The Psalter is a book containing the 150 psalms, i.e., lyrical prayers for every occasion recited both at church and at home.

•  Soft, white vellum kept safe in a cardboard and mylar folder; teeny nicks (as usual) on one edge of the leaf where it was sometime detached from previous sewing, preserving margin. Fine condition.  (30219)

Provenance: 17th-century spine label with initials “S.F.” and a tree design between them. Ownership signature of Gordon Duff; Yale University (bookplate) — deaccessioned.

•  Edition: Moreau, II, 930; Shaaber, British Authors Printed Abroad, P57; not in Darlow & Moule. Binding: Fogelmark, Flemish and Related Panel-Stamped Bindings, plate XXXII R.46 & pp. 48–49.  Volume rebacked and much of old spine reapplied; lacks title-leaf and last leaf torn across corner with loss replaced of old, colophon partly supplied in manuscript.  Highlights to initials as above; occasional early underlining or another mark and a later pencilled note on last leaf. Missing leaf and torn second one notwithstanding (though they do lower the price), this isa very nice copy in a notable early binding.

•  Binding as above, with light rubbing overall and significant rubbing to spine and corners; spine pulled at top and bottom and joints (outside) rubbed, with rear lower joint starting and with remnant of old inked shelf location to one band. Occasional faint smudges; pages mostly remarkably clean.A handsome and studyable thing.  (27372)

The typography is exquisite and Hervagius has enhanced the presentation on the page with attractive decorative headpieces, including one that spans the page and depicts a group of six peasants dancing to the tune of a man playing a flute or “pipe.”

Binding:  16th-century calf over wood boards, covers elaborately tooled to produce an interesting embossed binding of concentric panels: Used are a single fillet (repeatedly, usually in triplets) and a roll featuring urns, flowers, and putti.

Provenance:  Late-17th- / early-18th-century ownership signature of “Pet. Wedderburn; 18th-century bookplate of Lord Eliock; later pencilled signature of “[?].T. Coleridge” (not Samuel Taylor Coleridge; possibly, however, Justice John Coleridge). At back, “Ex dono D. Al: Brown, M.D.” and another ownership inscription entirely in Greek.

•  Darlow & Moule 4614; Dibdin (4th ed.), An Introduction to...Greek and Latin Classics, 86; Rumball-Petre, Rare Bibles, 224; VD16 B2576; Adams B978.   Bound as above; rebacked and edges and corners renewed, with remains of brass clasps. Endpaper reattached. Title-page cut down and mounted. There are a very few instances of old marginalia. A very clean, handsome copy.  (2416)

The Latin text here is printed in roman and italic with occasional Hebrew and sparse sidenotes, and decorated with woodcut ornaments and large initials in the prefatory matter and smaller woodcut initials throughout the text. The title-page features thelarge printer's device of Eustache Vignon (fl. 1571–89), son-in-law and successor of Jean Crespin who first published the book at the same shop in Geneva in 1559.

•  Adams C-306; IA 130.185.   19th-century half calf over handsome marbled paper boards, gilt title to red morocco lettering piece, blue speckled edges; front joint starting, back joint cracked, extremities rubbed with some loss to leather at corners and top of spine. Ex-library: bookplate on front pastedown, old-fashioned sticker with shelfmark at base of spine, old pencilling. Waterstained with pinhole worming in text, especially title-page, first 40 and last ten leaves, with minor foxing worsening at end; two small corners torn away and one hole from a natural paper flaw; last leaf mounted. Sparse underlining and two marginal annotations in early ink, and canceled ownership inscription on title-page. Despite its imperfections, desirable for being one of Calvin's rarer works.  (30396)

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)

The O.T. is in five parts here, the first and last having their own registers and pagination; each testament's title-page bears a large, nicely executed version of the printer's device (stolen from the Estienne family). The text is dotted with woodcut initials and accented with head- and tailpieces; the main body of the text is printed in double-column format surrounded by notes.

