The Bible.

eighteenth-century gilt-panelled calf

A handsome sixteenth-century edition of the Geneva Bible finely bound in gilt-panelled calf.

The Geneva version was first published in 1560. The translation was primarily the work of English 'Marian exiles', who, having fled England following the accession of Mary I in 1553, sought to create a version of the scriptures that emphasised clarity and promoted accessibility for the learned lay. It was the primary Bible of the evangelical movement and continued to be used by dissenting Protestants — from Shakespeare to Oliver Cromwell — well into the seventeenth century; it was one of the Bibles taken to America by the first pilgrims on the Mayflower.

The Geneva is sometimes known as the 'Breeches Bible' for the rendering of 'Aprons as 'breeches' in Gen. 3:7. Notable features include the use of verse divisions, which made it easier to locate specific passages, and extensive study notes, commentary, and annotations that reflected the Reformed Calvinist theology of the time. As a result the translation proved unpopular with the Elizabethan regime, which sought a more moderate religious settlement. The Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker was duly authorised in 1568 to produce a more orthodox translation, the Bishops' Bible, which promoted the Anglican church and would go on to form the basis of the King James Version in 1611.

'The New Testament is a careful revision of William Whittingham's (d.1579) Testament of 1557, due to a further comparison with Beza's Latin translation. The Old Testament and Apocrypha are based mainly on the Great Bible, corrected from the original Hebrew and Greek, and compared with the Latin versions of Leo Juda and others. The influence of the revisers of Olivetan's French Bible is strikingly shown by the fact that the "Arguments" to the Books of Job and Psalms in this English edition are translated almost word for word from those found in the French octavo Bible printed at Geneva in 1559' (Darlow & Moule).

This edition the variant with the verso of leaf *iii 2nd column, 3rd paragraph reading: 'Yea verily: that by sight, taste & feeling, / as wel as by hearing, we might be instruc- / ted, assured, and brought to obedience'. The text closely resembles a quarto Geneva Bible printed in 1581 also bound with the metrical psalms (no.170 in Herbert's revised Historical Catalogue of Printed Editions of the English Bible 1525-1961), and the quarto edition of 1580, likewise with the metrical psalms (Herbert no.165). Bound without the Concordance found in ESTC S1790, but with The Booke of Common Prayer (lacking preliminary four leaves) and Sternhold & Hopkins' Whole Booke of the Psalmes (lacking leaf C8).

With early provenance for the Bowen family: 'My sonne Richard Bowen was borne the twenty third day of December in [the] yeare of our Lord one thousand six hundred and seventy nin: 1679. He was borne on Saturday about six of the clocke in [the] morning and baptised of [the] twenty day of January by Mr Rich[ard] Giles of Walverden' (pen note to the verso of leaf E8 in The Booke of Common Prayer).

3 works in 1 vol.; 4to (23.5 x 18 cm); bound without Concordance, variant A with *iii verso 2nd column 3rd paragraph reading: 'Yea verily: that by sight, taste & feeling, / as wel as by hearing, we might be instruc- / ted, assured, and brought to obedience', woodcut general and New Testament title-pages, woodcut printer's devices, initials, head and tailpieces, old library note in pen to upper margin of general title, ink stamp to lower margin, bookplate to front pastedown, general title re-margined and mounted via stub, periodic light dampstaining and spotting, bound with: The Booke of Common Prayer, lacking preliminary 4ff including title, dated pen inscription to verso of E8; and The Whole Booke of Pslames, lacking f. C8, and with final f. re-margined and mounted via stub; eighteenth-century gilt-panelled calf, spine lettered in gilt, joints expertly repaired, very good; [2]; [40]; 432, '443-444', [4], 441-554ff; [10], 91, [11]pp; collation: []² A-E⁸ A-3H⁸ 3I^1-2 *⁴ 3K-3Y⁸ 3Z¹⁰; A-C⁷ D-G⁸.

Herbert 199; DM 153; cf.ESTC S101765 & S1790.