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[Bible] BIBLE: That Is, The Holy Scriptures Contained in the Old and New Testament. Translated according to the Ebrew and Greeke, and conferred with the best Translations in divers Languages. London Robert Barker 1610

The Breeches Bible, an important Geneva Version, issued prior to the printing of the first King James Bible in 1611, also by Barker in London. With engraved titles to the Bible, the New Testament and the Psalms, initials and chapter heads and additional ornaments engraved, 3 engraved maps of the Holy Land and lands adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea within the text, a good number of engraved illustrations throughout the text and confined primarily to the Old Testament. 4to, in antique binding of full calf, covers with roll tools in blind at the borders, spine in compartments with raised bands, marbled end-leaves. Engraved Title, (2 ff), 380 pp. on 190 ff.; Engraved Title to Psalms (bound at end), 392 pp. on 195 ff.; Engraved Title to the New Testament, 242 pp. on 121 ff.; Tables to the Bible, 22 pp. on11 ff.. A very well preserved and pleasing survival. A few tears internally, generally clean and unpressed, original binding should be restored at the hinges and spine panel.

AN IMPORTANT BIBLE AND EARLY PRINTING. THE BREECHES BIBLE, VERSION OF THE GENEVA BIBLE. Prior to the printing of Authorized King James version, the Geneva was by far the most popular English Bible. First printed in 1560, the 'Geneva version is so called because it was translated by W. Whittingham , Anthony Gilby, Thomas Sampson, and perhaps others, at Geneva. The New Testament is a careful revision of Whittingham's 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.
The Geneva Bible showed a distinct advance on its predecessors, and appearing as it did in compact form, with roman type and verse divisions, obtained speedy and permanent popularity. Its arguments and numerous explanatory notes (often distinctly Calvinistic in tone), which amount to a running commentary, endeared it especially to the Puritans, and for three generations it maintained its supremacy as the Bible of the people. Its phrases find an echo in Scripture quotations from Shakespeare to Bunyan. Between 1560 and 1644 at least one hundred and forty editions appeared of the Geneva Bible or Testament. Examination of King James' Bible of 1611 shows that its translators in correcting the Bishops' Bible were influenced more by the Geneva than by any other English version.
The cost of the work was defrayed by members of the congregation at Geneva whose heartes God touched to encourage the revisers not to spare any charges for the furtherance of such a benefite and fauour of God. Conspicuous amongst these was John Bodley (father of the founder of the Bodleian Library), who received from Elizabeth a patent, dated 8 Jan. 1561, for the exclusive right to print the version in England for seven years.

$US2950

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