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).

Provenance:  Signature of a contemporary owner “A. Thorpe, York,” undated, on A2.

•  STC 2900; Darlow & Moule 265; Herbert 265; ESTC S115769.   Modern black calf, covers framed with single gilt rule and paneled in gilt rolls with corner fleurons. Title-page mounted, with outer edge and small hole in lower margin reinforced; dust-soiled. A2 with early inked ownership signature (see above) and notation; reinforced at hinge (inside). Other markings: two pages with marginal notations and four pages with corrections, both inked by an early hand. Bug-spotting on several preliminary leaves. Light waterstaining on some early and later leaves, with occasional odd stains and spots elsewhere, not impairing sense of text. Dust-soiling on index pages. Two preliminary leaves missing small pieces of paper in blank margins; small hole at top outer corner of Kkkk4; and small chip at top edge of Hhhh2. Fold-mark at top outer corner of Vvv2. In fact, a very nice copy of an important book.  (24477)

Elias Hutter (1553–1609) was an orientalist and professor of Hebrew at Leipzig. The text here is drawn from his famous and sought after polyglot New Testament in 12 languages (Nuremberg, 1599), and so shares in the censure Hutter received for there translating and inserting "in some versions missing passages which he found in others" (Darlow and Moule)—but, he was open about that. The present work was apparently for devout students of Hebrew, both to further their knowledge of that language and to give them comparative texts for study and meditation on the week’s lessons. Polyglot lectionaries are not common, and this is the only polyglot lectionary of the epistles and gospels listed by NUC Pre-1956 before the 19th century.

•  Not in Darlow & Moule, but see 1430, 1431, 1432, 1433, and 1434 for Hutter’s polyglot New Testament in 12 languages, and his St. Matthew’s Gospel, St. Mark’s Gospel, polyglot Psalter, and polyglot New Testament in four languages. Sheep, spine simply gilt with a red leather title label; leather rubbed and abraded, front joint opening. Pages with some instances of light waterstaining or browning. All edges red.

One of the foundational works in any collection of Bibles and Testaments.

•  Darlow & Moule 134 & 231; ESTC S101944 & S102491; Rumball-Petre, Rare Bibles,15 & 22; STC (rev. ed.) 2207.   Early 20th-century quarter calf and tan paper–covered sides, spines with raised bands and gilt-stamped title, date, and volume number (bindings signed by Gerlach); all volumes in plain blue paper jackets, the set now housed in a recent case of quarter crimson morocco, cloth-covered sides, and marbled paper top/bottom. Spines with gilt-stamped title and publication information; extremities rubbed, joints starting with leather cracking, vol. II with small crack in leather at foot of spine. O.T. title-page with early inked inscription largely effaced (small hole resulting); N.T. title-page with small inked date. Portion of O.T. vol. II with upper outer corners lightly waterstained, one lower outer corner torn away; last two index leaves of N.T. with tears from upper margin, carefully repaired, affecting a handful of letters without obscuring sense; one page of N.T. with small early inked annotation. Generally, light to moderate age-toning only, intermittent light spots of foxing, some page edges darkened. A good, usable, and enjoyable set, well housed.  (27522)

•  Disbound. Inner edge with small nicks; very unobtrusive creasing to lower corners (from the original press run?); otherwise in beautiful condition.  (25835)

The volume opens with two fly-leaves bearing genealogical records in several different early inked hands, with dates ranging from 1743 through 1847. A copy of Speed's Genealogies precedes the Old Testament, while the “Description of Canaan” with map that should close the Genealogies has been bound in after the O.T. title-page.

•  ESTC S122379; Darlow & Moule 359; STC (2nd ed.) 2298.5. Speed: ESTC S126191; STC (2nd ed.) 23039a.4. Psalms: ESTC S122383; STC (2nd ed.) 2633.   Recent mottled calf, covers fillet-framed and panelled in blind with decorative inner blind roll and blind-tooled corner fleurons; spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-ruled raised bands. Front cover with two slender scrapes; title-page with date altered in ink to 1633, as above. Front fly-leaves with margins repaired; “Description of Canaan” with inner margin reinforced. Bible, seven preliminary leaves lacking (calendar, dedication, preface, and list of books all present); Psalms, four final index leaves (only) lacking; foliation slightly erratic. Varying degrees of age-toning, occasional light waterstaining, some margins with faint smudging; in fact and in suma nice volume to hold and work with.  (26102)

The title-page bears Cramoisy's printer's device, inherited from his grandfather Sébastien Nivelle: two storks with the motto “Honora patrem tuum et matrem tuam ut sis longaevus super terram.” The work is also decorated with four very large, foliated Hebrew initials

Provenance: First dedication page with inked inscription of Dr. Henry Power (ca. 1626–68), a physician and natural philosopher who became one of the first elected fellows of the Royal Society. The title-page bears an inked inscription reading “S. Pepys” (lined through), but a tipped-in manuscript letter signed by Derek Pepys Whiteley, curator of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, notes that the handwriting is “quite unlike examples of [the diarist's] signature.”

