American psalter edited by Samuel Seabury (1729–96), the First Bishop of the American Episcopal Church. The text is based on the 1790 Book of Common Prayer created by that newly formed Episcopal Church.
Provenance: Two owners have written “Cushing Cooks Book, Norwich Port” and “Moses Pierce Book” on front endpaper; later in the library of the Pacific School of Religion (properly released).
Evans 28282; Johnson, New London Imprints, 1285; Trumbull, Connecticut, 1278; ESTC W4406. 18th-century calf, rubbed and abraded; front joint (outside) cracking, turn-ins offsetting to first and last few leaves, front free endpaper with corner cut out, text block starting to detach from binding but definitely still comfortable to handle. Ex-library as above: call number label on spine, bookplate on front pastedown, rubber-stamp on front free endpaper and title-page, pencilling on title-page, paper call number label on spine and circulation materials at back. Provenance markings as above, inking on back free endpaper, light age-toning. (36742)
Campbell’s GOSPELS in their
First! American Edition
Bible. N.T. Gospels. English. 1796. Campbell. The four Gospels, translated from the Greek. With preliminary dissertations, and notes critical and explanatory. By George Campbell. Philadelphia: Thomas Dobson, 1796. 4to (27.7 cm, 10.9"). vii, xvi, 488, 196 pp., [8] ff.
$3000.00
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Three American “firsts” here, counting that of our caption! For while being additionally the uncommon
first printing in America of the Gospels in English in any translation other than the King James or the Douai-Rheims version, this is also
the first privately accomplished translation of the Gospels printed in America.
George Campbell (1719–96) was a minister of the Church of Scotland, theologian, and principal of Marischal College. He wrote a number of theological works, including a defense of miracles in response to David Hume, and was noted for originality of argument as well as charity towards his opponents. This translation of the Gospels was first published in England in 1789; the work consists of a preface and preliminary dissertations, the actual translation, and the notes, with the whole being very scholarly, resorting frequently to the Greek in the dissertations and notes.
Provenance: Title-page and contents leaf with early inked inscriptions reading “Jas. Booth.”
ESTC W4383; Evans 30086; Hills, English Bible in America, 56. On Campbell, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary treed sheep, rubbed and abraded with leather lost at corners; nicely rebacked with original label laid on. Title-page and contents inscribed as described above; endpapers waterstained, and pages with light spots of foxing. Paper in many sections faintly blue. (11489)

“Pr. by A. Bartram” — Philadelphia, 1799
Bible. N.T. Gospels. English. 1799. Campbell. The four gospels, translated from the Greek. Philadelphia: Pr. by A. Bartram, 1799. 4to. viii, xvi, 488 pp.; 196, [8] pp.
$1450.00
George Campbell (1719–96) was a minister of the Church of Scotland, theologian, and principal of Marischal College. He wrote a number of theological works, including a defense of miracles in response to David Hume, and was noted for originality of argument as well as charity towards his opponents. This translation of the Gospels was first published in England in 1789; the work consists of a preface and preliminary dissertations, the actual translation, and the notes, with the whole being very scholarly, resorting frequently to the Greek in the dissertations and notes.
Campbell's translation of the Gospels were first printed in the U.S. in 1796 and was the first privately accomplished translation of the Gospels printed in America. This is only the second edition printed in America.
ESTC W4382; Evans 35200; Hills, English Bible in America, 71. On Campbell, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Publisher's brown leather, rebacked, board edges refurbished, original spine-label reused. Old library pressure-stamps and a bit of pencilling, stamped numberwith a (properly deaccessioned). Occasional light foxing and with some marginal waterstains. Overall, a rather nice copy. (23757)

German
Bible Printing Moves WEST
Bible. German. 1805. Luther. Biblia, das ist: die ganze Göttliche Heilige Schrift Alten und Neuen Testaments, nach der Deutchen uebersetzung D. Martin Luthers. Reading: Gedruckt und zu finden bey Gottlob Jungmann, 1805. 4to. 2 vols. in 1. [34] ff., 1008 pp., [1] f., 277, [1] pp., [1] f., (family register excised).
$1175.00
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The first edition of the first Bible in German printed outside of Philadelphia; the first printing of the Bible in Reading. The New Testament here has a separate title-page, pagination, and signatures.
Arndt & Eck, German Language Printing in the U.S., 1467; O'Callaghan 78–79; Seidensticker 166; Shaw & Shoemaker 7984. Publisher's plain brown calf with remnants of metal and leather closures, leather abraded; front board expertly strengthened at joint, new front free endpaper. Family register excised. Interior with foxing, toning, and some staining, including to title-page; initial and final leaves with staining and chipping, as with all copies we've seen in libraries and in commerce.
All said, a solid and satisfactory copy of a famous early American Bible. (27430)

The Second American Printing of the FRENCH New Testament . . .
& the FIRST for Protestants
Bible. N.T. French. 1811. Ostervald. Le Nouveau Testament de notre seigneur Jésus-Christ. Imprimé sur l'édition de Paris, de l'année, 1805. Revue et corrigée avec soin d'après le texte Grec. Boston: Les Libraires Associés, 1811. 12mo (18 cm, 7"). 379, [1] pp., [2 (advertisements)] ff.
$750.00
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1810 was the year that saw the first printing of a complete Testament in French in the U.S.— a Catholic one was then issued in Boston for use among French Canadians and French émigrés. This edition came out the following year, and is both the second French N.T. to have been printed in the U.S. and the first Protestant one.
Provenance: 19th-century ownership stamp of “Hiram Bell” at top of title-page.
Evidence of Readership: A few lines from Gray's “Elegy written in a Country Churchyard” are pencilled in English on a front blank (“Full many a flower is born to blush unseen . . .”); and “pour passer le temps” is pencilled in under the list showing the testament's order of books on the title-page verso!
Not in Darlow & Moule; Shaw & Shoemaker 22372. Acid-stained sheep, flat spine with gilt rules and a burgundy leather title label, gilt-lettered; lightly rubbed, dry with some cracking. Inside, scattered spots of light browning. Inkstain(?) to advertisement and rear blank leaves, not hindering reading. A nice copy. (35161)

