1569 Scarce Second Quarto Geneva Bible – Printed in Geneva with Double-Page Maps

The Bible and the Holy Sctriptures Conteyned in the Olde and New Testament. Translated According to the Ebrue and Greke, and conferred with the best translations in diverse langages. With most Profitable Annotations upon all the hard places…

Summary

The scarce second edition of the Geneva Bible in quarto. Printed in Geneva in Roman font with illustrations, double-page maps, and provenance of a famous paper maker.

Description

Lacks the first preliminary leaf (Calendar Historical) and begins with To The Reader (1 p.), Of the Golden Nombre… etc. (3 pp.), A Supputation of the years (1 p.), A Table of the Cycle of the Sunne (1 p.), Kalendar with a small woodcut at the beginning of each month (6 pp.), Fairies in France and elsewhere (1 p.). The printed title page (1569) with decorative headpiece and Crispin’s device. Text in two column Roman type with the complete set of illustrations and maps in the text. Bound with four of the additional double-page maps including the Wanderings of the Israelites (Nu 33), Ezekiel’s Temple (Ez 48), Description of the Holie Land (before NT title), and the Description of the Countreis and Places (before Acts). Also bound with the Degrees of Consanguinitie (Lev 18) and the map at Joshua provided in facsimile. Printed New Testament title page (1568) with printer’s device. Ends with the Table and the Order of the Years (1 p.). First chapter woodcut initials, head and tailpieces.

Collation

[par.]^8 [-par1], ***^4, a-c^4, d-z^8, A-Z^8, Aa-Gg^8 [Old Testament], n3-8 [Table of Names], Aa-Bb^4, Cc-Ss^8, Tt^3 [New Testament]. Lacks Apocrypha, Psalter, and first preliminary leaf.

Binding

Newly rebound in speckled brown calf. Elaborate blind tooling and rolls to boards within concentric frames. Spine with four raised bands and extensive blind tooling to compartments. One red morocco label with gilt-rules and the words “Holy Bible” letter in gilt and a date of 1569 letter in gilt to foot. New plain endpapers.

Condition

Overall a clean text; trimmed close with infrequent loss to first letter of the marginal notes; a-c small stain to lower gutter; Q7-R1 old tape repair with a couple of lines of text replaced in manuscript; T2-3 upper dark marginal stain impacting three lines of text; final map with a tear along fold; Tt1-3 last few leaves of tables with tape repairs to margins.

Provenance

Bookplate of James Whatman (1702-1759) on front pastedown with his signature on first blank leaf. On the next four blank pp. at the front Whatman described the history of the Geneva version in a neat hand, likely on his own wove paper. Whatman produced high-quality white paper in the 1740s that was used by state papers and also used in printed books. He was the first paper maker in Europe to make wove paper. 

Note

The second quarto edition of the Geneva version and one of only three editions printed in Geneva. The second edition is a smaller book than the 1560 edition. The Apocrypha was removed from this copy, likely by a zealous Puritan. The Psalter was an integral part of this edition and is lacking from this copy, but four of the five maps are present.

Scarcity

RBH records only three copies at auction since 1910. OCLC shows only six copies in institutions.

References

Herbert 130; ODNB 40776; STC 2106; not in USTC.