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)

We offer a copy of the last of those variants — the decidedly rare Signers’ Edition. Bound in full morocco, it contains two original Bible leaves, one from the Old and one from the New Testament.  (The “Colonial Edition” contains only one leaf, from the Old Testament, and it was bound in quarter leather.)

Found only here in the Signers’ Edition are a facsimile of Aitken's printing of the Declaration of Independence and a special frontispiece that presents facsimiles of all of the signatures of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Not content merely to double the ordinary offering of Aitken Bible leaves, the Signers' Edition added a special insert on Benjamin Franklin that contains a third original leaf — this from Franklin's 1745 printing of the Confession of Faith — being, in this copy, the start of ch. XXVIII, “On Baptism.”

Found only here in the Signers' Edition, in addition to the standard (and handsome) facsimile of a 3-page letter from George Washington, are a facsimile of Aitken's printing of the Declaration of Independence and a special frontispiece that presents facsimiles of all of the signatures of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

All editions of this fine leaf book end with Edwin Grabhorn’s still-notable essay on typography in America at the time of the Revolution.

•  Full crushed morocco, some spots to covers and without the slipcase; clean, and quite a good copy.

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 only) open. 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. First two leaves, i.e., main title-page and preface supplied in facsimile; the New Testament title-page is present.

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Provenance:  Old inked inscription of John Ebersole, dated 1793, on front free endpaper; later pencilled signatures of Anna Ebersole and another person to pastedown.

•  Evans 9602; Hildeburn, Pennsylvania, 2045; Arndt & Eck, First Century of German Language Printing in the U.S., 296; ESTC W20981.   Contemporary calf with one clasp working and a remnant of the other; moderate rubbing to covers, leather on spine showing flex marks from the tight-back binding. Later spine labels. Faint library pressure-stamp on title-page; signatures as above. Age-toning and some staining; in fact the paper in cleaner condition than is often seen.  (25959)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The volume opens with a woodcut portrait of Martin Luther which according to Hamilton (cited in Reilly [see below]) “might have been made by Justu Fox who was working in Philadelphia at this time.”

•  Evans 11714; Hildeburn, Pennsylvania, 2561; ESTC W21005; Warrington, History and Practice of Psalmody in the United States, p. 39; Reilly, Dictionary of American Printers' Ornaments & Illustrations, 1577.   Contemporary sheep, rebacked some time ago, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-, place, “Chris. Saur,” and date labels; rubbed in the ordinary degree and with remnants of clasps. Back free endpaper lacking; pastedowns and blanks with old inked and pencilled signatures and writing practice(?) — which we do not make out much of, beyond “Johann(es).” Three leaves each with closed tear from outer margin extending into text; three index leaves with tattered outer edges, one with loss of lower outer portion; small section of pages with odd little dent to outer edge; last leaf present (and that leaf only) with a couple of pin-type wormholes; final leaf lacking. Pages age-toned, with moderate spotting and staining. Priced according to its described “issues,” not according to its considerable charm on shelf and in hand.  (25105)

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/spine and cracking over joints and spine. Title-page and contents inscribed as described above; endpapers waterstained, and pages with light spots of foxing. Paper in many sections faintly blue.

•  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)

In an attempt to promote the idea of changing the country's name from the United States of America to the United States of Columbia, Thomas used the latter nomenclature on all issues of his proudly local, non-imported production.

ESTC and OCLC locate only eight institutional holdings, all in the U.S.

•  ESTC W4503; Evans 36955; Hills 72; O'Callaghan 55 (for 1799 ed.).   Period-style calf, framed and panelled in blind rolls, spine with gilt-stamped title and publication information and gilt-ruled raised bands, turn-ins blind-tooled. Two pages of Jeremiah (not consecutive) lacking. Pages age-toned with moderate staining; first and last few leaves with edge nicks, chips, and short tears; a few leaves creased; one leaf with lower margin chipped, resulting in loss of about four words. Some corners bumped or dog-eared.  (26121)

On 4 July 1776 only two signatures were affixed to the unanimously adopted Declaration of Independence — those of John Hancock, president of the Congress, and Charles Thomson, secretary, in order to authenticate the document that had been voted on and approved. Yet by a curious twist of fate (read rather, surely, of a political enemy's knife), when the calligraphic copy that is so well known to every school child was ready shortly after 19 July, authenticator Thomson was not invited to sign it!

When he had retired from public life in 1789, Thomson was to turn his interest in the Bible and Greek to the 20-year task of producing this monumentally important work.

Its printer was the daughter of Robert Aitken, who had printed the first Bible in English in America. A major edition of the English Bible, this is essential for any Bible collection, not just for collections of American Bibles — though as an American Bible and simple Americanum it has a revered place.