AMERICAN Gilt RED MOROCCO of 1815 — Watts in Miniature
Bible. O.T. Psalms. English. 1815. Watts. The Psalms of David, imitated in the language of the New-Testament, and applied to the Christian state and worship. Boston: Printed and published by Lincoln & Edmands., 1815. Miniature (9.4 cm; 3.75"). Frontis., 575, [1] pp.
$225.00
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Simultaneously petite, dense, and neatly bound collection of psalms edited by Independent minister and writer Isaac Watts, here in a later American edition with a separate title-page for his Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Psalms was originally published in 1719; Hymns appeared in 1707 with an enlargement in 1709.
This offering comes with a frontispiece engraved by Wightman after Penniman of King David playing the harp above the command to “Awake, Psaltery and Harp — take a Psalm — and sing unto the Lord a new song.”
Binding: 19th-century American mottled red morocco, spine tooled in gilt using a single-rule fillet in company with rolls of a bead, scallop, and ball and dart design to create compartments; WATTS lettered in gilt in the second. Covers gilt-framed using a different bead roll, board edges with delicate foliate gilt rolls, marbled endpapers. Possibly bound by Miller & Hutchens of Providence as the spine rolls are very similar to those pictured in Early American Book-Bindings, i.e., the Papantonio Collection.
A publisher's advertisement for Lincoln & Edmands' Bibles and theological works is on the final page.
Shaw & Shoemaker 34095 & 36510; on binding, see: Early American Bindings, 38. Bound as above, gently rubbed, rear free endpaper lacking and pastedown abraded, with a few spots on edges occasionally bleeding into margins. Housed in a quarter red morocco and linen open-back slipcase with an inner corset, spine lettered in gilt; lightly rubbed. Light age-toning with a few creased or bumped corners, small hole to title-page not taking type, two small marginal chips, four unopened leaves.
A more than pleasant pocket-sized book of psalms and hymns. (37286)

Printed from the
D. & G. Bruce Stereotype Plates
Bible. English. 1816. Authorized (i.e., “King James Version”). The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments: translated out of the original tongues; and with the former translations diligently compared and revised. New York: Printed & published by W. Mercein, 1816. 12mo (18.2 cm, 7.25"). 684 pp.
$150.00
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In 1815, New Yorker David Bruce produced the first Bible made from stereotype plates manufactured in the United Sates. This Bible, produced only a year later, was printed using exactly the same plates with only a date and imprint change on the title-page and on that of the New Testament. D. & G. Bruce's notice dated June, 1815, appears on verso of the main title-page, telling us that the text “has been copied from the Edinburgh edition printed under the revision of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, and are [sic] fully compared with the Cambridge, Oxford, Hartford, and New-York editions.”
Provenance: From the Michael Zinman collection.
Hills 301; O'Callaghan p. 135; Shaw & Shoemaker 36953. Brown period calf with damaged spine, lacking perhaps ten percent of leather, and rubbing; joints open with rear board firmly attached, front one loosening; old ink and pencil annotations on endpapers. Some gatherings closely trimmed with no loss of text; one leaf torn with loss of part or whole of bottom line of one column, each side. Foxing, browning, age-toning throughout; waterstaining intermittently. An interesting example of how stereotype plates can “move” after they are made. (35968)

An Ambitious Printing Project by a
Young Ambitious Printer
Bible. German. 1819. Luther. Biblia, das ist: Die ganze Heilige Schrift Alten und Neuen Testaments nach der deutschen Uebersetzung von Doctor Martin Luther. Lancaster, Pa.: Johann Bär, 1819. Folio (39.5 cm, 15.5"). Frontis., [5] ff., 100, 12 pp., [2] ff., 738, 26 pp.; [2 (blank)] ff.; 227, [1], 92 pp. Lacks plate before the N.T.
$425.00
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Johann Bär's 1819 German Luther Bible (in fraktur type, a.k.a., “black letter”) was the first complete Bible printed in “Lancaster, [Penn]” and the
first folio German Bible printed in America: It was an impressive production — large in size, set on good paper, and the type pleasantly laid out and neatly impressed in double-column format. The frontispiece, engraved by J. Henry and showing Moses with the tables of the law, is appealing.
In the preliminaries, the double-column text includes a brief biography of Luther and an essay by the famous Pietist August Herman Franke (1663–1727) advising how to read Scripture. The printer was only 19 years old when he undertook this massive project and despite the numerous subscribers listed on five preliminary pages in four-cloumn format, he was nearly bankrupted by the enterprise.
In the upper outer corner of the front pastedown is the large printed binder's label of “Henrich Miller, buchbinder, in der Ost – Dranien Strasse, gegeneuber der Lancaster.”
O'Callaghan 146; Shaw & Shoemaker 47206; Arndt & Eck, German Language Printing in the U.S., 2363. Contemporary calf over wood boards, evidence of metal and leather clasp closures; leather perished, joints (outside) open, front board much loosened but holding tenuously and rear board more securely attached. Foxing and brown staining, as usual. Lacks the plate opposite the New Testament title-page. A good copy only yet still
a touching “story” and a touchstone American Bible. (35752)

