The work was published at the expense of Johann Schabler, called Wattenschnee, whose device with motto “Durum pacientia frango” is on the verso of last leaf. The Testament text is in Greek only and each book begins with a woodcut headpiece and a historiated initial, with some initials after Dance of Death designs byHans Holbein.

Reuss lists this among “Editiones Erasmicae.”

Provenance:  19th-century signature on front fly-leaf of W.C.S. Tole (?); most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  VD16 B4180; Adams B1653; Reuss, Bibliotheca Novi Testamenti Graeci, p. 33. Not in Darlow & Moule, but see 4601 for the first editon.   18th-century full calf, no raised bands, round spine gilt extra; spine pulled at head, front joint sometime repaired taking part of the label and some gilt on that side with volume now strong, corners rubbed and some old abrasions. Interior with a very few instances of old marginalia; type splendidly sharp on very clean pages. (40636)

Provenance: An inked ownership stamp of notable 19th-century English bibliomaniac Richard Heber (1774–1833), reading “Bibliotheca Heberiana,” appears on the front free endpaper; Thomas Frognall Dibdin added this stamp to select rare books in Heber's collection following the collector's death. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Bibliotheca Palatina F5048/F5049; VD16 B3122; USTC 626665. Not in Adams; not in Darlow & Moule. On Dolscius, see: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (online).   19th-century half calf and paste paper–covered boards, spine with gilt rolls and green leather gilt title-label, all edges stained blue; rubbed, slight loss of leather on front joint (outside) and corners, a few small spots and leather repairs, isolated glue action to endpapers. Light age-toning with occasional slivers of marginal staining (possibly thanks to the blue edge stain?), one interior tear touching letters and two marginal spots. Provenance indicia as above, small round paper shelflabel on spine, a few bibliographical notes pencilled on endpapers. A skillfully produced work with a pleasing provenance.  (39566)

•  Adams B1716; Darlow & Moule 4656a; VD16 ZV 1904; USTC 440704.   Recent half brown calf and mustard buckram cloth, red leather spine label lettered in gilt, all edges speckled brown, new endpapers; very gently rubbed, one short tear at bottom gutter of binder's blank. Light age-toning and waterstaining of various darknesses throughout most of the text with the occasional spot. The title leaf has been backed with a later paper with no loss of content; interior blank (only) lacking as above, three leaves with small interior holes affecting letters, two leaves with marginal sections torn away. Readership and provenance evidence as above, with some inked notes trimmed or bled onto surrounding leaves. Read and engaged with by multiple people, and all the more intriguing because of it.  (39429)

The paper stock used for the interleaving has the classic ProPatria watermark and that and its countermark match Churchill's 151, which has a starting date of 1799.

•  Darlow & Moule 4650; Adams B1711. On the interleaves' watermarks, see: Churchill, Watermarks in paper in Holland, England, France, etc., in the XVII and XVIII centuries.   19th-century half vellum with German pastepaper over boards, spine with tinted and tooled label, text recased and new endpapers; vol. I (only) of this production, without the Epistles and Revelation. Title-page creased and dust-soiled, all leaves before pp. 9/10 rodent-gnawed in lower outside corner with loss of paper but not of text or manuscript annotation, and a bit of light waterstaining to rearmost leaves only. An important edition and a singular copy.  (37032)

The first edition of this translation was issued at Rheims in 1582, in over-sanguine hopes that its sale would be successful enough to underwrite the cost of a prompt production of the Old Testament. The two-volume O.T. did not appear, however, until 1609/1610.

The second edition of the Rheims N.T. is a revision of the first, not merely a reprinting of it, and contains a “Table of Heretical Corruptions” not found in the 1582 printing and a new preface. In an era of noticeable decline in the art of printing, this Testament enjoys far better than average typography.

•  Darlow & Moule 198; Herbert 258; STC 2989; ESTC S102510.   Late 17th-, early 18th-century English calf, with concentric blind panels on covers in contrasting tones of brown and tan, all edges deep red; covers with scrapes and bumps, rebacked with hinges (inside) strengthened, new endpapers with 1906 owner's inscription on front free one. Title-page dust-soiled and torn in upper margin with some loss of decorative border, page skillfully remargined with blank paper. Some foxing and age-soiling in early leaves; this similarly at rear (starting around p. 640 and most notable in Tables), with also some dust-soiling and with light waterstaining across a good number of upper outer corners. Overall a good to very good copy, sturdy and appealing.  (33612)

Provenance:  From the leaf collection of printing specimens of the Grabhorn press.

