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[The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments: Newly translated out of the original tongues; and with the former translations diligently compared and revised.]
The first English Bible printed in America and the Bible of the Revolution.
Leaf Availability
Leviticus 26:45 - Numbers 1:3 $600
Deuteronomy 18:13 - 20:7 $500
Numbers 35:26 - Deuteronomy 1:14 $550
Judges 6:18 - 18:7 (headline and two lines in facsimile) $550
Judges 18:7 - 19:9 (headline and two lines in facsimile) $550
Judges 21:1 - Ruth 1:12 $600
Ruth 3:4 - 1 Samuel 1:1 $600
1 Chronicles 3:3 - 4:33 (headline in facsimile) $550
1 Chronicles 6:14 - 7:1 (headline in facsimile) $550
1 Chronicles 29:30 - 2 Chronicles 2:14 (upper corner portion in facsimile) $600
Nehemiah 13:5 - Esther 1:8 $650
Matthew 19:22 - 21:4 (repaired with missing text in facsimile) $500
Matthew 21:5 - 22:5 (repaired with missing text in facsimile) $550
John 11:19 - 12:12 (edges repaired with text in facsimile) $450
1 Thessalonians 5:11 - 2 Thessalonians 1:10 (repair to fore-edge with text in facsimile) $550
Hebrews 10:35 - 11:40 (repair with half of text in facsimile) $600
Each leaf is accompanied by a limited edition hardcover leaf book entitled The Bible of the Revolution.
Note
The Aitken Bible of 1782 occupies a critical place in the history of the Bible in America. During the Revolutionary War, the disruption of trade with Britain created a serious shortage of Bibles in the colonies, which had long depended upon imported English editions. Robert Aitken (1734–1802), a Scottish-born Philadelphia printer and publisher, undertook the considerable expense of producing a complete English Bible on American soil. Aitken petitioned Congress for support for his complete Bible. Congress referred the work to its chaplains, William White and George Duffield, who examined the edition and reported favorably upon its accuracy. On September 12, 1782, Congress formally approved their report and recommended Aitken’s Bible to the inhabitants of the United States, making it the only Bible ever formally recommended by the Continental Congress.
Published in Philadelphia in 1782, Aitken’s edition was the first complete English-language Bible printed in America. Its appearance near the conclusion of the Revolutionary War gave the book particular symbolic significance: a nation fighting for political independence had, for the first time, produced its own complete English Bible rather than relying upon presses in Britain. Approximately 10,000 copies were printed, but the edition proved financially disastrous for Aitken, and comparatively few complete examples survive. Individual leaves preserve a connection to both the history of the English Bible and the founding era of the United States, a Bible conceived amid the shortages of the Revolution, produced by an American printer, and formally recommended by Congress only weeks before the preliminary peace articles brought the Revolutionary War toward its end.
Shipping
All of our Aitken Bible leaves will be supplied with backing board, in a clear hanging bag, protected in cardboard, and shipped via UPS.
References
Herbert 1283; Wright pp.51-67.