The ONLY Portion of
the Bible in This Indian Language?
Bible. N.T. Bikaneri. 1820. The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments. Vol. 5, containing the New Testament. Serampore [India]: Printed at the Mission Press, 1820. 8vo (20.5 cm; 8.125"). 649 pp.
$2500.00
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First and apparently sole printing of any portion of the Bible in Bikaneri (a.k.a.Vikanera), a Marwari language of the Rajasthan region of India. The text is in Devangari characters with an added title-page in English that reports the text was “translated from the originals into the Vikanera language by the Serampore missionaries.” The title-page also makes clear that this was meant to be vol. V of a complete translation of the Bible, but that project was never completed and it seems no other books of the Bible have been translated into the language.
The non-English title-page reads, in transliteration: “Svaraki sagali katha, jake adamyamkem uddharavei aura calanavei codem karyochem, u, Dharma pustaka, unko chedalo virada, va mhakem taranavala Bhagavanna Yisukhrishtaka phayadaki, Mangalika vatam.”
The paper used for the text seems to be native-made laid stock.
WorldCat and NUC combine to locate only six copies in U.S. libraries, one of which is this one, properly deaccessioned.
Provenance: Ex–Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School library; properly deaccessioned.
Darlow & Moule 7651; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 826. Contemporary boards covered with blue paper a bit scuffed, soiled, and with areas of wear; original paper shelfback replaced with cloth of a closely matching color. A very little library pencilling; no stamps. (35167)

Early ABS Spanish New Testament — A Controversial Translation
Bible. N.T. Spanish. 1823. Scio de S. Miguel. El Nuevo Testamento de nuestro señor Jesu Cristo, traducido de la Biblia Vulgata Latina. Nueva York: Estereotipa por Elihu White a costa de la Sociedad Americana de la Biblia, 1823. 12mo (18 cm, 7"). 376 pp.
$600.00
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This is an early reprint (the 7th edition, the 5th through 9th editions all appearing in 1823) of the 1819 edition of the New Testament in Spanish published by the American Bible Society, which was the first printing in Spanish of any portion of the Bible in the New World. To avoid controversy, and to appeal to Catholics, a translation approved for use in the Catholic Church was employed. This resulted in some criticism from the ABS's Protestant base, but proved a successful strategy to
get the Scriptures into the hands of Spanish speakers in the newly independent nations south of the U.S.
Darlow & Moule 8495; Shoemaker 11841; not in O'Callaghan; not in O'Callaghan, Supplement,. Contemporary sheep, spine with gilt rules and tiny remnant of black leather title label; some rubbing and abrasions, spine leather with fine cracks. Waterstaining, sometimes nearly invisible, other times noticeable; scattered foxing and browning throughout.
A solid, sound copy of a text that was a bit of a landmark for the ABS. (35158)

Small but Mighty
Bible. N.T. Greek. 1828. Novum Testamentum graecum. Londini: Gulielmus Pickering [colophon: Typis C. Corrall], 1828. 64mo (near miniature: 8.5 cm, 3.375"). Frontis., [6], 511, [1] pp. (half-title lacking).
$275.00
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“The smallest Greek Testament ever published,” according to Darlow & Moule, this dainty production comes from Pickering's Diamond Classics series and has been credited by Reuss as belonging to the Editiones Stephano-Elzevirianae — quite the compliment for a 19th-century British imprint! Following the frontispiece engraved by Worthington after Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, the title-page, and a dedication to Earl Spencer (in Latin) are a table of contents and the New Testament printed in single columns in Greek with verse divisions — but no notes.
Binding: Late 19th-century black morocco, spine gilt-extra: lettered and stamped in gilt with dots along raised bands and arabesque stamps in compartments; covers framed in triple fillets, board edges with a gilt roll of dots, turn-ins with gilt daisy roll, nonpareil marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.
Provenance: A previous owner has added a Greek inscription dated Christmas 1873 in ink on a front fly-leaf; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1828.17; Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), p. 81; Darlow & Moule, 4816. Binding as above, very gently rubbed with a few small scuffs. Light age-toning with one small spot; half-title lacking, frontispiece obviously reattached. Provenance markings as above, a few small marginal pencil or colored pencil markings, mostly at the start of the text. A petite and elegant production in a binding that is, frankly, about as
pristine and classic as you are going to get. (38282)

Embossed Architectural Binding — EXCELLENT Condition
Bible. English. Authorized (i.e., “King James Version”). 1831. The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments: Translated out of the original tongues: and with the former translations diligently compared and revised, by His Majesty's special command. Oxford: Pr. at the University Press by Samuel
Collingwood & Co., 1831. 24mo. [528] ff.
$1150.00
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A lovely gift Bible, presented in the 19th century to one James Henry Newman by five members of his immediate family.
Binding: Contemporary embossed rich cordovan-colored morocco cathedral binding featuring inter alii the Holy Ghost (in Pentacostal dove–form), the Agnus Dei, and stained/leaded glass “windows” both pointed and rosette. Spine additionally with gilt-stamped title; turn-ins with blind-roll design. All edges brightly gilt.
Not in Herbert. Binding as above, in beautiful condition. First front fly-leaf with early inked familial gift inscription (including an explanation of one brother's having opted out of the group present!); second front fly-leaf with inked dedicatory poem. (22266)