•  STC (rev. ed.) 2216; Darlow & Moule 309.   Disbound. Light age-toning, a few very short tears along edges and creases at corners, with one chipped edge and evidence of three small wormholes.  (38319)

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)

•  STC (2nd ed.) 2947; Darlow & Moule 371; ESTC S121246; Herbert 480.   Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed and panelled in gilt double fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, all edges gilt; binding rubbed, leather moderately acid-pitted, joints cracked, rectangle of leather lost at upper inner corner of front cover. Lower edges of closed book rubber-stamped; free endpapers excised; lower outer corners lightly waterstained at rear; pages otherwise slightly age-toned but notably clean. A sound, good copy.  (24066)

Binding:  18th-century crimson straight-grain morocco, covers framed in dotted gilt rules, board edges and turn-ins with dotted gilt rule, spine similarly ruled and with gilt-stamped title. All edges gilt and a light blue silk ribbon placemarker still present. Almost certainly done by Roger Payne, Syston Park's preferred binder.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplates of H. Walter Webb and Syston Park (i.e., the famousSyston Park Library, collected at Lincolnshire by Sir John Hayford Thorold, Bart., and his predecessors); front free endpaper with bookplate of Leila Howard Codman; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.The Sotheby's catalogue of the Syston Park sale suggests that the present copy was Sir John's duplicate, this example having marbled endpapers rather than the “silk linings” described in another copy.

•  Darlow & Moule 4679; Willems 396.   Bound as above, spine slightly dimmed. Bookplates as above; front free endpaper and fly-leaf with affixed slips of old cataloguing and pencilled annotations. Pages clean. A nice copy with pleasing, in fact prestigious, provenance.  (37819)

Binding: 18th-century black morocco, spine gilt with spiky-floral compartment stamps surrounded by frames of rules and dots; covers framed in gilt and blind with roll of scallops, dashes, and fillets and with same spine ornament gilt at corners. Turn-ins with gilt floral roll a little extending onto board edges, double-combed marbled endpapers, all edges gilt.

Provenance:  On front free endpaper, 18th-century inked signature of Charles Mays (or Mayo or Mayor) and 19th-century gift inscription “Charles H. Roberts M.A. from Fred Renshaw(e)”; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  ESTC S90878; Darlow & Moule 4680; STC (rev. ed.) 2798.5; Willems 397.   Bound as above, rubbed, hinges (inside) starting to crack, the whole still attractive and the volume strong; text with the occasional spot, very faint waterstaining through perhaps a third of the text, and top edges closely trimmed touching headers on a few leaves. Provenance indicia as above, later pencilled bibliographical citations on front free endpaper, and “1633" on endpaper in ink. A production both erudite and aesthetically pleasing.  (38430)

Binding:  Black calf with rich gilt border on both boards accomplished with only two elaborate rolls, gilt spine extra; gilt roll on board edges, same rolls used on the turn-ins. Marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, remnants of silver closures on fore-edge. Silver supra-libros as above. Four silk string place markers attached by the binder to the head band. Note in Frances Allin's hand that the binding was done in 1733.

•  Bible: STC (rev. ed.) 2331.3; ESTC S694 & S123371; Herbert 520; Darlow & Moule 402. Psalter: STC (rev. ed.) 2682; ESTC S122380.   Binding as above, boards recently expertly reattached. In the O.T., natural paper flaw in lower outer corner of pp. 163–64 and, in the N.T., lower outside corner of title-leaf torn with loss of paper and some of the type ornament border; small burn hole (possibly iron gall ink) in the text of pp. 131–32; lower outside corner of pp. 179–80 torn with loss of paper. With these few minor flaws, this isa remarkably excellent copy of an important Bible. (40928)

When produced in folio, with elegant layout as here, this familiar “title”breathes grace.

Handsomely printed with anengraved printer's device on the title-page by Wenceslas Hollar and woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, this edition has the text in three parallel columns (Greek, Beza's Latin version, and the Vulgate) with a wealth of commentary above and below. The title-page exists in three states: the present one is printed in black only and lists the print-shop of Roger Daniel without “Londini venales prostant.”

Provenance:  1710 ownership signature of “R. Holde[----?].” Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Wing (rev.) 2728A; ESTC R35303; Darlow & Moule 4686; not in Rumball-Petre, Rare Bibles. On Beza, see: Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church 166–67. On the Western text of the N.T., see: Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church 1470–71.   Contemporary Dutch-style vellum over pasteboards with central blind-stamped medallion on both boards within a blind double-rule frame; vellum split along front joint (outside) and peeling at top and bottom of spine. Evidence of silk ties. Title-leaf with dust-soiling and discoloration at inner margin; dust-soiling and light water- or dampstaining variably elsewhere. Overall a sound, decent copy.  (40055)

Binding:  Contemporary calf, round spine, gilt spine extra, handsome metal and leather closures with gilt tooling on the leather; very pretty, simple single gilt-roll border on each board. German floral paste-decorated endpapers and all edges red.

Provenance:  Ownership signatures of I. Duvarus (1774); J.G. Drunnburg (1822) Johann O. Nordendam (1830) on front fly-leaf.

•  Darlow & Moule 8966; Graesse 103.   Leather “shellacked” and shiny; volume now solid with front board reattached using the long-fiber method and areas of spine similarly improved. A sophisticated copy: four leaves of the prefactory matter (b1–4) are inserted from a small copy (possibly even a different edition). Some early underscoring; overallvery decent as a text and very attractive on shelf or in hand.  (36974)

Provenance: Manuscript ownership inscription of John Ray dated 1716 (on retained fly-leaf); ownership signature of Robert L. Wilson, New York, 1818 (on title-page); gilt supra-libros of Barzillai Slosson, dated 1829. Later in the Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).

