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The Bible: Translated according to the Ebrew and Greeke, and conferred with the best translations in divers Languages. With most profitable Annotations…
Summary
A true 1599 black letter Geneva Bible with both titles. Bound in beveled oak boards with metalwork and blind tooling to covers, and with the Whole Book of Psalms.
Description
Begins with the title page (1599) with woodcut architectural border featuring Lady Justice and Mercy. Text in two column black letter. With Apocrypha as issued. New Testament title page (1599) with similar woodcut border. Title is enclosed within a rectangular frame. With Two Right Profitable and Fruitful Concordances by R[obert] F. H[errey] with printed title page and colophon (n.d.). Bound with The Whole Booke of Psalmes by Sternhold and Hopkins with printed title page featuring printer’s device (1599). First chapter woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces throughout.
Collation
[par]^2, A-Z^8, Aa-Zz^8, Aaa-Hhh^8, Iii^2 [Old Testament], *^4, Kkk-Yyy^8, Zzz^10 [New Testament]. Complete with both title pages.
Binding
Contemporary calf with concentric blind-rolled frames over beveled oak boards. Decorative brass corner pieces, central bosses, and hasps. One centerpiece, one hasp, and both clasps perished. Rebacked in dark brown calf with five raised bands.
Condition
Occasional dust soiling and thumb soiling but a clean text. General title page mounted with slight loss to upper gutter and one closed tear; A8 closed tear into text without loss; E1-3 upper corner marginal loss; final six leaves of Psalter reinforced at fore-edge; Psalter lacks last leaf of prayers. Old vellum endpaper tipped in.
Provenance
Recent bookplate of Edward and Cicely Hutchinson to front pastedown; ownership signatures of “George Bagshaw 1764”, “Mary Homes”, “Hamnes Homes”. Note at the end of the Prophets reading “"whose book i am if you will know in (loftost?) (Shame?) I will you show the one to him all men sight the other is full of might, joyne thou letters wittily and you may know my name thon by Hamnes Homes.” Another note before the Tables reads “Robert Homes his booke, God give him grace there on to looke.” A final note at the back of the books reads “Robert Homes his book 1614.”
Note
Unlike the many pirated Geneva Bibles bearing a false 1599 London imprint, this copy is an authentic artifact. Featuring black letter text and bound with the Apocrypha, it lacks the later heart-shaped general title pages. Printed in London toward the end of the sixteenth century, this edition is a relatively clean example of a Bible that saw approximately ten reprints with counterfeit 1599 title pages.
References
Herbert 247.