NOAH WEBSTER Revises the Language of the BIBLE
for Americans
Bible. English. Webster. 1833. The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, in the common version, with amendments of the language by Noah Webster. New Haven: Durrie & Peck; Sold by Hezekiah Howe & Co., and by N. & J. White, 1833. 8vo (23 cm; 9"). xvi, 907 pp.
$8000.00
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First edition of the Bible in English (Authorized Version) tailored for American readers by Noah Webster (1758–1843). “His purpose was to remove obsolete words and those offensive to delicacy” (Rumball-Petre), Webster himself further stipulating, “To avoid giving offense to any denomination of christian [sic], I have not knowingly made any alteration to the passages of the present version, on which the different denominations rely for the support of their peculiar tenets” (Preface, p. iv). Webster further explains that the purpose of his revisions is to make the language clearer and purer so as to not “divert the mind from the matter to the language of the scriptures, and thus, in a degree, frustrate the purpose of giving instruction” (Preface, p. xvi).
Webster considered his work on the revision of the Bible more important than that on the dictionary and was sorely disappointed at the Bible's poor reception among all levels of readers.
Provenance: 19th-century ownership signatures of Luther P. Hubbard (undated) and R.T. Hall (1894); after ca. 1954 in The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).
Darlow & Moule 1793; Hills 826; Rumball-Petre 197. Publisher's sheep, spine dry and tending to flake; front board once detached and resecured with a cloth tape repair at the hinge (inside). Foxing as usual. Priced to encourage better repair to its binding, this is a complete, sound copy. (33830)

A Very Protestant “Catholic” N.T. — Publisher's Moiré Cloth Binding
Bible. N.T. English. Rheims. 1834. The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Translated out of the Latin Vulgate, diligently compared with the original Greek, and first published by the English college of Rheims, anno 1582. With the original preface, arguments and tables, marginal notes, and annotations. To which are now added an introductory essay and a complete topical and textual index. New York: Jonathan Leavitt, 1834 (copyright 1833). 8vo (23 cm; 9"). [1] f., 458 pp.
$650.00
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First edition of this edition prepared for a Protestant audience; issued without a nihil obstat, it claims to be a faithful reprinting of the 1582 Rheims N.T., but it is most certainly not. As Hills explains, “This is a reprint in modernized spelling of the original edition of the Rheims NT, prepared for Protestants. O'Callaghan (p. 233–236) points out a good many errors in spite of the certificate of six clergymen that 'it is an exact and faithful copy of the original work without abridgment or addition, except that the Latin of a few phrases which were translated by the annotators, and some unimportant expletive words were undesignedly omitted'.”
A vastly anti-Catholic work in its preface and apparatus, it calls itself “a book of reference for all persons who desire to comprehend genuine Popery.”Binding: Publisher's green “contour” moiré cloth over boards with printed paper label on spine.
Hills 881; O'Callaghan 233-36; American Imprints 23377. On binding, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823–50, Moi4. Bound as above; rebacked and most of original spine laid downwith hinges (inside) strengthened. Six-digit number stamped in lower margin of one preliminary page; moderate foxing, mostly in margins. (35413)

“Exhibited in a Manner Hitherto Unattempted” within an
Elegant Gilt-Tooled Binding
Bible. English. 1835. Authorized. The English version of the polyglott Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments; with the marginal readings: together with a copious and original selection of references to parallel and illustrative passages. Philadelphia: Stereotyped by L. Johnson. Published by DeSilver, Thomas, & Co., 1835. 16mo (14.9 cm; 5.875"). Engr. frontis., engr. t.-p., vii, 587, [1] pp., [1] plt., engr. section t.-p., 190 pp.
$175.00
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A gorgeously bound stereotyped 19th-century American Bible bearing the preface “The Harmony & Perfection of the Holy Scriptures” by surgeon Thomas Chevalier (1767–1824); this argues for the importance of using scripture to explain scripture, a practice specially enabled by the central column of references printed on each page of the biblical text.
The engraved title-page's vignette is of Abel's burnt sacrifice, after W. Hamilton, opposite a frontispiece of the destruction of Pharaoh's host, after Loutherbourg; both were engraved by Ellis.
Binding: 19th-century red sheep, spine gilt extra with arabesque design; covers framed in gilt double rules surrounding a rolled gilt design and a blind roll of zig-zags. Board edges and turn-ins with a similar zig-zag design in gilt; deep blue endpapers and all edges gilt.
Provenance: The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).
Bound as above, spine and section of back cover slightly darkened, light rubbing, more at spine tips and joints, a few spots of soiling. Light age-toning and pencilling, booklabel at back.
A nice little Philadelphia Bible in a graceful, refined American binding. (36516)

“Toy” Bible — “Interesting Stories” &
Lots of Pictures
Bible. English. Authorized. Selections. 1841. Little picture Bible; containing interesting stories from the Old and the New Testaments. New Haven: S. Babcock, 1841. 12mo (15 cm, 5.9"). 24 pp.
$175.00
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Picture Bibles use imagery as well as words to impart stories and parables to a juvenile audience. From the series “Babcock's Moral, Instructive and Amusing
Toy Books,” this Little Picture Bible contains a selection of tales appealing to children — Jonah & the Whale, Solomon & the Queen of Sheba, Bread from Heaven, Water from a Rock — illustrated with
13 large octagonal wood engravings by Alexander Anderson, one of America's foremost wood engravers, who signed each image “Anderson” or with his initials. “The engravings illustrating biblical subjects (except no. 15) are from chapbooks published by Babcock between 1831 and 1833 . . .” (Pomeroy)
The wrappers are illustrated on the front with vignettes of children playing various games and on the back with a fancy border framing a publisher's advertisement interesting in itself.
Pomeroy, Alexander Anderson, 1945(a); Carstens, Babcocks, 788. Publisher's pale pink wrappers (now faded) printed in black. Small hole from
natural flaw in lower corner of front wrapper; rear wrapper partially detached; foxing, sometimes heavy, throughout. (31237)

