Overview

An exceptionally rare printing of a late Elizabethan English Bible: a 1577 Geneva Bible printed by Christopher Barker, identified as Herbert 148, preserved in an early wooden-board binding, with metal work on the binding and bound together with the Book of Common Prayer and a 1618 edition of The Whole Book of Psalms. Although there is no written record of how many of this specific bible was printed, very few have come up for sale in recent memory.

This substantial small folio volume represents one of the most influential books in the English-speaking world. The Geneva Bible was the Bible of Shakespeare's England, the Bible carried by many Puritan settlers to the New World, and the principal English Protestant Bible before the rise of the King James Version.

The volume retains numerous woodcut illustrations, maps, diagrams, marginal notes, ownership inscriptions spanning centuries, and an impressive early binding with wooden boards and remnants of metal furniture.

The Geneva "Breeches" Bible

Bibliographical Identification

The Bible, That Is, The Holy Scriptures Contained in the Olde and Newe Testament

• Printed in London by Christopher Barker
• Dated 1577
• Small folio format
• Identified as Herbert 148
• Geneva Version
• Signatures collating in sixes consistent with Herbert's description

The title page reads:

"Imprinted at London by Christopher Barkar, dwelling in Pater noster Rowe at the signe of the Tygres head. 1577."

Christopher Barker served as Royal Printer to Queen Elizabeth I and held the crown patent for printing English Bibles.

Contents

Bound together in one volume are:

The Book of Common Prayer

With decorative title page and liturgical texts used throughout the Church of England.

The Geneva Bible (1577)

Containing the Old and New Testaments with extensive Protestant commentary and marginal notes.

The Whole Book of Psalmes (1618)

The Sternhold and Hopkins metrical Psalter:

"The Whole Booke of Psalmes, Collected into English Meter"

Printed for the Company of Stationers, London, 1618.

The presence of the 1618 Psalter suggests the volume was assembled or rebound in its present form no earlier than 1618.

Notable Features

The volume retains numerous desirable Geneva Bible features including:

• Woodcut maps
• Biblical illustrations
• Architectural diagrams
• Tabernacle plans
• Garden of Eden map
• Ark of the Covenant illustration
• Israelite encampment diagram
• Musical notation in the Psalter
• Extensive marginal commentary

Binding

A particularly attractive survival.

Features include:

• Thick wooden boards
• Early leather covering
• Raised bands
• Remnants of original metal furniture
• Evidence of former clasps
• Early sewing structure
• Centuries of honest use and wear

The binding has never been heavily modernized and retains considerable historical character.

Provenance

The volume contains multiple ownership inscriptions and manuscript annotations spanning several centuries.

Visible inscriptions appear to include eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ownership entries, family records, calculations, and signatures.

One inscription appears to record:

"John Bland..."

January 5th, 1732

Additional names and ownership marks remain for further research.

Historical Significance

England in 1577

This Bible was printed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, only nineteen years after her accession to the throne.

England was emerging from decades of religious conflict following the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth herself. The Protestant Reformation had transformed English religious life, and access to Scripture in the English language had become a defining feature of the new Church of England.

When this Bible was printed:

• William Shakespeare was approximately thirteen years old.
• Sir Francis Drake was preparing for his circumnavigation of the globe.
• The Spanish Armada had not yet sailed.
• Jamestown and Plymouth Colony were still decades in the future.
• The King James Bible would not appear for another thirty-four years.

The Geneva Bible

First produced by English Protestant exiles in Geneva during the reign of Mary I, the Geneva Bible became the most influential English Bible of the sixteenth century.

It introduced many innovations now taken for granted:

• Numbered verses throughout the text
• Extensive study notes
• Cross references
• Maps and illustrations
• Roman type rather than blackletter

It was the preferred Bible of:

• English Puritans
• Scottish Presbyterians
• Many early American colonists

The Geneva Bible remained enormously popular even after the publication of the King James Version in 1611.

Christopher Barker

Christopher Barker was among the most important printers in English history.

As Queen Elizabeth's Royal Printer, he possessed exclusive rights to print many official English Bibles and religious texts.

His imprint appears on some of the finest surviving English Bibles of the late sixteenth century, and his editions remain highly sought after by collectors and institutions.

Condition

Condition consistent with a heavily used devotional volume over more than four centuries.

Observed features include:

• General age toning
• Front cover has ancient book worm holes
• Edge wear
• Scattered staining
• Old repairs
• Losses to portions of preliminary leaves
• Binding wear
• Ownership inscriptions
• Period annotations

The volume remains an impressive and highly displayable example of an early English Protestant Bible.

Please examine the photographs carefully.

Dimensions:

• Weight - 2.6KG
• Height - 29cm
• Width - 18.5cm
• Thickness - 10cm