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— BIBLES —
ORDERED BY DATE

Very EARLY Attempt at a
Stereotyped Book
Bible. N.T. Syriac. 1717. [one line in Syriac, then] Novum Domini nostri Jesu Christi Testamentum Syriacum, cum versione Latina. Lugduni Batavorum: Apud typis Joh: Mulleri, Joh: Fil:; Vid: & fil: Cornelium Boutesteyn, & Samuelem Luchtmans, 1717. 4to (23.5 cm; 9.125"). [5] ff., 749, [1 (blank)] pp.
$1500.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
A major work in the history of printing and an important edition of the New Testament in Syriac. Its significance in the history of printing is that this second, 1717 edition of the Syriac New Testament was printed from an early version of stereotype plates developed by Muller during the first decades of the 18th century.
The “Secunda editio, a mendis purgata” on the title-page refers to corrections made in the 1717 edition of errors found in the 1708 edition. The line “cura et studio Johannis Leusden et Caroli Schaaf. Editum ad omnes editiones diligenter recensitum; & variis lectionibus, magno labore collectis, adornatum” tells the readers that Leusden (1624–99) and Schaaf (1646–1729), two of the leading scholars of Syriac in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, made this the edition one they can rely upon.
The editors did not see eye to eye on the matter of pointing, and up through Luke 17.26 Leusden's preference (based on the Chaldean system) was used — after which Schaarf began using the system favored by the Walton Polyglott — Leusden having died at that editorial point in the project!
Title in Syriac at head of title-page, which page is printed in red and black and has an engraved printer's device. There are woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials in the text, which is printed with the Syriac text in parallel columns with a Latin translation, in double-column format.
A handsome production.
Kubler, A New History of Stereotyping, pp. 39–41. Darlow & Moule 8969. Recent full brown calf, old style by Grace Bindings: raised bands, gilt ruling above and below the bands as accents, gilt center devices in spine compartments. Covers with concentric compartments accomplished using rules, rolls, and corner devices. Private presentation inscription to an Episcopal diocesan library on reverse of last leaf, with no other markings at all; a clean, satisfactory copy. (23054)
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LANGUAGES, ETC., click here.
Bible. N.T. Gospels. Gothic. Ulfilas. 1750. Sacrorum evangeliorum versio gothica ex codice argenteo emendata atque suppleta, cum interpretatione
latina & annotationibus Erici Benzelii .... Oxonii: E typographeo Clarendoniano, 1750. 4to (28.7 cm, 11.25"). lxvii, [1], 382, [2] pp.
$2000.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Sole edition: Ulfilas’s 4th-century Gothic translation of the Gospels, here printed with a Latin translation and commentary done by Erik Benzelius, Archbishop of Uppsala, the whole edited and with
a Gothic grammar by Edward Lye. Ulfilas (ca. 310–88 a.d.), an Arian bishop also known as Ulfila or Wulfila, is credited with the creation of the Gothic alphabet as well as the conversion of large numbers of Goths to Christianity. His translation of the Bible into Gothic survives in several fragments, including the Codex Argenteus, from which Benzelius made his translation.
This is a
large paper copy, in a very handsome period-style binding. The printing, as might be expected of Oxford’s Clarendon Press in this era, is elegant; good type is quite beautifully laid on the pages.
Brunet, II, 1119; Darlow & Moule 4560. Recent period-style full morocco, framed and panelled in blind rolls with blind-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments (signed by Grace Bindings in blind at inner area of rear cover, lower turn-in). Lower margin of title-page with a defunct library’s old presentation rubber-stamp. A few instances of light foxing, most pages clean and the margins beautifully wide.
Bible. O.T. Gaelic. 1776. Macfarlane. Sailm Dhaibhidh ann dan Gaoidhealach do reir na Heabhra, agus an eidir-theangachaidh a’s fearr ann Laidin, ann Gaoidheilg ‘s ann Gaillbhearla.... Glas-gho [Glasgow]: Clodh-bhuailt’ agus r’an Reic le Ann[a Orr, 1776]. 12mo (13.5 cm, 5.3"). 352, 67, [1 (blank)] pp.
$975.00
Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
Early edition of Alexander Macfarlane’s Scots Gaelic translation of the Psalter, originally published in 1753 and here printed by a woman (Anna Orr). Macfarlane’s translation was partially based on that of the Synod of Argyle, the first done in Gaelic, but that earlier version originally contained only the first 50 psalms. The present issue includes Laoidhe eidir-theangaicht’ agus eidir-mhinicht’ o chuimh-reannaibh eagsamhail do’n Scrioptur naomhtha (i.e., Scripture songs), with a separate title-page.
Rare edition. ESTC locates only the copy at the National Library of Scotland.
ESTC T200528; not in Darlow & Moule. Period-style modern calf, framed and panelled in blind, with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped decorations within compartments. Title-page with lower corner repaired, with loss of letters from imprint. Pages browned and with occasional staining; some corners dog-eared. Lower corner of one leaf (Psalm 118) torn away, with loss of a few letters.
THE
WHOLE BIBLE IN
Over
800
Beautiful Pictures
ENTIRELY ENGRAVED
Bible. German. Selections. 1787. Biblia ectypa. Bildnussen auss Heilige Schrifft dess Alt-und Neuen Testaments...von Christoph Weigel. Augsburg, 1787. Folio. Unpaginated, unfolioed: title-page, 100 ff.; sectional title-page, 78 ff.; sectional title-page, 37 ff.
$4850.00