•  Darlow & Moule 6192 (note).   19th-century acid-stained calf, raised bands, each volume with one red and one dark blue spine label, Apocrypha bound in after N.T. at end of vol. II; some scuffing or light abrasions. Extensive 19th-century commentary in ink on pastedowns and some fly-leaves; one manuscript note (and a pasted-in old bookseller’s description) on cut down and mounted title-page of vol. I; a very few other notes (“not in Syriac”). Ex-library with bookplates but no stamps; first volume's first foliation with slender worming into text from lower margin on ff. 16–29; age-toning, foxing, and some medium-sized brown stainings generally. A solid and acceptable copy of a less than common edition of this important translation that was Milton's favorite Latin version of the Bible.  (30347)

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)

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.

Provenance:  Ownership signature of Albemarle Bertie, 9th Earl of Lindsey, the British general and member, briefly, of Parliament for Stamford, 1744–1818 (front fly-leaf verso); and his armorial bookplate (front pastedown). Another bookplate, small and circular (front pastedown, top), has the initials “M.A.H.” beneath a crown, likely for the M.A. Huntley who signed the front fly-leaf in ink. Presentation inscription signed Rev. [???] Edmunds “to his much valued & esteemed friend M.A. Pegus,” March 14, 1840.

The coat of arms forBertie County, North Carolina, incorporates the same shield, helm, and crest, as the arms of our Albemarle Bertie, whose relatives James and Henry Bertie acquired that land from the original Lord Proprietors before 1729.

This Bible isscarce: Just two copies were found in U.S. libraries via WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956.

•  Wing B2237; Herbert 631; ESTC R229989 (bound with Sternhold & Hopkins' Book of Psalms); L. Wilson, Bibles . . . in English, I, 183. Not in Darlow & Moule. On Bertie County, see: “James & Henry Bertie, Namesakes of the County,” in The Bertie Historical Association, vol. II, no. 2 (Oct. 1954).   Binding as above; leather darkened more or less evenly all over to a rich russet, lightly worn along the front joint with an old inch-long repair at the top, board corners lightly bumped, front supra-libros rubbed from use, at the spot, imaginably, where Bertie put his thumb. One small tear to a later leaf, the very lower outer corners of a few leaves torn away to no adverse effect, and a minute chip to the edge of the title-page; text remarkably clean with instances of off-setting from the hand-coloring the only “stains.”  (30139)

This edition includes the Scholia, with a separate title-page (“In Sacra Biblia Graeca ex versione LXX. interpretum Scholia; simul et interpretum cæterorum lectiones variantes”); the Old Testament is printed in double-column format, and the title-page in red and black.

•  Darlow & Moule 4692; ESTC R210989; Wing B2718; Bowes, Catalogue of Cambridge Books, 266; Rumball-Petre 254.   Contemporary speckled calf, covers framed in triple blind fillets, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label (chipped) and blind-tooled ray decorations in head and foot compartments; sides with small scuffs and patches of mild to moderate discoloration, leather chipped at head of spine and nicked at lower front edge, spine leather showing thin cracks. Pastedowns and front free endpaper lacking, back free endpaper and fly-leaves partially excised. Pages trimmed very closely, in a few cases touching headers or first or last letters. Title-page with early inked ownership inscription, lined through. Occasional small ink spots, touching but virtually never obscuring letters; one leaf with three words corrected in an early inked hand; scattered instances of early underlining in colored pencil. Mild age-toning. A landmark of Bible printing in England.  (30034)

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)

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf with inked inscription: “These volumes were the property of the Rev. Francis Wayland, D.D., President of Brown University. They are presented to the Bucknell Library [of Crozer Theological Seminary] by Henry G. Weston. June 14, 1900.” The Rev. Weston was the first president of Crozer.

•  Darlow & Moule 4736.   Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped green leather title and volume labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Title-pages, several others, and lower (closed) page edges institutionally rubber-stamped; title-pages with Wayland's pencilled inscription in upper margin; first text pages each with inked numeral in lower margin. Mild foxing and occasional small stains; last half of vol. II with waterstaining, significant to the eye but not impairing reading; one leaf with short tear from outer margin, touching text without loss. One inked annotation in Greek, a few other small pencilled annotations. Pagination erratic, text complete and uninterrupted. A sound, pleasant, evocative set.  (27246)

An important example of 18th-century fine printing of the Bible

The quarto edition was limited to 500 copies.