•  Steinschneider, Catalogus hebraeorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, 459b. Not in Darlow & Moule. On Power, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Later calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather label and gilt-ruled raised bands, board edges with gilt roll, rebacked preserving original spine; corners and joints refurbished, edges rubbed. Hinges (inside) unobtrusively reinforced. Back pastedown with institutional bookplate almost entirely obscuring early inked inscription. Title-page with early inscriptions at head and foot mostly trimmed away, also with inscription as above; dedication page with inscription as above. Pages age-toned; first few leaves with staining and minor chipping in lower portions. A very few early pencilled and inked marginalia in both Latin and Hebrew; one instance of inked underlining.  (25937)

Diodati (1576–1649), a Protestant theologian, in 1609 succeeded Theodore Beza as professor of theology at Geneva, and in fact was Beza's choice for his successor. He is best remembered today as the first to translate the Bible into Italian from Hebrew and Greek sources.

This is the first stand-alone printing of the Psalms in Hebrew in England, published around the same time as the London (i.e., “Walton”) Polyglot.

•  ESTC R210526; Wing (rev.) B2742C; Cowley, Hebrew Printed Books in the Bodleian Library, 92. Not in Darlow & Moule, not in Herbert, not in Rumball-Petre. On Robertson, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent quarter calf and mottled paper–covered sides; spine with gilt-stamped and gilt-ruled title, gilt-dotted raised bands, and blind-tooled compartment decorations; leather edges tooled in blind. Title-page with edges chipped, touching lower outer portion of publication information; first and last few leaves also with edges chipped, and slight darkening.  (25358)

The text is Daniel 12:3 (being the end of Daniel's apocalyptic vision of the end days) though Hosea 1–3:5 (with its promises/foretelling of Israel's destruction). It is printed in roman brevier type, in double-column format, with generally 62 lines per column. It took 139 and a half weeks to set the type and print the Bible.

The Bible was a monumental undertaking and achievement in its day and it remains an American monument today.

•  Evans 73; Wing (rev. ed.) B2755; ESTC W38287; Darlow & Moule 6737; Pilling, Algonquian, 139–152; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 1175–77; Winship, Cambridge Press, pp. 208–44.   Removed, inner margin slightly irregular; edges chipped (never approaching text) and light soiling. Definitely, a treasure.  (26071)

Incontestably, the culmination of his studies was this volume, still a standard in the field. Having his own printing press, and cutting the Syriac types himself, certainly ensured his total control over the production.

•  Darlow & Moule 8966.   Contemporary plain vellum over paste boards. Ex-libarary with call number on spine, one small numerical stamp in a lower margin, acquisition information in a gutter margin, and a (touching!) typed note about the purchase of the volume tipped-in among the preliminary leaves. Without the added engraved title-page. Old private bookplates and ownership inscriptions of the 18th and 19th centuries; rubber-stamp on the lower edge of the closed volume. A very good copy.  (23163)

This edition is printed in two unruled columns with shouldernotes, sidenotes (including dates), and italic headers. Acts 6:3 wrongly reads “ye may” for “we may.” Tables of kindred and affinity, weights and measures, money, and time are found on the last two pages. The New Testament sectional title has a woodcut vignette showing the arms of the University.

Binding: 19th-century black calf, elaborately tooled in blind in imaginative evocation of an “over the top” 17th-century binding, being horizontally, vertically, and diagonally ruled, foliate and floral devices within. Spine compartments tooled within, with gilt title in second one and gilt “Barker 1637” gilt at base. Red marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.

Provenance: 20th-century bookplate of C. ( or J.?) F. Weidmann, D.D. on front pastedown.

•  Herbert 757; Darlow & Moule 595; Wing (rev.) 2315; Loftie, A Century of Bibles, 354; ESTC R213033. (The title-page is from ESTC S90540 or S90541.) Binding as above, a little rubbed, and refurbished. Occasional light browning, soiling, and shallow bumping or chipping (not touching text). Lacking engraved title (replaced with title and preliminary leaf from another edition). A bibliophile’s delight, and warning.