Evidence of Readership: An early user has added a few words and marks to four leaves of text, including the title-page, in ink.

Provenance:  A Grolier Club bookplate noting the book's donation from bibliographer Mr. Leonard L. Mackall appears on each front pastedown in addition to an inked inscription and a few bibliographical notes and cataloging marks in pencil; withdrawal rubber-stamps have been added to bookplates. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear of each volume.

•  Darlow & Moule 4619. Not in Adams.   18th-century sprinkled calf, gilt lettering on spine, covers framed in single blind fillet, board edges and turn-ins with gilt foliate roll, French curl marbled endpapers, green ribbon placemarkers, all edges speckled red; bindings rubbed and crackled with some loss of leather, one volume with front joint (outside) open and back joint starting from foot but covers very solidly attached. Housed in a well-fitted taupe and grey cloth clamshell case with neatly gilt lettered spine. Light age-toning with a scattering of flaws from paper manufacture, a few gatherings with jagged corner tips, and otherwise a remarkably slim array of occasional marginal stains, spots, short tears, or lost corners. Provenance indicia as above. Faults much less noticeable than description suggests; in facta clean, sound, and pleasing little set.  (38665)

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)

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)

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)

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)

•  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)

Binding: 18th-century black morocco, spine gilt with spiky-floral compartment stamps surrounded by frames of rules and dots; covers framed in gilt and blind with roll of scallops, dashes, and fillets and with same spine ornament gilt at corners. Turn-ins with gilt floral roll a little extending onto board edges, double-combed marbled endpapers, all edges gilt.

Provenance:  On front free endpaper, 18th-century inked signature of Charles Mays (or Mayo or Mayor) and 19th-century gift inscription “Charles H. Roberts M.A. from Fred Renshaw(e)”; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  ESTC S90878; Darlow & Moule 4680; STC (rev. ed.) 2798.5; Willems 397.   Bound as above, rubbed, hinges (inside) starting to crack, the whole still attractive and the volume strong; text with the occasional spot, very faint waterstaining through perhaps a third of the text, and top edges closely trimmed touching headers on a few leaves. Provenance indicia as above, later pencilled bibliographical citations on front free endpaper, and “1633" on endpaper in ink. A production both erudite and aesthetically pleasing.  (38430)

•  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)

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; overallvery decent as a text and very attractive on shelf or in hand.  (36974)

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)

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)

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)

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 beenred 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)

Jane Ilive, the printer of this work, worked with her husband Thomas until his death in 1724 and then alone, but probably for a while with the help of her sons Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — all three of whom set up their own shops, Jacob also running a type foundry.

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and ESTC find only ten U.S. libraries reporting ownership of this edition.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  ESTC T178136. This edition not in Freeman, Bibliotheca Fictiva.   20th-century tan calf much resembling sheep, plain style; round spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, no raised bands and gilt rules forming spine “compartments,” several with a gilt center device. Spine, joints, and extremities rubbed, sides with small scuffs; endpapers with pencilled annotations. Pages slightly age-toned, with edges untrimmed; one signature with a narrow band of light waterstaining across bottom of lower margin not reaching print. A fascinating work for a variety of reasons, in a sound and attractive copy.  (39129)

•  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)

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)

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)

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)

•  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)

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)

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)

While this Testament is in Turkish, it is printed in Arabic characters. We must also point out that there are copies reported as ending on page 483 — those copies lack the index and are incomplete.

•  Darlow & Moule 9453; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 1303.   20th-century chocolate brown calf, round spine with raised bands and gilt-stamped black leather title-label. Endpapers and fly-leaves with early pencilled and inked annotations including ownership inscription of M. Wordsworth; preliminary and final leaves foxed with scattered spots internally. Title-page with pencilled English title and (incorrect) date. A very good copy.  (39340)

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 stilla touching “story” and a touchstone American Bible.  (35752)

•  Darlow & Moule 6642; North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 813.   Publsher's sheep, spine with gilt-stamped “Manks Bible” title; abraded and rubbed, joints open but boards holding if handled with care. Inscription as above; title-page verso with pencilled library annotations and rubber-stamped numeral. Pages gently age-toned with scattered small spots of foxing.  (39341)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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, whichsuggests 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)

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)

•  Keynes, Pickering, p. 81; Herbert 1868; NSTC 2W19213. Not in Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering; not in Pickering & Chatto, William Pickering (catalogue 708). On Wycliffe, see: Dictionary of National Biography, LXIII, 202–223.   Quarter black roan in imitation of morocco and marbled paper–covered sides; rubbed with slight loss of leather and paper, corners bowed inward, front board with evidence of one-time crack (well repaired and now solid). Mild to occasional heavy foxing, with most leaves actually quite clean; light age-toning and typical offsetting from print to leaf opposite, throughout; one torn corner. Bookplate and label as above. Good to work with and a pleasure to handle.  (38823)

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)

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 isa stunning testament to one scholar's study of the O.T.  (31077)

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) stillnot 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)

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)

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)