A Trio from the Old Testament — Bengali
Bible. O.T. Job. Bengali. Yates. 1843. The preceptive and devotional books of the Old Testament comprehending Job, the Psalms of David and the writings of Solomon, in Bengálí. Calcutta: Printed at the Baptist Mission Press, 1843. Sm. 4to (25.5 cm; 10.125"). [4], 475–608 pp.
$350.00
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The title-page tells us this was translated “by the Calcutta Baptist missionaries with native assistants” and that it was translated from the Hebrew. The lead translator was William Yates (1792–1845), a Baptist missionary who was first stationed at Serampore where he studied under William Carey and afterwards resided and worked at Calcutta.
Titled in English, the text is in Bengali characters in a double-column format.
Binding: Brown ribbon–embossed cloth, printed paper spine label, all edges speckled red. Bookcloth is Krupp style At2, which
suggests the cloth was exported to India in addition to its use in England and America.
Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locate only one copy in the U.S.. one in Canada, and two in Britain.
Not in Darlow & Moule; nor North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972); on binding cloth, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823–50, p. 50. Bound as above; cloth lightly discolored in a mottled fashion, spine chipped with small loss of cloth and printed label rubbed, one mark on back cover. Gentle age-toning with light foxing on endpapers. (36118)

In One of the
Longest Surviving Classical Languages in the WORLD
Bible. Tamil. 1844. Fabricius-Rhenius. The Holy Bible. In Tamil. Madras: Printed at the American Mission Press for the Madras Auxiliary Bible Society and American Bible Society, 1844. 8vo (22.5 cm; 8.875"). [4], 1104, 388 pp.
$1100.00
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We are told by Darlow and Moule that this is “A new edition of . . . [the Tamil Bible of 1840]; with fresh chapter-headings and dates, translated from the English Bible by M. Winslow.” While Winslow was the translator of these elements, “The Old Testament, [was] translated from the original by J.P. Fabricius; [and] the New Testament by the Rev. C.T.E. Rhenius and revised by the Committee of the Madras Auxiliary Bible Society.”
The first complete translation of the Bible into Tamil appeared in 1727. This is only the second complete Bible in Tamil in one volume.
The English title-page is followed by a title-page in Tamil script; the text of the Bible is
entirely in Tamil script, as is the pagination. The N.T. has a separate title page in English and Tamil.
The translators were a German missionary of the Lutheran faith who was a scholar of the Tamil language (Johann Philipp Fabricius, 1711–791) and a German-born missionary of the Church Mission Society (Charles Theophilus Ewald Rhenius, 1790–1838).
Darlow & Moule 9125; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 1233 (not listing this edition). Publisher's mottled and speckled dark brown calf; joints lightly abraded and the front joint (outside) starting to open in the lower inch-plus. A very good copy. (35478)

The Four Gospels & Acts of the Apostles — in Bengali
Bible. Gospels. Bengali. Yates. 1845. [five lines in Bengali, then] The four Gospels, with the Acts of the Apostles, in Bengali. Calcutta: Pr. at the Baptist Mission Press ... for the Bible Translation Society, 1845. 8vo (19.7 cm; 7.75"). [2], 282 pp.
$250.00
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The Yates translation, probably with the assistance of John Wenger and native converts, here in the seventh edition of 3000 copies. This appeared just as Yates was revising his translation to conform to the standards of the 1844 O.T. Yates (1792–1845) was a Baptist missionary who was first stationed at Serampore where he studied under William Carey; afterwards he resided and worked at Calcutta.
Provenance: Bookplate of the Baptist Missionary Society Mission House Library on front pastedown.
Not in Darlow & Moule; not list in North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972). Publisher's textured olive cloth with paper spine label; spine ever so lightly faded, paper label (remarkably) intact. Marked as above, light pencilling on endpapers.
A very nice copy with a very good provenance. (36117)

First Complete Edition from
“The Father of English
Prose”
Bible. English (Middle English). 1850. Wycliffe. The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, with the apocryphal books, in the earliest English versions made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his followers; edited by the Rev. Josiah Forshall ... and Sir Frederic Madden.... Oxford: at the University Press, 1850. 4to (33.5 cm; 13.25"). 4 vols. I: xliv, 687 pp. II: [2], 888 pp. III: [2], 897 pp. IV: [2], 698, [1], 682b–95b, [2], 700–49, [2] pp.
$5500.00
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First printed edition of the complete Wycliffite version edited over the course of 22 years by Josiah Forshall (1795–1863) and Sir Frederic Madden (1801–73), both Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum during their lifetimes. John Wycliffe (d. 1384) is revered as the first to translate the New Testament into now-recognizable English, though unfortunately his heterodox religious opinions brought his translation into disrepute at the time. His follower Nicholas of Hereford is believed to have later completed the Old Testament and Apocrypha before John Purvey revised the translation and added a prologue. Darlow & Moule note Wycliffe's “homely colloquial style, and Hereford's somewhat awkward literalism, were both softened by Purvey's revision.”
This text includes
both Wycliffite translations printed side by side for easy comparison, and includes the Epistle to the Laodiceans following the Epistle to the Colossians. Also included is a descriptive list of 170 manuscripts containing parts of the Wycliffe translations.
Provenance: The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).
Darlow & Moule 1178; Herbert 1876. Publisher's navy blue cloth (much faded) with printed cream spine labels (chipping); corners and joints worn but hinges strong, one volume with spine cloth and label cracked vertically and another with a triangle of paper torn (but present and laid down) on spine. Ex-library as above: light pencilling on endpapers and title-pages, five digit accession stamp on title-page versos. Uncut with a significant portion unopened, light age-toning with the occasional spot, some foxing.
A very scholarly, substantial study (and production) of Wycliffe's work and that of his disciples. (36696)

