[Rarebooks] 1599 [?] BIBLE plus Junius + + + + (FS)

[Serendipity Books]

Barker’s 1599 [1640 printing?]  “Geneva-Tomson-Junius  Bible”

with the

1632 Book of Common Prayer


Omnibus volume in a solid straight grain dark 
morocco 18th century binding, containing the following:



The Booke of Common Prayer, and Administration of 
the Sacraments: and other Rites and Ceremonies of 
the Church of England.  Imprinted at London by 
Robert Barker, Printer to the Kings most 
Excellent Maiestie: And by the Assignes of John 
Bill, 1633.  A-H8.  Large 8vo.  Colophon on last leaf dated 1632.


Bound with:


The Bible, that is, The Holy Scriptures conteined 
[sic] in the Old and New Testament.  Imprinted at 
London by the Deputies of Christopher Barker, 
1599 [sic?].   Large 8vo.  ¶4, A-Z8, &6, Aa-Pp8, 
Qq8 [verso blank].  This portion [Old Testament] 
collates complete, with engraved wood-cut 
pictorial title-page + second title-page (with 
center wood-cut) + 2ff [Preface, Notes, Order of 
Books].  The design of the general titles (e.g., 
woodcut border with 24 small compartments, etc.) 
is as described by Herbert (1599).  Numerous 
woodcuts throughout, including a map [of 
current-day Iraq region] showing the location of 
the Garden of Eden, and woodcuts depicting 
various portions of the Ark of the 
Covenant.  Pollard & Redgrave 2174.  Herbert, 
general description under 1599, Historical 
Catalogue of Printed Editions of the English Bible, 1525-1961.


Bound with:


Apocrypha.  Ccc8-Nnn8.  Paginated, 
745-920.  Added from another edition--  Herbert 
notes that in the 1599 edition (above and below), 
“The section containing the Apocrypha, though 
included in the list of books, was apparently 
omitted from all except  few copies.”  This 
particular Apocrypha differs slightly in 
typography and layout from the Barker 1599 Bible 
and is, apparently, from another 17th century edition.


Bound with:

A leaf with an ink portrait of Protestant 
theologian and Biblical translator Theodore Beza, 
“Drawn by Miss F. Clay 1803,” with another leaf 
of manuscript biography (with blind-stamp of later owner).


Bound with:


The New Testament of Our Lord Jesus 
Christ.  Translated out of the Greek by Theod. 
Baza
 Englished by L. Tomson.  (London: 
Christopher Barker, 1599.)  Aaa8-Qqq8, 
Rrr4.  This portion of Barker’s 1599 New 
Testament [continuation of the Bible above] 
collates complete, and includes the first 
appearance in English of Junius’s annotations on 
the Book of Revelation.  Same woodblock 
illustrated title-page as The Bible­with musical 
notes at the base­but without an imprint or date; 
that information is printed as a colophon on Rrr4 
verso [“Imprinted at London by the Deputies of 
Christopher Barker, Printerr to the Queenes most 
excellent Maiestie.  1599 [sic?]”]


Bound with:


The Booke of Psalms.  Collected into English 
Meeter [sic], by Thomas Sternehold, John Hopkins, 
and others
 [London, 1599?]  A-F8, G7.  [4], 93 
[act. 91], [13]pp.  Two leaves (A3, A4) 
misbound.  Repair to edges of three 
leaves.  Lacking final leaf (G8, a blank).  This 
Book includes printed music.  With illustrated 
title-page.  Herbert notes “the Metrical Psalms 
(n.d.), which are almost invariably found in 
copies of the Bible dated 1599, may perhaps be 
considered an essential part of the book, though 
they have a separate title and distinct register; no imprint is given.”


             Preceding the printed text (e.g. 
Common Prayer) is a section of ten unruled fine 
gray paper leaves, with the first leaf having, in 
a decoratively drawn design with handsome 
calligraphy, the following note: “Bought in 
London/ Rice Jones’s/ Cost. 7s/ 6d.  New Bind.g 
13s./ May A.D. 1785.”  This is followed by an 
attractively penned 4pp manuscript “Family-Index 
to the Bible, Pointing out some of the ‘plainest’ 
and ‘most instructive’ portions of it for the 
benefit of ‘common readers/’ Recommended as 
proper to be read often in ‘Families,’ for the 
Instruction of the ‘Ignorant & Unlearned.’”

             Bound in full black straight grain 
morocco, decorative gilt stamped designs on the 
cover and spine; all edges gilt.  Some expected 
shelf rubbing on edges and joints, but covers 
firm and book in overall very good condition.


As Herbert notes in Historical Catalogue of 
Printed Editions of the English Bible, 1525-1961 
(p.115), “There are many editions bearing this 
date [1599], which while agreeing closely are yet 
distinct.  No doubt a certain number of copies 
were originally issued in a mixed state.  The 
nominal date, 1599, is probably untrue in almost 
every case; there were apparently published at 
different times in Amsterdam and Dort and adopted 
by Barker.  The phenomena of the various editions 
described under the year 1599, and the very 
similar edition of 1633, constitute one of the 
most curious problems in the bibliography of the 
English Bible.”  This copy--- at least the O.T.­corresponds to Herbert 252.

             In his study of The Bible in English 
(Yale, 2003), David Daniell devoted an entire 
chapter (#22) to this particular edition of the 
Geneva Bible specifically because it is the first 
edition to print Junius’s commentary on 
Revelations.  Daniell comments that “For some 
reasons, this­probably the most influential 
commentary on Revelation ever in English­has been 
ignored.”  After explaining in some detail 
Junius’ approach to this Book, Daniel states, 
“All the important details of this commentary, 
affecting Shakespeare and Milton, to mention no 
others, still need proper study.  Hold King Lear 
close to Junius’s Revelation, and the play glows 
with sudden response
 The arrival of such a 
commentary in 1599 in a good deal of national 
consciousness as the century turned and Queen 
Elizabeth was slowly dying, just before the great 
outburst of Shakespeare’s highest tragic and 
Apocalyptic writing, should surely be 
noted.  Finding Junius on Revelation at the 
conclusion of the Bible must have been a
s startling to some as would be finding that a 
modern Bible has printed at the end T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.”

             “The makers of the Bible that is 
Geneva-Tomson-Junius used everything concrete 
they could lay their hands on to illuminate 
Scripture, that enormous volume, for the 
reader­clear roman and italic typefaces of all 
sizes, many systems of annotation, maps, 
diagrams, woodcuts, music
 prologues, summaries, 
tables, running heads, numbered verses, 
cross-references, large concordances (sometimes 
several), all to express revealed and paradoxical 
truths from the creation of the world to its 
end.  The point of the Geneva Bibles is to help 
understanding and faith.  It is no surprise that 
the life of Geneva Bibles coincided with the very 
highest flourishing in English life from 1560 to 
1600, that extraordinary uprush of Elizabethan, 
Jacobean and Caroline drama, poetry and prose” (p.375).


Provenance: Marc Selvaggio.

$3500.00



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4) Institutions may be invoiced to suit their requirements.
5) California Sales Tax charged to California addresses.

************

Peter B. Howard
Serendipity Books
1201 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94702
voice: (510) 841-7455
fax: (510) 841-1920
e-mail: pbhoward at serendipitybooks.com
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