The text here is taken from the Wycliffe version of the New Testament and is printed in English black-letter, contained within handsome 16th century–style woodcut borders, with the plates placed appropriately next to the relevant text. The work first appeared in England in 1877 as A New Biblia Pauperum in folio format and then was reissued in 1884 in this small format as A Smaller Biblia Pauperum; the final name change occurred with this American edition.

A suitable candidate for collections of Bibles, Victoriana, illustrated books, OR biblio-blunders!

•  Herbert 2008 (note).   Publisher's gold-stamped vellum with brass clasps, one missing the hasp; vellum dust-soiled and darkened, spine torn and repaired. All edges uncut. Ex-library with markings on endpapers only; a lesser but still a good, enjoyable copy.  (23639)

This Bible is illustrated with two full-page and 130 in-text woodcuts (including some repeated images), a few of which have early hand-coloring, mostly but not entirely in green or yellow. One full-page cut shows the six days of Creation — partially hand-colored in green, brown, red, blue, and yellow — while another depicts the manger scene. The text is followed by the Interpretationes nominum hebraicorum, a dictionary of Hebrew names often appended to manuscript and early printed Bibles.

Binding: Contemporary blind-tooled, alum-tawed pigskin over beech boards, elaborately worked using embossing rolls with religious vignettes and busts. Covers with etched metal corner bosses and remnants of leather and metal clasps.

•  Adams B988; c.f. Darlow & Moule 6101 & 6091. Binding as above, spine with hand-inked title; overall dust-soiled and darkened with several short tears to leather; leather no longer tight to the boards. Straps, clasp locking-mechanisms, and lower front metal corner now lost. Title-page and final two ff. of Interpretationes lacking; front pastedown separated from board and back pastedown lacking. First and last few leaves with insect damage to outer edges. First text page (contents) with old institutional rubber-stamp and shadow of pencilled numeral. A few leaves separated; a number of leaves with short tears from lower margins, a few extending into text, in many cases with traces of old repairs. Two leaves with lower outer corners torn away, one repaired some time ago. Pages age-toned, some waterstained. Scattered contemporary inked marginalia; some light underlining and a few instances of early inked doodling. Despite its faults, this is rare and imposing.

The text generally follows the Challoner–Rheims revision, although the notes are collected from various sources. The volume is illustrated with two frontispieces and17 plates engraved by J. Bottomley, Symns and Mitchell, and others after paintings by Westall, Raphael, Reynolds, et al. Issued in parts in a small print run, this Bible is now uncommon.

•  Darlow & Moule 1034. Contemporary treed calf, rebacked some time ago in plain calf with gilt-ruled bands and gilt-stamped title-label; sides rubbed and scraped, with spine scuffed, leather worn over extremities, front joint cracked from weight of oversized volume. Hinges (inside) reinforced with cloth tape. Lacking title-page. Plate from Genesis I:4 removed, and laid back in with margins cut away. First few leaves with edges ragged. Pages with offsetting around plates; occasional light spots of staining, mostly confined to outer margins.

erotic text

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.

Provenance: Inscription reading, “William Merritt's Book, Bedford(?), 1830.

•  Adomeit, Three Centuries of Thumb Bibles, A51; Shoemaker 12834; Rosenbach, Children, 626; not in Welch.   Contemporary black calf. TItle-leaf and following three closely trimmed into print with loss of letters but not sense; a good example of this Troy-printed little Bible.  (23015)

The family record leaves here were partially filled in with occasions in the lives of James M. Welling (b. 1807, d. 1882), his wife Susan Vail Welling (b. 1805, d. 1886), and their children; the final entry notes the death of Mark Hermon [sic] Wheeler in 1908.

Provenance: Front pastedown with small bookplate of prominent collector Michael Zinman.

•  Hills 465 (describing 684 pp. andonly three plates); Shoemaker 11809 (for an edition of this year, but with only 684 pp.); O’Callaghan gives 1818 Holbrook stereotype edition only. Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped title-label; binding rubbed and abraded, with leather cracking over spine and cracked over joints. Pages browned, with waterstaining to inner margins. One plate with hole to corner of image; oversized, folding map with small hole near edge.

Binding: Contemporary treed calf with clusters of small bosses in center and at corners of covers; red leather label on spine, gilt-filletted and -rolled above and below and gilt-lettered; remnants of clasps on edges of covers. All edges saffron.

Provenance: Rubber-stamp of Lee D. Snyder on front pastedown, verso of title-leaf, and reverse of many plates.

•  Cf. O’Callaghan 181; not in Darlow & Moule. Binding as above with some scratches; joints and edges rubbed. Small holes or chips out of a few pages with loss of individual letters, not affecting sense. Small hole in printed area of plate facing p. 119. Foxed with some soiling on the sectional title-page of the New Testament and a few darker spots elsewhere. A good, solid, satisfying copy.

•  Publisher's green illustrated and printed wrappers; later oversewing at spine. Top edge a little ragged.  (21639)