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.)

Single-click either image, for an enlargement.

The Old Testament leaf here is from Isaiah (XXV:9–12, XXVI:1–XXVIII:1) and the N.T. leaf is from I Corinthians (VII:1–VIII:7).

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 was to contain a third original leaf—this, from Franklin's 1745 printing of the Confession of Faith. Unfortunately, that leaf was never tipped into this copy—not present, it yet does not seem to have been removed.

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. Without the slipcase, and without the leaf from Franklin’s printing of the 1745 Confession of Faith; with some spots to covers and one to one leaf.   Notwithstanding, 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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            BIBLIOPHILE,  click here.

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.

Provenance: Front free endpaperswith inscription reading “Mary Miller — Greenwich No. 2 10mo [?] 1st 1837.”

•  Hills 114; Shaw & Shoemaker 5850. Contemporary sheep, abraded, with leather cracking over spines and joints cracked or cracking; spines with gilt-stamped leather title labels. Vol. III lacking first contents leaf; vol. IV lacking front free endpaper and preliminary blank. Occasional spots of foxing and varying degrees of age-toning; some leaves with edge chips.

Provenance: Late-20th-century book label of Michael Zinman on front pastedown.

•  Not in O'Callaghan; not in Darlow & Moule; Shaw & Shoemaker 22372. Treed sheep; flat spine with gilt rules and a black leather title label, gilt-lettered. Lightly rubbed, dry with some cracking. Inside, scattered spots of light browning and some chipping in the margins, the latter not affecting text. In fact, a nice copy. (4710)