Bible; English; Authorised Version
[The Holy Bible, conteyning the Old Testament, and the New]
£8,190
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 21 September 2023 at 10:00 BST
Description
[London: Robert Barker, probably 1617].
Folio (39.9 x 25cm), modern calf, dated 1611 on spine. Signatures: A-B4 C6 D4, A-6D6. Lacking 8 leaves: A1 (general title-page) and D4 (containing last page of The Table and Kalender recto, and The Name and Order of all the Bookes ... verso) in prelims, and 6D2-6 (final 5 leaves, Revelation) in main text; New Testament title-page (5D1) dated 1611 trimmed and mounted and probably supplied from another copy. Text in black letter, double column, 59 lines to the page, decorative woodcut headpieces and initials, calendar printed in red and black. Bound with John Speed's engraved double-page map of the Holy Land (at front), and 12 of 18 leaves from Speed's Genealogies (interspersed throughout the text).
Map creased and with small chip to head; preliminary quires A-B with a few small holes in text and spill-burn in gutter costing a few letters, A2-4 creased, mounted on guards and reinforced along lower margins, A2 with additional repair at head next to woodcut royal arms; main text with damp-staining to lower margins of quires 2X and 6C-6D, light damp-staining to lower fore corners of a handful of other quires, 3F3 margins strengthened, 3O1 and 3O6 strengthened along lower margins obscuring signature-mark and part of side-note in former, 4F2 and 5I6 with small spill-burns to minimal effect on text, faint blue staining to 5D2 recto (first leaf of NT text), 5N1 small repair to lower margin, circular oil-stain to head of last few leaves
[ESTC S122467; Darlow & Moule 353]
Footnote
Note: Third of the five large black-letter folio editions of the King James Bible printed between 1611 and 1640, reading 'leaf for leaf' (Darlow & Moule) with the two preceding editions, the 'Great He Bible' of 1611 and the first in any format, and the 'Great She Bible' of 1613, and agreeing very closely with the fourth and fifth editions of 1634 and 1640, but with distinguishing points including: dedication leaf (A2) with woodcut royal arms at head but without royal initials ('C R' added for the fourth edition); woodcut initial of Psalm 122 depicting St John the Evangelist; Jeremiah 18:3 with 'whelles' (for 'wheels'); Hebrews 12:1 with 'unto the race' ('unto' removed for the fourth edition); marginal readings in italics (changed to roman types by the fifth edition).