Benjamin Fay Mills's
Childhood Bible
Bible. English. Selections. 1858. The hieroglyphick Bible; or select passages in the Old and New Testaments, represented with emblematical figures, for the amusement of youth. New York: Leavitt & Allen, 1858. 12mo (14.2 cm, 5.7"). Frontis. (incl. in pagination), 132 pp.; illus.
$450.00
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Hieroglyphic Bibles were a popular version of the Good Book, designed for children who were in the early stages of learning to read. Here, the Biblical “hieroglyphics” are composed of
nearly 500 wood engravings, combined with words to spell out passages that are given in full verse below each rebus (with the pictured words italicized). This example of the classic children's book is an American reprinting of the edition that Hodgson first published in London in 1783.
Provenance: Front fly-leaf inscribed “Benjamin Fay Mills [/] From Pa & Ma [/] Christmas – 1862.” The New Jersey–born Mills (1857–1916), in his adult life, became a prominent evangelist and socially conscious humanitarian; a Christian Socialist who at various times was an itinerant preacher and lecturer said to have converted hundreds of thousands of hearers over more than a decade, a minister to the First Unitarian Church in Oakland, CA, and the founder and leader of the Los Angeles Fellowship and the Chicago Fellowship. Henry Miller cited Mills's as a life that was “singular and inspiring” to him (Miller, The Books in My Life).
The frontispiece here has been partially colored in and captioned “Garden of EDEN” in a youthful hand, presumably Mills's. Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard; small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Publisher's textured green cloth, front cover framed in blind surrounding decorative gilt-stamped title and book vignette, back cover with same design entirely in blind; rubbed, back cover showing light wear. Inscription as above; frontispiece with caption supplied in contemporary blue; title-page with Mills's childishly pencilled name. Scattered spots of mild foxing; first few leaves (including frontispiece and title-page) with semi-circle of waterstaining in upper margin, touching small section of upper portion of image; one leaf with short tear from outer margin, not extending past frame of page.
Hieroglyphic Bibles are always entertaining examples of juvenile religious instruction, and this one is particularly delightful as likely the first Bible owned by a much-admired American religious leader. (38464)

First Edition in Micmac
Bible. N.T. Acts. Micmac. 1863. Rand. Tan Teladakadidjik Apostalewidjik. [Then in Pitman phonetic alphabet] The Acts of the Apostles. In Micmac. Bath: Pr. for the British & Foreign Bible Society, by Isaac Pitman, 1863. 12mo (16 cm; 6.25"). 140 pp.
$350.00
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First edition of The Acts of the Apostles translated into Micmac, here in Pitman's phonetic alphabet. Isaac Pitman, the inventor of Pitman's shorthand writing system, was an advocate of a universal phonetic alphabet and printed several books of the Bible in Micmac using his alphabet. The translation used was Silas Rand's.
As plain as the binding may be, it has a binder's ticket: “Watkins Binder.”
Banks, p. 94; Pilling, Algonquian, p. 421; Darlow & Moule 6786; Newberry Library, Ayer Collection, Micmac 11; Pilling, Proof-Sheets, 3181g; Evans, Masinahikan, 519; Sabin 67763; Lande S195. Original sprinkled sheep, loss of leather at spine and one area of abrasion on rear board. Otherwise, very clean. (36317)

Civil War–Era Bible
Bible. English. 1865. Authorized (i.e., “King James Version”). The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, translated out of the original tongues; and with the former translations diligently compared and revised. New York: American Bible Society, 1865. Tall 12mo (18 cm; 7"). 765 pp.
$250.00
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“57th edition,” according to the verso of the title-page; multiple issues of the King James version were released by the American Bible Society in 1865. The present, attractively bound example of the Society's “Nonpareil, 12mo” edition includes a separate title-page for the New Testament and four family record pages (unused, in this case).
Binding: Brown blind-embossed calf with ornate strapwork designs surrounding a central cartouche, “blank” areas textured with a wavy pattern like moiré silk; spine with blind rules “forming” spine compartments.
Evidence of readership: A few passages marked with pencilled X'es and a few pages turned in for ready finding (e.g., the 23d psalm; Luke 7, a chapter of miracles; Revelation's description of heaven). Two slips laid into Hebrews citing verses with names following — suggested reading from or for those people? Prayer memos?
Not in Hills. Binding as above, a little rubbed. Blind pressure-stamp of the York County Bible Society and private ownership signature on front free endpaper. Age-toning and some foxing, brown stain in lower margin of last few leaves (i.e., “Contents”).
A rather nice copy made particularly interesting by its signs of use. (34165)

