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 engraved title-page is very fine, with Moses and Aaron flanking the title, the British royal arms above, and a scene of London below. The rest of the plates are all maps, as would not be the case in an Anglican Bible: These are all double-page, full of detail, and very attractive. The first, a map of the world, is labelled in Latin and Italian, and the rest in Dutch.

•  Herbert 743; Wing (rev.) B2310. Contemporary diced calf, rebacked; one joint again open and the other open, but cords holding. Covers ruled with single gilt fillets, edges with single gilt rolls. Spine compartments ornately gilt. Covers stained and with abrasions and some loss of leather, especially over corners; spine dry and rubbed, with loss of leather and gilt. All edges speckled red. Scattered spots of light soiling and staining, especially in the margins. Entirely untattered.

Printed in Hebrew (with the points) and Latin on opposite pages, this has a title-page printed in black and red; the Latin text is in roman with occasional italic.

An uncommon work in commerce now and in Brunet's time: “Livre recherché et peu commun.” Not heavily held in U.S. libraries, if WorldCat is to be believed, for it locates only eight copies.

•  Vinograd, II, 55; Amsterdam 1072; Steinschneider 1157; Zedner 148; Darlow & Moule 2416.   Contemporary vellum over paste boards, boards warped and front pastedown abraded and torn by this. Spine lettered in black in 20th-century and with an old library call number at base; library pressure-stamp in lower margin of title-page. A few leaves with slightly tattered foremargins.  (25775)

•  ESTC T117664. Contemporary speckled calf, covers separated; front cover sometime (home?)-stitched to spine and holding, back one once (later) held on by paper laid over spine and a portion of both covers, paper now considerably chipped away. Lacking endpapers; front pastedown with library bookplate, back pastedown with doodles. Pages age-toned, with some minor foxing.

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)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 19538.   Good. Removed from a nonce volume. Lightly browned with worming to title-page, touching, but not obscuring, letters. (1170)

On 4 July 1776 only two signatures were affixed to the unanimously adopted Declaration of Independence — those of John Hancock, president of the Congress, and Charles Thomson, secretary, in order to authenticate the document that had been voted on and approved. Yet by a curious twist of fate (read rather, surely, of a political enemy's knife), when the calligraphic copy that is so well known to every school child was ready shortly after 19 July, authenticator Thomson was not invited to sign it!

When he had retired from public life in 1789, Thomson was to turn his interest in the Bible and Greek to the 20-year task of producing this monumentally important work.

Its printer was the daughter of Robert Aitken, who had printed the first Bible in English in America. A major edition of the English Bible, this is essential for any Bible collection, not just for collections of American Bibles — though as an American Bible and simple Americanum it has a revered place.

•  Hills 618; O’Callaghan 189. Contemporary plain calf, spine with raised bands, gilt-ruled above and below and with gilt-lettered title in second compartment; gilt a little rubbed. Hinges (inside) repaired with paper. Shallow chipping and tattering, and many dog ears; tears mostly in the margins of pages and plates, but a few closed tears into text, on pp. 283–84 with loss of individual letters but not of sense; tattering on last leaf just touching text, leaf repaired with cellophane on verso; tissue repairs on pp. 273–74 and on the reverse of the frontispiece. Moderately foxed throughout; lacking pp. 765–68 of supplementary material (only). Pp. 618–19 are here misprinted in place of pp. 622–23—all text being present, if out of order! This significant Bible is here in a trim, neat contemporary binding.

Click the images for enlargements.

Binding:  Contemporary embossed rich cordovan-colored morocco cathedral binding featuring inter alii the Holy Ghost (in Pentacostal dove–form), the Agnus Dei, and stained/leaded glass “windows” both pointed and rosette. Spine additionally with gilt-stamped title; turn-ins with blind-roll design. All edges brightly gilt.

•  Not in Herbert.   Binding as above, in beautiful condition. First front fly-leaf with early inked familial gift inscription (including an explanation of one brother's having opted out of the group present!); second front fly-leaf with inked dedicatory poem.  (22266)

Binding: Contemporary red straight-grain morocco, covers framed in gilt roll, spine with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations.

Provenance: Ownership initials of William R. Whittingham (G.R.W., the "William" being rendered as "Guillelmus" for his love of Latin), fourth Episcopal Bishop of Baltimore; stamp of an Episcopal Diocesan lending library.

•  Front joint almost entirely broken, back joint starting from top, head of spine chipped, with binding showing minor darkening and scuffing overall. Free endpapers excised. Front pastedown with rubber-stamp as above (no other institutional markings); first text page with inked ownership inscription as above dated [18]64. Title-page of first work lacking. Pages slightly age-toned, some creased; one leaf with lower outer corner torn away. Small emphasis marks to index of Hymns, with an additional manuscript entry in the table of first lines.

Creating composite New Testaments composed of mixed editions of the separately published Gospels and other books of the New Testament in Cherokee was a common practice at the Park Hill Mission Press in the middle of the 19th century.

The first complete New Testament came from the press of the American Bible Society with a publication date of 1860, but it seems not to have really been published until 1862.

Present are 13 separately published works containing 23 books of the N.T. in Cherokee using Sequoyah's syllabary (generally called the “Cherokee alphabet”) and printed at the famous Park Hill mission press.  Absent from the present offering are Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, and Jude only. The first three of these were printed as a unit, while Jude was a stand-alone.