Binding: American binding of dark blue goat, richly gilt, with wide floral border on covers and spine distinctively gilt using rules and floral roll. Board edges with a gilt roll; turn-ins gilt tooled. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Gilt supra-libros of Barzillai Slosson as above. Unsigned.

Barzillai Slosson may have been related to the lawyer of the same name who was active in Kent, CT, at the end of the 18th century and into the fourth decade of the 19th, whose account books are in the Yale Law Library; perhaps, the Barzillai who graduated from Columbia College in 1818 and later moved to Geneva, NY, where he was active and successful in business and civic affairs.

•  Wing (rev. ed.) B2719. Darlow & Moule; 4702; ESTC R236848; Sowerby, Catalogue of the library of Thomas Jefferson, 1473.   Binding as above, lightly rubbed. Pages closely cropped in the 19th-century rebinding and some initial or final letters touched or lost. Very good.  (34786)

Binding: This copy is bound in ornately blind-tooled and -stamped alum-tawed sheep over wooden boards, the front cover with three of its original etched corner bosses and with its two etched clasp-catches. (Bosses of back cover no longer present, remnants of clasps.) A martial portrait is centered on each cover; unfortunately these are now so worn that they are no longer identifiable. Perhaps they belong to the electors of Saxony who safeguarded the Lutheran faith in its infancy.

•  Binding as above. Covers abraded and worn, some scraping to back upper board, leather peeling back from fore-edge of front cover and opening at ends of joints, most notably at bottom of front one. Front free endpaper with inked inscription, in German, dated Philadelphia, 1852. Frontispiece with a fore-edge chip (not into image) and tears in from bottom margin and at gutter, with small loss to plate area at bottom inner corner. A number of pages with tears extending into text, a few places with chips to bottom outer corners with loss of words but not of sense. Scattered foxing, with occasional darker small stains. Last leaf (of Confession, NOT Bible), only, lacking. Despite faults, a grand volume both usable and inspiring. (2802)

•  Adomeit, Thumb Bibles, B16 (see also p. xvi); ESTC N64949; Opie L 25.   Binding as above, slightly (expectably) sprung, spine gilt showing one crack. Dates inked in an early hand as above; frontispiece for New Testament affixed to final page of Old Testament. Pages and plates very clean.  A remarkable copy of a desirable item.  (41004)

•  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) open. First two leaves lacking (i.e., main title-page and preface) and title-page supplied in facsimile. 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. The New Testament title-page is present. (5689)

Provenance:  The Howell Bible Collection, Pacific School of Religion (properly released).

•  Gaskell (enlarged ed.) Add. 2; Darlow & Moule 4756.   Contemporary acid-stained calf, rebacked some time ago with morocco, spine with gilt-stamped title and publication information; edges and extremities rubbed, sides and spine with small scuffs. New endpapers with pencilled annotations; back pastedown with California bookseller's small ticket. No library markings. Title-page with tiny nick in upper edge. Pages very slightly age-toned with a very few scattered small spots, otherwise crisp and clean.  (34979)

•  Darlow & Moule 4251.   Contemporary plain brown calf, rebacked, original spine retained, with modest ruling at cover edges, rubbed and abraded with offsetting to edges of first and last leaves from the leather; round, plain spine with five raised bands and no label, leather lost at top and bottom with rear joint opening and leather wanting to peel over spine generally. A little foxing with, in a few signatures, a bit more than that.A good, overall solid, and clean copy of a Bible having multiple points of significance.  (36853)

Provenance:  Bookplates of Casimir L. Stralem, Clarence E. Clark, and Brian Douglas Stilwell.

WorldCat locates only six U.S. libraries reporting ownership ofall eight volumes as present here (NYPL, Cornell, Seton Hall, Holy Cross College, New York Historical Society, UC-Berkeley Law) and two libraries reporting ownership of incomplete sets (Harvard Divinity [vols. 1, 2 only], University of Dayton [vol. 3 only]).

•  Darlow & Moule, III, 6263; Jammes, Les Didot, 25.   Bound as above, some joints (outside) showing cracking but all intact. All volumes housed in light marbled-paper open-back cases, some with tape repairs. Very good. (40318)

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)

Provenance:  Two owners have written “Cushing Cooks Book, Norwich Port” and “Moses Pierce Book” on front endpaper; later in the library of the Pacific School of Religion (properly released).

•  Evans 28282; Johnson, New London Imprints, 1285; Trumbull, Connecticut, 1278; ESTC W4406.   18th-century calf, rubbed and abraded; front joint (outside) cracking, turn-ins offsetting to first and last few leaves, front free endpaper with corner cut out, text block starting to detach from binding but definitely still comfortable to handle. Ex-library as above: call number label on spine, bookplate on front pastedown, rubber-stamp on front free endpaper and title-page, pencilling on title-page, paper call number label on spine and circulation materials at back. Provenance markings as above, inking on back free endpaper, light age-toning.  (36742)