Rather, the production of a Bible in Spanish fell to a peripatetic exiled Spaniard named Casiodoro de Reina (ca. 1520–94), a man who began his adult life as a monk, came under suspicion of being a “Reformist,” and fled Spain for Geneva — later fleeing that city for a series of others and declaring it “a new Rome” for its intolerance of new ideas. Whether the translation is solely from his pen or is the work of a committee in which he was primus inter pares is not known.

This Bible is known as the “Bible of the Bear” or the “Bear Bible” because of the printer's device on the title-page, a bear at a honey comb, which was the device of Samuel Apiarius. The relationship between Apiarius and the actual printer, Thomas Guarinus, is unresolved. The Old Testament in this translation is based on the Hebrew and derived heavily from the Latin of St. Pagninus and from the Ferrara version. The New Testament is based on the Greek of Erasmus with comparisons to the Vetus Latina and Syriac manuscripts.

There are two states of the title-page, this being state A with the line of type ornaments described in Darlow and Moule.

•  VD16 B2869; Rumball-Petre262; Darlow & Moule 8472; Graesse, I, 386; Palau 2894; Adams B12061.   17th-century English calf, rebacked with new spine gilt extra very suitable in style; leather of covers a bit crackled and variously darkened; small areas of the covers at board edges replaced with new leather sympathetically gilt-tooled. Lacks the blank preliminary leaf and the four leaves at the end of “Annotationes breves sobre los lugares . . . “, both of which are very often lacking, the latter leaves having perhaps (even probably) been printed separately and later. Small piece of front fly-leaf cut away (probably removing an ownership inscription). The occasional instance of light soil or light waterstaining to fore- or bottom margins, sometimes reaching text; a generally clean and good copy. All edges mottled red and blue-green.  (25772)

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.

In this printing, a fine engraved title-page shows an angel delivering Luther's translation of the Old Testament to a Church still in bondage to the requirements of the old Law. A similar sectional title-page, depicting God the Father, Jesus Christ, and allegorical figures of the sacraments of Baptism and Communion, comes before the New Testament. Six special pairs of leaves, bound in at various places, each offer a first page containing an engraving of biblical figures and three following pages containing their biographies. A woodcut vignette of the unusual triple arms of the city of Nürnberg appears on the title-page; a number of chapters are adorned, at head, with one-third page woodcut illustrations set in neat borders; and the books typically open with typographically appealing two-column "headers." The text is in a handsome and relatively legible fraktur. The size, decoration, and overall composition of the volume, along with its faults (especially the manner in which which pages are worn), suggest a history as a lectern Bible in a Lutheran Church.

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) lacking. Despite faults, a grand volume both usable and inspiring.

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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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)

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)

•  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.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with contemporary inscription, “Susan Prescott's / from a friend — “ 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 mottled sheep, framed and panelled in blind with contrasting leather colors, spine plain without label; binding rubbed overall, but sturdy and solid. Front pastedown with label as above, front free endpaper with inked numeral and inscription above, title-page with almost entirely effaced inked inscription. Front fly-leaf with irregular, nickel-sized hole; a few leaves with their corners crimped; one leaf with a section of margin gone at fore-edgenot touching text (natural paper flaw?). Otherwise, pages mildly age-toned, some lightly to moderately spotted. A good copy.  (25187)

•  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)

OCLC locates only one U.S. institutional holding of this edition, which has since been deaccessioned.

•  Darlow & Moule 4318.   Recent speckled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, all edges stained blue. Front fly-leaf with early inked inscriptions, one dated 1851. Title-page with early institutional rubber-stamp, last page with pressure-stamp, second page of contents with inked annotation along inner margin and rubber-stamped numeral in lower margin. Pp. 959–1098 skipped in pagination; text complete. Foxed, but not badly; clean.  (25856)

•  O'Callaghan 161; Shoemaker 8025; German Language Printing in the United States 2535. Contemporary calf, raised bands, covers blind-framed; a few chips and old abrasions, but pleasant. Lower clasp intact, top one missing. Front hinge open, joint starting; front free endpaper torn across with loss. German fly-leaf inscription. Usual foxing/staining only, and complete.

•  Darlow & Moule 9120.   Contemporary diced calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and blind-tooled compartment decorations; binding worn and abraded, especially at edges and joints, with upper portion of front cover and inner portion of back cover sunned. All edges marbled; front hinge (inside) tender. Front pastedown with traces of now-absent bookplate. Pages with varying degrees of age-toning; Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts with English titles added in pencil.  (26177)

•  Shoemaker 15382. Contemporary speckled sheep, worn and abraded, spine with gilt-stamped leather title label. Front pastedown with early numerical inscription. Outer margins of last few leaves waterstained; some pages with mild cockling or light spotting, others with varying degrees of age-toning.

•  Darlow and Moule 3369. Contemporary diced calf, spine tooled in blind, with gilt-stamped leather title-label; edges and joints rubbed, sides with minor abrasions, spine sunned. Front pastedown with traces of a now-absent bookplate. Some light foxing, mostly confined to first few leaves. Pp. 5/6 and 7/8 bound in out of order. One leaf with short tear from upper margin, touching a few letters; one leaf with upper outer corner torn away, with loss of two letters. All edges marbled.

Provenance: 20th-century booklabel of Michael Zinman on front pastedown, along with pencilled ownership inscription of Margaret Lache.

•  Not in O’Callaghan; not in Darlow & Moule; Arndt, The First Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America, 2724; Shoemaker 19698. Contemporary calf with raised bands; remnants of clasps. Calf scratched with some rubbing; spine a little warped. Some dog-earing and shallow tattering; lightly to moderately age-spotted throughout; pp. 17–18, 257-60 detached. No loss or obscuring of text due to the above, but two pages in Mark, pp. 101–104, lacking.