CHRISTOPH WEIGEL was the artist who executed this monumental work, being an entirely engraved pictorial Bible illustrating hundreds of famous stories the creation of Heaven and Earth, the temptation of Eve, Jacob's ladder, and so on), with other suitable images luxuriously added as well (Mark with his lion, Paul composing his letter to the Ephesians, etc). Above each image is its chapter source and a short descriptive Latin caption (e.g.,
"Scala coeletis a dormiente Iacovo visa"); engraved below it is a longer quotation from the German Bible. In total, Weigel's volume contains three engraved title-pages and 839 engraved illustrations: 11 are full-page, 12 are one-third-page, 816 are one-quarter-page, all are extremely well done.
This
is not what one typically thinks of, as an "illustrated Bible"; that is, it is not "embellished text" it is, rather, the whole Bible IN pictures.
The book first appeared in the late 17th century, and while it may well have been reprinted more than once, neither NUC nor RLIN shows any edition other than one of 1695. Moreover, apparently the 1695 copy that appears in both those bibliographical sources is the same incomplete one.
This magnificent collection of engravings is clearly rare.


Contemporary boards, covered in a stone-pattern paper in tones of brown and black; one joint repaired. Boards bumped and abraded, especially along edges and with loss of paper at corners. Internally a good copy with relatively light foxing and only occasional stains, virtually all in margins: Weigel's images are remarkably clean.
A joy and a wonder.
To see additional PICTURES, you can click here.
Bible. O.T. Psalms. English. 1805. Merrick. A version of the Psalms ... formed into stanzas, and divided into short portions, for the use of the Church ... the seventh edition. London: Pr. by C. Rickaby for Messrs. Rivingtons; Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme; Leigh & Sotheby; et al., 1805. 12mo (18.3 cm, 7.2"). [4], 389, [1 (blank)] pp.
$275.00
Seventh edition of the William Dechair Tattersall’s revision. Originally printed in 1765, James Merrick’s rhymed English translations were described by one contemporary review (quoted by Allibone) as “too poetical for ordinary public worship, but . . . highly gratifying for private use to persons of cultivated taste.” The popular work went through a number of editions and issues; in the present rendition, the paraphrases appear “formed into stanzas, and divided into short portions” by the Rev. Tattersall.
Binding: Contemporary red straight-grain morocco, covers framed in gilt single fillet, spine with gilt-stamped title. All edges gilt.
NSTC B2162; Lowndes, Bibliographer’s Manual, 2002 (for 1798 Tattersall ed.); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature, 1269 (likewise). Binding as above, spine and outer edge of front cover darkened, joints and edges with moderate shelf wear. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate and donor bookplate; front free endpaper reverse with inked ownership inscription and pencilled inscription dated 1814; title-page with small inked initials in upper outer corner. Light foxing. In fact quite nice.
Bible.
N.T. French. 1810. Le Maistre. Le Nouveau Testament de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ, en Français, sur la Vulgate. Boston: J.T. Buckingham, 1810. 8vo (21.6 cm, 8.5"). 2 vols. in 1. 403, [1], 326, [2] pp.
$1000.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Prepared for use among French Canadians and French émigrés in the U.S., this is the first printing in America of a complete Testament, either Old or New, in French. It is a scarce work and is considered one of the dozen Bibles forming the foundation of any collection of American Bibles. The translation is a standard one that first appeared in 1667, although it was shortly thereafter (in 1669) condemned by Clement IX as Jansenist and placed on the Index. “L.M. de Sacy” is the nom de plume of Isaac (“Sacy” being an anagram) de Le Maistre, a reformer of Port-Royal.
Shaw & Shoemaker 19531; O’Callaghan 102; Rumball-Petre, Rare Bibles, 185. Contemporary sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding scuffed and rubbed, spine extremities chipped. Front free endpaper excised; half-title with old ink stain partially obscuring two letters of “Nouveau.” Foxed throughout; some corners bumped. One leaf with two tears through text, without loss; one leaf with upper outer corner torn away, with loss of words in five lines (each side); three leaves torn along inner margins (not touching text) and another torn from outer margin, extending into text without loss.
Bible.
English. 1812. Authorized (i.e., King James Version). The Holy Bible: containing the Old and New Testaments: together with the Apocrypha... to which are added, an index; an alphabetical table of all the names,...and tables of scripture weights, measures, and coins. Windsor, [VT]: Merrifield & Cochran (pr. by John Cunningham), 1812. 4to (27.2 cm, 10.75"). 964, [28] pp.; fold. map, 7 plts.
$1850.00
Single-click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
The first Bible printed in Vermont. The text is the standard King James Version but the engraved plates are very noteworthy. Six are signed by Isaac Eddy of Weatherford, VT, and are bizarre (“unconventional, far-fetched, odd, grotesque”): Art historians would call them naive. A seventh engraving is signed “James Hill” and is somewhat more “accomplished.”
Another oddity: Laid into this Bible is a portion of
erotic text torn from an 18th-century printing of Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. (No extra charge for this.)
Copies with all seven plates and the map are not as common as they once were.
Hills 209; O’Callaghan p. 108; Shaw & Shoemaker 24829; Wright, Early American Bibles, 352–53; Rumball-Petre, Rare Bibles, 188. Contemporary sheep, spine with raised bands and gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding and spine label rubbed, with a few pinpoint holes of insect damage to spine. Small ticket of a private collector on front pastedown; one plate with inked ownership inscription dated 1824 on the reverse. Folding map torn along inner edge, tear repaired some time ago; map foxed, with small edge chips. Pages age-toned, with some spotting; edges tattered, occasionally with loss of a few letters in shouldernotes. Two signatures (one in index) separated, one with outer edges chewed, affecting a number of words; one leaf torn across; one plate with short tear to outer margin not touching image; one leaf with portion of first few lines torn away and now laid in. Botanical matter laid in, as well as that other thing.

