The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testament. Newly translated out of the originall tongues and with the former translations diligently compared and revised by his Majesties speciall Command.

$7,500.00

Item Number: 148109

London:, 1672.

Rare 1672 edition of the King James version of the Holy Bible with Geneva Bible notes. Folio, bound in early purple straight-grain morocco with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within double raised gilt bands, gilt ruling and scrolling to the panels, gilt-ruled turn-ins and inner dentelles, all edges gilt, text largely double-column, engraved additional title. Herbert 708; Wing B2285. Provenance: Reverend James Stirling (1709-1773), Minister of the Gospel of Glasgow, his copy (autograph note of provenance affixed opposite illustrated title); George Campbell (autograph presentation letter signed laid in); Sir John Stirling-Maxwell, Baronet (1866-1956), Scottish landowner, Tory politician and philanthropist. In good condition with rubbing and splitting to the hinges, additional title trimmed to plate margin with some minor loss and laid down, title and dedication mounted on stub, occasional repaired tears or marginal restoration. A very rare and desirable mid 17th century printing of the most influential version of the Bible.

“From about the middle of the seventeenth century until the appearance of the Revised Bible of 1881-5, the King James version reigned without rival” (Herbert 319). One of the most influential texts in the English language, Thomas Macaulay anointed it “a book, which if everything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power” (PMM 114). The official work of translation, commissioned by King James I of England, was undertaken by nearly 50 scholars over the span of 1604 to 1611, but it can be seen as the culmination of nearly a century of work, beginning with William Tyndale’s New Testament translations, and including the bibles of Coverdale and Whitchurch, the Bishops’ Bible, the Geneva Bible, and the Rheims New Testament.