Binding:  Contemporary red morocco: Covers bordered with triple-fillet rule and round spine with five raised bands, resulting six spine compartments each with a triple-fillet gilt frame; five compartments each with gilt center device and the sixth with title in gilt. Board edges with gilt double-rule, gilt dentelles on turn-ins, marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.

•  Gaskell (enlarged ed.) Add. 1; Darlow & Moule 4755.   Binding as above; front cover with 1.5" scar to front over (from a burn?), otherwise light rubbing only. A clean copy inside with a few pairs of facing leaves showing a narrow and rather odd band of soiling across their top margins; otherwise, only the quite occasional spot or old smudge. A handsome copy.  (29610)

The poetic Song of Solomon is here interpreted and typeset as a drama, with, as full-fledged characters, the Bridegroom, the Spouse, and choruses of Virgins and Companions; Percy's introduction and notes explain that choice and, otherwise, deal largely with the background of Jewish marriage ceremonies.

The title-page is printed in red and black, with the author supplied in old ink. Dodsley has supplied a light scattering of ornaments, including a rather charming mini-manicule that introduces the most significant notes.

•  See: Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, II, 242; not in: Darlow & Moule. On Percy, who later became one of the king's chaplains-in-ordinary, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   19th-century half calf over gray marbled boards, spine gilt-ruled with red label, speckled edges; joints and board edges rubbed and faded, leather cracking along spine. Lacking the first leaf (half-title?). Offsetting from binding to endpapers, mild foxing throughout, a copy sound and pleasant.  (30122)

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)

This edition ends with leaf 6M4 and does not match Darlow and Moule 957 (Edinburgh: M. & C. Kerr, 1793), described as a folio with text ending on 9R2, although that entry's statement that “The insertion of the Apocrypha interrupts the signatures” would seem to explain the absence of the non-integral Apocrypha; the accompanying Scotch Metrical Psalms of 1795 are also present in Darlow and Moule's listing. Herbert finds additional Kerr printings of 1793, but none that match the format and collation of this copy.

Scarce: ESTC, OCLC, and NUC Pre-1956 find only two U.S. holdings.

Provenance: The beautifully written ownership note, “Rebecca Jane Emack,” at top of first text leaf.

•  ESTC T91818; this ed. not in Darlow & Moule or Herbert.   Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped thistle decorations, leather edges tooled in blind. Upper portion of title-page neatly excised and probably something off the bottom also; early inked ownership inscription as above. Light staining and foxing; several instances of laid-in dried plant matter.  (25336)

Each volume closes with extensive Notes; the last leaf of vol. I offers a list of other works by this author for sale from the same publisher; and the last page of the second volume has an affixed errata slip. The notes are quite direct and personal, with Wakefield remarking, e.g., on what effect or variety of accuracy he is trying to achieve; what the knot of difficulty at a particular point actually is, for the translator; and whose “excellent” reading he is following (and how the chosen version from the Coptic differs from the Syriac or AEthiopic). He expresses surprise that an “obvious construction” has “escaped the critics” so “remarkabl[y]” long as it has, and in another case confesses that he is “quite at a loss” as to how one clause is supposed to connect with another — definitely, he's a scholar who yetlives in his pages.

Provenance:  Armorial bookplates of Justinian Minoch laid in.

•  ESTC T93093; Darlow & Moule 933 (see note); Herbert 1362. On Wakefield, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent quarter black morocco and stone pattern marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges tooled in blind; spines with gilt-stamped title, volume number, place/date, and compartment decorations. Bookplates laid in as above. Half-titles and title-pages with handsome old institutional pressure-stamp; each first text page with inked numeral. Intermittent light foxing, pages otherwise clean. An engaging pair of books in all respects.  (25784)

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)