Millville Minister to the
Rescue of His Fellow Americans
(Who might not understand
“English” English?)
Bible. O.T. Psalms. English. Davis. An American version of the Psalms of David. Suited to the state of the church in the present age of the world. Philadelphia: Pr. for the author by D. Heartt, 1813. 12mo. 410 pp., [1 (errata)] f.
$125.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
This new version is by Abaija Davis, minister in Millville, N.J., and is uncommon; it clearly came at a time when the Americanization of the English language was in full swing.
Shaw & Shoemaker 27881. Publisher's sheep, red leather gilt-stamped title label and gilt rules on spine; rubbed and corners bumped with leather cracked over joints. Offsetting from turn-ins to endpapers and first/last leaves, with some pencil marks to front pastedown; notable age-toning and foxing throughout except to pp. 379–402, which makes this an interesting volume for book-studies teaching purposes. One page with impression faint at beginning of most lines; otherwise, a clean and complete text. (21738)
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& UNDER, click here.
Bible. N.T. Czech. Kralitz. 1814. Nowý Zákon pána a spasytele nasseho Gežisse Krysta: opět s welokau pilnostj prehljdnutý a w nowě wydaný. W Presspurku : Wdowy a Dědicu Belnayho, 1814. 12mo (17 cm, 6.75"). [8], 624, 158 pp.
$250.00
Uncommon Czech New Testament and Psalter. This is similar to another edition published in Pressburg by the Bible Institute in the same year (Darlow & Moule 2200); the present printing has a reset title page omitting mention of the Psalter and Ecclesiasticus, the latter not being included here. The text is printed in double columns, in a variety of black-letter type.
Darlow & Moule 2201. Contemporary diced morocco, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and blind-tooled decorations in compartments; abraded, leather pulled at spine and headband mostly detached, front hinge (inside) cracked. All edges marbled. Light foxing throughout. A few lower corners crumpled; page edges very occasionally ragged, in one case touching a few letters.
Bible. French. 1815. La sainte Bible, contenant le Vieux et le Nouveau Testament: Imprimée sur l’édition stéréotype de Londres, et selon l’édition de Paris, de l’année 1805... New York: New-York Bible Society (pr. by J. Seymour), 1815. 12mo (18.3 cm, 7.25"). 798, 246 pp.
$750.00

First complete French Bible printed in America, with the text copied from the Paris edition of 1805, which was reprinted in London in 1807; only the N.T. alone had appeared previously. The New Testament here has a separate title-page and pagination.Provenance: Front pastedown with small booklabel of prominent collector Michael Zinman.
Shaw & Shoemaker 34103; O’Callaghan, 126–27; Rumball-Petrie 193; not in Darlow & Moule. Contemporary sheep, framed and panelled in blind; leather abraded, with spine greatly rubbed and pitted (no label). Front pastedown with inscription scraped away. Pages age-toned, with some foxed and the last few waterstained. One leaf with tear from outer margin, touching a few letters. Two leaves bound in upside-down.

