BIBLE [with] PSALMS

£15,000 · Offered by Sokol Books

A rare complete Geneva Bible, with the Psalms, published clandestinely in Amsterdam for the English market with a false date and imprint. The binding is very finely worked and shares the same overall design with many bindings in the British library, often with royal, or noble arms, but most particularly with a Scottish binding Shelfmark C21d12, which also has a floral border. The use of black calf and a decoration of repeated rose tools on the spine is particularly striking and effective. The exiled English community at Geneva, during the reign of Queen Mary, became a centre for Bible study and under the guidance of Whittingham, a new translation of the Bible was undertaken. The present edition was the work of William Whittingham, Anthony Gilby, Thomas Sampson, and perhaps others, revised by Laurence Tomson, with the Franciscus Junius translation of Revelation translated to English by Tomson. The Bible that was produced at Geneva used several devices to help the reader study, understand and interpret. The script was divided into numbered verses for the first time. An argument was also used before each book and chapter to help explain the meaning. The marginal notes amount to 300,000 words or about a third of the complete length. The translators used these scholarly annotations to clarify ambiguous meanings and for cross-referencing. King James, to impose his version, discouraged the printing of the Geneva version from 1611. The authorities of the seventeenth century were also

• Binding: Hardcover

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