1599 Quarto Illustrated Geneva Bible
Key Features
Format: Quarto (8” x 6. 5”)
Font: Two Column Roman
Binding: Cambridge Paneled Calf
Printer: Christopher Barker, London [i.e. Stam, Amsterdam]
SKU: R10
Key Features
Format: Quarto (8” x 6. 5”)
Font: Two Column Roman
Binding: Cambridge Paneled Calf
Printer: Christopher Barker, London [i.e. Stam, Amsterdam]
SKU: R10
Key Features
Format: Quarto (8” x 6. 5”)
Font: Two Column Roman
Binding: Cambridge Paneled Calf
Printer: Christopher Barker, London [i.e. Stam, Amsterdam]
SKU: R10
[The Bible, That is, the Holy Scriptures Conteined in the Old and New Testament. Translated according to the Ebrew and Greeke, and conferred with the best translation in divers Languages. With most profitable Annotations…]
Summary
The famous 1599 Geneva Bible. Complete text in Roman font with the full set of Geneva illustrations and maps. Bound with the Metrical Psalter.
Description
Lacks the first preliminary leaf (general title) and begins with How to Take Profit. Text in two column Roman font containing Tomson’s New Testament and Junius’ Revelation. Complete set of Geneva illustrations and maps. Title to the Second Part (n.d.) with decorated headpiece. Issued without Apocrypha. Bible text concludes with Tables a dated colophon (1599). Bound with The Booke of Psalmes by Sternhold and Hopkins (n.d.), lacking the final leaf of Prayers. Woodcut first chapter initials and decorated head- and tailpieces throughout. This copy was likely printed in the 1630s in Amsterdam.
Collation
*^2(-*1), A-Z^8, &^6 (first part: Gen-Job), Aa-Qq^8 (second part: Psalms- Malachi), Aaa-Qqq^8 (-Aaa2), Rrr^4 (New Testament). Lacks general title page and Aaa2.
Binding
Eighteen century Cambridge paneled calf. Spine with five recessed bands and a faded gilt lettered title “Holy Bible”. Plain endpapers. All edges red.
Condition
Rubbed, especially to edges and joints; *2 frayed to edges; A-C light staining to gutter; &1 small upper corner loss reducing three letters of headline; Ff2, Cc3 closed tear into text; Ff1 two pen-sized holes to inner column; cropped to fore-edge with loss to a letter of sidenotes.
Provenance
“Ann North her Book 1682” to front pastedown.
Note
Most Geneva Bibles dated 1599 were printed in Amsterdam following King James's 1616 ban on printing the Geneva Bible in England, intended to promote his sponsored translation. Despite the ban, the Geneva Bible remained popular and was printed on the continent, then imported into England. In the 1630s, Archbishop Laud prohibited its importation, prompting printers to add falsely dated title pages to circumvent restrictions. The Geneva Bible's popularity endured for over three generations, as evidenced by the vast number of pirated copies available today, highlighting that the King James Bible did not immediately become the dominant text.
References
Herbert 249; Wilson’s No. 5