There is one illustration, a crucifixion, in John.

This is the most complete composite N.T. in Cherokee that we have ever had in our more than a quarter century dealing in American Indian language materials and Bibles.

•  Matthew: Pilling, Proof-sheets, 4224; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Cherokee-7; not in Darlow & Moule. Mark: Not in Pilling, Proof-sheets (no edition listed); not in Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, (1850 edition listed); not in Darlow & Moule (1858 edition listed). Luke: Not in Pilling, Proof-sheets (no edition listed); not in Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Cherokee-9; not in Darlow & Moule 2439. John: Pilling, Proof-sheets, 4228; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Cherokee-10; not in Darlow & Moule (1838 edition listed). Acts: Pilling, Proof-sheets, 4230; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Cherokee-7; not in Darlow & Moule. Romans: Not in Pilling, Proof-sheets; not in Newberry Library, Ayer Indians; not in Darlow & Moule 2446(?). Corinthians: Not in Pilling, Proof-sheets; not in Newberry Library, Ayer Indians; Darlow & Moule 2445. Philippians: Not in Pilling, Proof-sheets; not in Newberry Library, Ayer Indians; Darlow & Moule 2447 (?). Epistles of Paul: Pilling, Proof-sheets, 1214; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Cherokee-15; not in Darlow & Moule. Also see North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 215 for the publication of the various books of the Bible.   Modern black morocco, covers diced and blind-tooled, spine with gilt ruling/beading and a neat gilt spine-label. Most of the Bible parts are browned and more than a few have waterstains. Despite these not uncommon faults we are proud to offer this volume, for we know just how scarce an item it is.  (25891)

Binding: Pebbled black leather sumptuously gilt: The covers tooled with a design composed of a base and pavilion formed of foliated C and S curve volutes enclosing fine foliated strapwork. Ornate columns support the pavilion, which encloses a shell. From the base hang a pair of acroteria, and the base supports a vase of flowers on a rocaille. Board edges gilt-rolled; gilt inner dentelles. Spine divided into compartments by narrow raised bands: Each compartment with a frame of treble fillets, within the second compartment the title gilt-lettered, the remaining compartments ornamented within by fine foliated filigree. All edges gilt.

Provenance: Presentation copy to Harriet E. Henderson with her name in gilt centered on the front cover.

•  Not in Hills; not in Herbert; not in O'Callaghan. Binding as above with a few barely noticeable small abrasions. A few spots of light staining on some pages. As nice an example of this kind of Bible "production" as you are ever going to find.

Provenance:  Presentation copy, front covers gilt-stamped “Presented to Samuel A. Crozer, by the teachers of the Upland Baptist Sunday School”; front pastedowns with armorial bookplate of Samuel Aldrich Crozer. Crozer was the son of John P. and Abigail Crozer, who endowed the Crozer Theological Seminary (now part of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School); he served as president of the seminary's Board of Trustees and erected the chapel of the Upland Baptist church.

Binding:  Signed binding by Lewis & Sons of London: Black morocco, covers framed and panelled in gilt fillets with gilt-tooled corner fleurons, spines gilt extra, front covers with gilt-stamped presentation as above; board edges gilt-dotted, turn-ins with gilt roll. All edges gilt.

•  This ed. not in Darlow & Moule (see 1193 for 1855 ed.).   Binding as above, very minor wear to corners and spine, overall bright and beautiful. Two vols. only, lacking first vol. of O.T. Front pastedowns each with private bookplates as above; then ex-library with stamps/annotations variously placed and of various generations, back pastedowns and free endpapers with paper adhesions; properly deaccessioned. One frontis. map with tear along one fold, neatly repaired from rear. A very few scattered small spots of light foxing in one volume, pages otherwise clean.  (26128)

•  Publisher’s cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title; cloth faded along edges and spine. Front hinge (inside) slightly tender. Pages faintly age-toned; in fact, a very clean nice copy.

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      SCOTS,  click here.

The gospels of Luke and John are in Sangir (a.k.a. Sangihe, a.k.a. Sangirese: Siau), an Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia and the Philippines, and despite the initial large printing, this publication of Luke and John is uncommon. We find only one copy reported in U.S. libraries.

•  Darlow & Moule 7976.   Publisher's black roan in imitation of straight-grain morocco, contents in gilt on front cover. Leather worn at edges and chipped from spine with some small loss; front joint (outside) starting and volume fragile. Internally very good. Now housed in a simple, acid-free phase box.  (25032)

•  Binding as above, with light rubbing; front pastedown with Leipzig bookseller's small ticket. Occasional faint smudges; pages mostly clean. A handsome thing.  (26301)

Click the images for enlargements.

This is the first New Testament in the language. The translator was Rodolphe Charles Petter(1865–1947), a Mennonite missionary, assisted by Anna Wolfname, Susie Woundedyeyes, Chief Standingelk, and other Indian informants. The verso of the title-page reads: “The New Testament in Cheyenne, translated by Rev. Rodolphe Petter, D.D. from the Greek, with careful comparison with the Latin Vulgate, and other versions.”

•  North & Nida, Book of a Thousand Tongues (1972), 216.   Publisher's black fabrikoid in very good condition, with title gilt on cover. Endpapers, title-page, and some other leaves with smoke-smudges to top and/or fore-portions; preface leaf separated but present. All edges red with top ones darkened.  (25292)