Early
Russian Bible Society Edition
Bible. Church Slavonic. 1816. Biblia ili Knigi sveshtennago pisanie vetkhago i novago zaveta. [St. Petersburg: Russian Bible Society, 1816]. 8vo (23.5 cm, 9.25"). [4], 1012, [2], 252 pp.
$2000.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
One of the first combined editions of the Old and New Testaments in Slavonic printed by the Russian Bible Society under the direction of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Russian (or St. Petersburg) Bible Society was founded in 1813 by order of Tsar Alexander I — and then suppressed by Tsar Nicholas I in 1826, but not before publishing “at Moscow and St. Petersburg editions of the Bible and New Testament in Slavonic and Russian amounting to over 500,000 copies” (Darlow & Moule). The complete Scriptures did not appear in modern Russian vernacular until 1876.
Darlow & Moule 8382. Modern oxblood velvet–covered boards, unadorned; showing virtually no wear and housed in a plain box. Title-page with fountain pen inscription in upper portion (in Cyrillic except for “Kingston R.I. U.S.A.”) and inked owner's name in lower portion. Several contemporary silk bookmarks laid in. First three leaves with inner margins reinforced, one leaf with outer margin and one with lower margin reinforced. Light foxing; a number of pages with pencilled numerals in margins. (24138)
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Early American Mennonite Hymnal
Bible. O.T. Psalms. German. 1820. Die kleine geistliche Harfe der kinder Zions, oder auserlesene geistreiche Gesänge ... Germantaun: Gedruckt bey Michael Billmeyer, 1820. 12mo (17cm, 6.75"). Frontis., [4], 40, [2], 412, [20 (index)], 21, [1] pp.
$250.00

Third printing, following the first of 1803, of the first Mennonite hymnal printed in the United States. The Psalms were translated and paraphrased under the supervision of the Franconia Mennonite Conference, for the use of eastern Pennsylvania Mennonites. Music is present, though the bulk of the volume is of words.
It's an engaging fact that psalms are given in multiple versions; there are four of the 23d.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
Arndt and Eck cite Bender, who says “This first American Mennonite Hymnbook is
not to be confused with one of similar title printed by Saur at Germantown in 1753, called erroneously by Seidensticker and Flory a Mennonite hymnbook.” Each portion of this item has a separate title-page, with the second section's title-page reading Sammlung altre und neuer Geistreichen Gesänge.
Arndt & Eck 2419; Shoemaker 2239. Contemporary sheep, clasps; later spine labels; leather dry and abraded with significant patch missing from top of spine; cracked along joints and down the spine (this is not quite “about to break” but one can see that as possible “out there,” so it is “priced accordingly.”) Pages clean, with just the usual foxing on early and later leaves including title-page. (21769)
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BIBLIOPHILE, click here.

Early
ABS
SPANISH
New Testament
Bible.N.T. Spanish. 1823. Scio de S. Miguel.El Nuevo Testamento de nuestro señor Jesu Cristo, traducido de la Biblia Vulgata Latina.... Nueva York: Estereotipa por Elihu White a costa de la Sociedad Americana de la Biblia, 1823. 12mo (18 cm, 7"). 376 pp.
$600.00
This is an early reprint (the 7th edition, the 5th through 9th editions all appearing in 1823) of the 1819 edition of the New Testament in Spanish published by the American Bible Society, which was the first printing in Spanish of any portion of the Bible in the New World. To avoid controversy, and to appeal to Catholics, a translation approved for use in the Catholic Church was employed. This resulted in some criticism from the ABS's Protestant base, but proved a successful strategy to get the Scriptures into the hands of Spanish speakers in the newly independent nations south of the U.S.
Provenance: Late-20th-century booklabel of Michael Zinman on front pastedown.
Darlow & Moule 8495; Shoemaker 11841; not in O'Callaghan. Contemporary sheep; spine with gilt rules and a black leather title label, gilt-lettered. Some rubbing and abrasions; spine leather dry with fine cracks, top of front joint opening. Pages with scattered foxing and browning; in a few places chipping in the margins, not affecting texttypical degrees of this only. Paper label probably from a lending library, affixed to front pastedown; pencilled notes, including ownership inscriptions, on endpapers. All edges speckled red.
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