First Published Complete Bible Translation by a WOMAN
The “Julia Smith” Bible
Bible. English. 1876. Smith. The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments; translated literally from the original tongues. Hartford: American Publishing Co., 1876. 8vo (25.5 cm, 10"). [2], 892, 276 pp.
$6500.00
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First and only edition of this interestingly nonconformist translation, done by a vocal suffragist known for protesting the taxation of unenfranchised women. Julia Evelina Smith (1792–1886), one of the five celebrated, talented siblings sometimes referred to as the “Marvelous Smith Sisters of Connecticut,” became a member of the Sandemanian sect after much independent religious study. She chose to have her private labor of love published to serve as a public demonstration of the intellectual capabilities of women, rebuking one dubious banker with the comment that she “thought it just as well to spend money to print this Bible as to put it into a thousand-dollar shawl” (New York Times, 9 March 1886).
Smith endeavored to provide an extremely literal, word-for-word rendition to enhance her and her sisters' understanding of the text. Regarding the rather tangled results, she notes in her preface that “readers of this book may think it strange that I have made such use of the tenses . . . It seems to me that the original Hebrew had no regard to time, and that the Bible speaks for all ages.”
Priding herself as a student of ancient languages particularly on her Hebrew, this translator closely followed the Masoretic text for the O.T. and
consistently used “Jehovah” for the Tetragrammaton.
Herbert 2002; Hills 1918; Rumball-Petre 201; Wright, Early Bibles of America, 234–35. On Smith, see: McHenry, Famous American Women, 383 (under entry for Smith, Abby Hadassah), and Sampson, With Her Own Eyes: The Story of Julia Smith, Her Life, and Her Bible. Publisher's pebbled brown cloth, title and translator's name simply gilt-stamped within blind-stamped panel; recently rebacked and original spine reapplied (spine slightly rumpled), one corner restored, other corners mildly rubbed. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Front pastedown with affixed newspaper clipping on the Smith sisters. One page with short tear from lower edge, not extending into text; pages clean.
A nice copy of a very desirable Bible. (27574)

Marginalia to
the Max, & Other Notes
Bible. O.T. Psalms. Hebrew. 1880. [two lines in Hebrew, then] Liber psalmorum. Textum masoreticum acuratissime expressit ... notis criticis confirmavit S. Baer. Praefatus est edendi operis adjutor Franciscus Delitzsch. Lipsiae: Ex officina Bernhardi Tauchnitz, 1880. 8vo (22.4 cm, 8.8"). [1] f., 82 pp.; manuscript notes bound in.
$1000.00
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This “textum masoreticum” book of psalms, i.e., the traditional Hebrew text, was edited by masoretic scholar Seligman Baer (1825–97) and theologian Franz Delitzsch (1813–90) as part of their Masoretic Bible series, published by Tauchnitz between 1869 and 1895. A truly
unique copy, this particular volume is thickly interleaved with variously sized sheets and tabs containing the fastidious manuscript notes of published author
Walter Robert Betteridge, D.D. (1863–1916), a notable faculty member in the Old Testament Department of the Rochester Theological Seminary who swathed page after page in minute inked marginalia, and added yet more bulk with clippings from related texts — annotated, of course.Among the doctor's publications was an article on “The Accuracy of the Authorized Version of the Old Testament” (1911), including the Hebrew psalms.
Provenance: Donated by Mrs. Betteridge to the seminary library, with institutional bookplate noting this on rear pastedown.
Recent black moiré silk, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Ex-library with bookplate on rear pastedown as above, pressure-stamp on title-page, call number in lower margin of second leaf; paper brittle, dust- or sometimes soot-soiled(?) at edges, and prone to chipping. Replete with scholia, this is
a stunning testament to one scholar's study of the O.T. (31077)

CHIPEWYAN — Language of the Canadian Arctic
Bible. N.T. Chipewyan. Kirkby. 1881. [three lines in syllabic characters, the first two transliterated as] Chi gothi tostomomenti ... [then in English] The New Testament translated into the Chipewyan language by the Archdeacon Kirkby. London: Pr. for the British & Foreign Bible Society, 1881. Small 8vo (19 cm; 6.5"). 396 pp.
[SOLD]
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First edition of the first New Testament in Chipewyan, an Athapascan language that should not be confused with Chippewa, the latter being an Algonquian language. The Chipewyans live in the Canadian Arctic regions around Hudson Bay, including Manitoba and the Northwest Territories, as well as northern parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan. It is printed in the Evans syllabic script with a syllabarium preceding the text.
Darlow and Moule say of printing in Chipewyan to their time: “With the exception of parts of the Book of Common Prayer and some hymns, no other Chipewyan editions have been printed.” That is not exactly true, for a few books of the Bible and the Gospels had also appeared prior to the publication of their monumental Bible bibliography; but the language was (and is) still
not a common one to see.
William West Kirkby (1827–1907) of the Church Missionary Society translated various works into Chipewyan, Wyandot, Slavey, and Cree. He may well have also been the first Anglican missionary to penetrate the American Arctic Circle.
Provenance: Gift inscription from A.D. Keewatin to the Rev. Arthur Henry Gibson on his ordination to the Diaconate in St. Paul's Church, Churchill, Manitoba in 1925.
Darlow & Moule 3021; Newberry Library, Ayer Collection, Chippewa-36 (erring in confusing Chipewyan as synonomous with Chippewa!); Banks (2nd ed.), 21; Evans, Masinahikan, 036; Pilling, Athapascan, p. 47 Not in Pilling, Proof-sheets. Publisher's textured black cloth, very plain. Gift inscription on a piece of paper glued to front fly-leaf; some adhesion of fly-leaf to verso of front free endpaper and an ink spot on closed fore-edges of the textblock. A very good copy. (37095)

