first edition
1763 · Cambridge
by BIBLE IN ENGLISH
Cambridge: Printed by John Baskerville, 1763. BIBLE IN ENGLISH; BASKERVILLE, John. BASKERVILLE, John. The Holy Bible, Containing the Old Testament and the New. Translated out of the Original Tongues, and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised, by His Majesty's Special Command. Appointed to be Read in Churches. Cambridge: Printed by John Baskerville, 1763.
Full Description:
[BIBLE IN ENGLISH]. The Holy Bible, Containing the Old Testament and the New: Translated out of the Original Tongues, and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised, by His Majesty’s Special Command. Appointed to be Read in Churches. Cambridge: Printed by John Baskerville, 1763.
First edition, with the list of subscribers in the third state, ending with "The Hon. Charles York, Esq; Attorney General.” Two large folio volumes in one (19 1/8 x 12 1/4 inches; 480 x 311 mm.). Complete with [573] leaves. Text ends on leaf 13E1, and is followed by an Index and Tables (*a-*e, *f1). List of subscribers bound in after title-page and dedication. Text in double columns.
Beautifully bound in early 19th-century full diced tan calf. Boards elaborately ruled and tooled in gilt and blind. Spine stamped and lettered in gilt. Front board lettered in gilt, reading "John Miles/ West End/ Hampstead." Marbled endpapers. All edges marbled. Gilt dentelles. Back board with some very mild scuffing and a tiny bit of worming to head of board and at top and bottom of outer hinge. Some light foxing to first title-page and preliminary leaves, but text is very clean. With the dates of births and deaths of the Miles family in old ink manuscript on the front free endpaper. Housed in a full contemporary leather wrap. This wrap has contributed to the wonderful preservation of the binding. Overall a very good, clean copy.
Originally priced four guineas in sheets, for subscribers, "[t]he edition consisted of 1250 copies, of which 556 were remaindered in 1768 and bought by the London bookseller R. Baldwin at 36s. each....Baldwin was offering copies at three guineas in sheets in 1771" (Gaskell).
“One of the most beautifully printed books in the world” (Dibdin). This edition “has always been regarded as Baskerville’s magnum opus, and is his most magnificent as well as his most characteristic specimen” (T.B. Reed, A History of the Old English Letter Foundries, p. 279). Gaskell declared that the title-page to the New Testament is “a perfect page of fine printing.”
Although the Baskerville Bible is now recognized as one of the greatest Bibles of all time, it was initially a financial failure. Costing £2,000 to print, the remaining stock (about half of the edition) was remaindered five years after publication to a London bookseller. It was Baskerville’s last great book.
"Aesthetically, the highest point in English Bible printing so far was John Baskerville's folio printed at Cambridge in 1763. To achieve his ambition to print a folio Bible, Baskerville had to become University Printer, on not very advantageous terms. The Bible uses his types, paper and ink, and shows his characteristic 'machine-made' finish: very smooth and even in colour and impression, with glossy black ink on smooth paper. The design is traditional, but the quality of material and workmanship is so high, and the conventions are so delicately modified and consistently applied that the result is extremely impressive" (The Cambridge History of the Bible: The West from the Reformation to the Present Day, p. 464).
Darlow & Moule 857. ESTC T93106. Gaskell, Baskerville, 26. Herbert 1146. Huntington Library, Great Books in Great Editions, 6.
HBS 69256.
$15,000. (Inventory #: 69256)
Full Description:
[BIBLE IN ENGLISH]. The Holy Bible, Containing the Old Testament and the New: Translated out of the Original Tongues, and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised, by His Majesty’s Special Command. Appointed to be Read in Churches. Cambridge: Printed by John Baskerville, 1763.
First edition, with the list of subscribers in the third state, ending with "The Hon. Charles York, Esq; Attorney General.” Two large folio volumes in one (19 1/8 x 12 1/4 inches; 480 x 311 mm.). Complete with [573] leaves. Text ends on leaf 13E1, and is followed by an Index and Tables (*a-*e, *f1). List of subscribers bound in after title-page and dedication. Text in double columns.
Beautifully bound in early 19th-century full diced tan calf. Boards elaborately ruled and tooled in gilt and blind. Spine stamped and lettered in gilt. Front board lettered in gilt, reading "John Miles/ West End/ Hampstead." Marbled endpapers. All edges marbled. Gilt dentelles. Back board with some very mild scuffing and a tiny bit of worming to head of board and at top and bottom of outer hinge. Some light foxing to first title-page and preliminary leaves, but text is very clean. With the dates of births and deaths of the Miles family in old ink manuscript on the front free endpaper. Housed in a full contemporary leather wrap. This wrap has contributed to the wonderful preservation of the binding. Overall a very good, clean copy.
Originally priced four guineas in sheets, for subscribers, "[t]he edition consisted of 1250 copies, of which 556 were remaindered in 1768 and bought by the London bookseller R. Baldwin at 36s. each....Baldwin was offering copies at three guineas in sheets in 1771" (Gaskell).
“One of the most beautifully printed books in the world” (Dibdin). This edition “has always been regarded as Baskerville’s magnum opus, and is his most magnificent as well as his most characteristic specimen” (T.B. Reed, A History of the Old English Letter Foundries, p. 279). Gaskell declared that the title-page to the New Testament is “a perfect page of fine printing.”
Although the Baskerville Bible is now recognized as one of the greatest Bibles of all time, it was initially a financial failure. Costing £2,000 to print, the remaining stock (about half of the edition) was remaindered five years after publication to a London bookseller. It was Baskerville’s last great book.
"Aesthetically, the highest point in English Bible printing so far was John Baskerville's folio printed at Cambridge in 1763. To achieve his ambition to print a folio Bible, Baskerville had to become University Printer, on not very advantageous terms. The Bible uses his types, paper and ink, and shows his characteristic 'machine-made' finish: very smooth and even in colour and impression, with glossy black ink on smooth paper. The design is traditional, but the quality of material and workmanship is so high, and the conventions are so delicately modified and consistently applied that the result is extremely impressive" (The Cambridge History of the Bible: The West from the Reformation to the Present Day, p. 464).
Darlow & Moule 857. ESTC T93106. Gaskell, Baskerville, 26. Herbert 1146. Huntington Library, Great Books in Great Editions, 6.
HBS 69256.
$15,000. (Inventory #: 69256)
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