Summary: The Bible of the Protestant Reformation, with 144 editions since first published. This is one of the finest examples of the 1st Edition, 1560 Geneva Bible ever to hit the market. Museum quality. Retains original, contemporary, paneled calf boards. The Bible text proper is complete, lacks only the general title (which is supplied in fine facsimile on period paper), and one prelim. 2/5 maps present, yet rarely ever found retained. Complete tables and red-ruled which indicates that it was issued to someone of rank, quite possibly an association copy. Margins excellent as anything this early is usually trimmed. Condition very clean. A once in a lifetime find. Only other comparable worldwide is on ABE at 300k.

1560 Quarto First Edition Geneva Bible

The First Edition of the Elizabethan Family Bible

Size: Quarto (10” x 7” x 2.5”)

Font: Two Column Roman

Binding: Black Calf

Extras: Ruled in Red, One Double-Page Map, Clasps, Clamshell

Printer: Rouland Hall, Geneva

[The Bible and Holy Scriptures Conteined in The Olde and Newe Testament. Translated According to the Ebrew and Greke, and conferred with the best Translations in divers Languages. With Moste Profitable Annotations…]

The first edition of the Geneva Bible. Unrivaled for three generations, the translation produced by Marian exiles showed a distinct advance on its predecessors: Roman type, portable size, verse divisions, marginal study notes, and explanatory woodcuts. Its phrases find an echo in Scripture quotations from Shakespeare to Bunyan.

A very good textually complete copy, professionally rebacked with closing clasps and accompanied by a matching clamshell box.

Description: General title page (1560) in fine facsimile on laid paper. Two of the five double-page maps present (“The Description of the Holie Land”) and bound after the prelims, and the map in Joshua 15, loose from binding. Text in two column Roman type with the whole ruled in red. The type and the woodcuts are both larger than the editions later printed in England. New Testament title page (1560) with the woodcut of the crossing of the Red Sea. Ends with The Two Tables and The order of the yeres… First chapter floriated initials throughout.

Collation***^4(-***1,4), a-z^4, A-Z^4, Aa-Zz^4, &^6, Aaa-Zzz^4, Aaaa-Zzzz^4, Aaaaa-Bbbbb^4, Aa-Zz^4, Aaa-Lll^4. Lacks general title page and a preliminary leaf, with the former supplied in facsimile on laid paper.

Binding: Rebacked and recornered in black polished calf preserving contemporary boards. Covers in two-toned blind-rolled paneled calf. Spine with five blind-ruled bands and the words “Holy Bible” and “At Geneva 1560” lettered in gilt. Two metal claps. Plain endpapers. Matching custom clamshell.

Condition: Pages are crisp, clean, and bright overall. Thick paper with wide margins and a strong impression of ink. a1-3 lightly stained and edges frayed; a1, L3 small marginal loss to lower outer corner; D4-F2 faint staining; K1-O4 light staining to margins and gutter; &5, Ccc 2-3 small circular stain; Zzz4 small closed tear to upper inner column without loss. Earlier pages a bit wavy with very light stains. A very attractive copy of the first edition of the Geneva Bible.

References: Herbert 107; USTC 450496; Luborsky 2166; PMM 83.

Shipping: Free overnight shipping.

Note: The product of English Protestants who, in Mary’s reign, had taken refuge in Geneva to flee persecution. Instead of procuring a title page with an elaborate composite woodcut design (e.g. Coverdale, Matthews, Great Bible), they chose an unimposing small woodcut of the Red Sea. The cut depicts the hopeless cause of the Israelites prior to the parting of the Red Sea. Hemmed in on all sides by mountains, the sea, and the Egyptians in hot pursuit, they turned to God for deliverance. The exiles’ aim with this woodcut was to invite the commoner into the text and draw an analogy between the hopeless Israelites and the suffering Church of God and its ministers, awaiting God’s deliverance from bondage with an opportunity to return to England.

“A truly rare book is one that you cannot find anywhere else when desired…” Ken Sanders