Goudy as the Maker of an
Illuminated “Medieval” Manuscript
Bible. Manuscript. O.T. Ecclesiastes. ca. 1903. Manuscript. “Ecclesiastes[,] or the preacher.” No place [Park Ridge, IL; Hingham, MA]: no date [ca. 1903–06]. 8vo (21 x 13 cm; 8.25" x 5.125"). [56] ff.
$25,000.00
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Frederic W. Goudy is famous as a type designer, owner of a press, advocate of good type design in all print media, and an inspiring spirit of the American fine press movement at the beginning of the 20th century. We know that he took some of his own inspiration from the British and American Arts and Crafts movement and its interest in medieval manuscripts.
Virtually unknown is his creation of medieval-inspired manuscripts, indited on parchment, illuminated, hand-colored, illustrated, and then bound appropriately. He created this rendering of Ecclesiastes without providing a colophon but did initial the title-page thus tying its creation to him. The overall style would point to the 1890s.
The first leaf bears a gilt border on the recto but is otherwise blank; this is followed by two blank leaves, then the title-leaf. The recto bears an asymmetrical illuminated and polychromatic four-element border filling the top, inner, and bottom sides. The wording is presented in a modified serif with the “E” of Ecclesiastes done in red on a gold field with some white floral elements, and the “P” of “Preacher” is in red with black hashing. The verso is blank as is the next leaf.
The biblical text begins on 6r and all of the text leaves bear illuminated, polychromatic, and illustrated borders on two of the four sides of the page.
Each border is unique, there are no repeats. The text is enlivened with infills of red, green, and gold, as well as vines and even bowls with flowers. The many human faces that appear in some of the borders may well be those of friends, neighbors, or acquaintances.
The leaf/page construction of the manuscript is this, with a very few exceptions: a leaf of parchment is folded in half and sewn to the binding at the open end, thus leaving inner “pages” blank, as with Asian books. The text of this manuscript, then, is present on the outer surfaces of the folded leaves.
Binding: Dark brown leather with a richly embossed border on the covers that has been gilt over the embossing, and an inner frame offering a central lobed oval with pendants and corner pieces with arabesque designs on a gold ground. Modeled on that “used in the 17th and 18th centuries to produce sharp inlaid medallion designs of the Persian-style binding. The supporting board was hollowed out in the exact shape of the stamp to be used, then the dampened leather was placed over the board. When applied to the leather, the heated stamp molded into the contours of the board and created a deep impression. The gilt patterns were applied to paper, perhaps because paper took the gilding more readily than leather. The paper was then placed between the leather and the stamp, hence becoming sealed to the leather during the stamping process” (Beinecke Library Exhibit “Islamic Books and Bookbinding,” Arabic ms. 166, http://www.library.yale.edu/neareast/exhibitions/Islamic_book2.html ).
Pastedowns of lighter brown leather with inlaid blue leather central lobed oval; pendants and corner pieces with arabesque designs All edges gilt.
Binding as above, spine expertly repaired using the Japanese long-fiber method and then toned. One blank leaf with a cut. Folded edges of two bifolia partially opened.
A beautiful, curious, and sumptuous production; an extraordinary relic of a legend in lettering. (35510)

“And as Jesus Passed by, He Sawe a Man Which Was Blind from HisBirth”
Bible. English. Authorized (i.e., “King James”). 1611 (2008). The Holy Bible, conteyning the Old Testament and the New, newly translated out of the original tongues & with the former translations diligently compared and reuised. Litchfield Park, AZ: Bible Museum, 2008. Folio. Unpaginated.
$1975.00
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A 400th anniversary edition of the King James Bible, being an accurate, complete, full-size facsimile of the “Great He” Bible. This copy is one of 1000 designated “The Subscriber's” version with
two original leaves from the 1611 printing, one from the Old Testament (leaf Fff2, Psalms 88:6 through 90:5) and one from the New (leaf K3, John 8:39 through 9:41). Both leaves are in excellent condition.
(This book is very large and extremely heavy and will require considerable extra shipping charges.)
Bound in full brown leather and in an open-back slipcase. As new. (35166)


Timeless Hours A Manuscript Leaf PSALMS
(Bible). Catholic Church. Book of Hours. Manuscript. Latin. Psalms. Manuscript leaf on vellum. [Paris]: [ca. 1465]. 16mo (122 x 89 mm; 4.8 x 3.5"). [1] f.
$425.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
These lines from Psalm 2, line 4, through Psalm 3, line 5, were copied in a fine gothic hand and decorated by a skilled illuminator with
one two-line initial “D” in blue and 14 single-line initials in alternating blue and gold, with delicate pen infills in red and black flourishing into the spacious margins.
This leaf was once part of a Book of Hours: a prayer book with eight sections corresponding to different times of day, always containing the Hours of the Virgin, as well as a calendar and selection of psalms, but more or less personalized depending on each owner's taste and social class. Illuminated Books of Hours like this signaled the owner's status and “values” at the same time — the more sophisticated the decoration, the more money spent — therefore, the more devout the scribe's patron!
Soft, white vellum, red edges, lightly soiled; tiny nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached from previous sewing, preserving margin except for one lower corner where a bit of vellum was cut away or naturally lacking.
Very charming. (30810)
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