BIBLE. RIDER (William), editor:

The Apocrypha at Large; With Comments and Annotations, Theological, Historical, Critical, and Moral.

London: Printed for the Author; And (by his Appointment) Sold by S. Crowden, at the Looking-Glass; and J. Coote, at the King's-Arms, in Pater-Noster-Row; W. Ward, at Sheffield; T. Merril, at Cambridge; and W. Jackson, at Oxford. 1766. FIRST EDITION. Folio, 352 x 218 mms., unpaginated, pp. [319, 320- 326 blank], 4 full-page engraved plates, occasional text marked with "X," one annotation at first page of text of Baruch (Fffr), "probably the faithful translation of a genuine epistle," recently rebound in buckram, all edges gilt; title-page soiled, note on recto of front free end-paper, noting (correctly) "This forms part of the Christian's Family Bible in 3 vols." The writer and historian William Rider (1723–1785) published a number of books, including a translation of Candide, as well as, "A New History of England (50 vols., 1761–4), dedicated to George III. This work was designed to be an affordable and popular whig history of England, and contained lively engravings. It spanned the period from pre-Roman Britain to 1763. It was partly a compilation of primary sources and histories by T. Smollett and other secondary writers, but it also contained some original narrative and researches, notably on Celtic and Anglo-Saxon history. It was not a critical or commercial success, however. W. T. Lowndes, a later bibliographer, described it as one of the vilest Grub Street compilations ever published. In 1764 Rider published an atlas to accompany the work. An Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of the Living Authors of Great Britain (1762), published anonymously, was a short work containing accounts of, among others, Smollett, D. Hume, A. Young, and Samuel Johnson (with whom Rider was personally acquainted); it also carried a favourable notice of his own work" (ODNB). The Christian's Family Bible was published between 1673 and 1767. Darlow and Moule, 1178. ESTC T119808 locates only the copy at the BL.

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Book number: 8824

Catalogue: Bible

Keywords: Bible Apocrypha prose

BIBLE.

Biblia Sacra, sive Testamentum vetus ab m. Tremellio, & Fr. Junio ex Hebræo Latine redditum, et Testamentu novum a Theod: Beza è Græco in Latinu vers.

Londini: E: T et A: M sumpt: Societ, 1656. 12mo, 155 x 78 mms., pp. [662], collating A-X, Aa-Ff in 12s, Gg 1-6, engraved title-page, from which small portions have been neatly excised, with the remnants of some sort of yellow metallic leaf (now oxidized) on the verso, perhaps to give a "golden" tint to the clothing of the saints on the title-page, bound in contemporary sheepskin, lozenge in blind on covers and gilt ornaments at corners, remnants of clasps, but worn with front joint severely cracked, spine and corners worn. Copac notes, "A minor edition, without prefaces or notes, but with chapter summaries, of the Latin version of the O.T. by Tremellius and Junius, with Beza's version of the N.T. (The Apocrypha is omitted.) The Bible text is in 2 columns, divided into verses. The title page is engraved. 'The initials 'E.T.' stand for Evan Tyler; 'A.M.' may stand for Anne Maxey.' (D. & M.)" Darrow and Moule 6226. Wing B2761.

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Book number: 7498

Catalogue: Bible

Keywords: bible illustration religion

BIBLE. PRIESTLEY (Timothy):

The New Evangelical Family Bible; or, a complete Paraphrase, Exposition, and Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments: Containing A New and Beautiful Edition of the whole Sacred Texts of the Old and New Testaments, Correctly and Distinctly Printed at Large: Fully Explained and Illustrated With Copious Notes and Annotations, Doctrinal, Critical, Historical, and Experimental: Wherein the Mis-translations are Corrected; the seeming Contradictions Reconciled; former Errors Rectified, the Objections of Atheists, Deists, Arians, Socinians, and Free-thinkers Answered; difficult Passages Explained; and the Sacred Writings Displayed in their genuine Purity and Lustre. Together with Practical Observations and suitable Reflections on every Chapter, From the Beginning of Genesis to the End of Revelation.... Embellished with Large Elegant Scripture Prints, finely engraved on Copper.

London: Printed and Published under the immediate Inspection of the Author, Sold Wholesale and Retail by Alex Hogg.... And sold by H. D. Symonds..., J. Parsons, and W. Button; W. Ash; J. Murgatroyd; M. Gurney; J.S. Jordan; J. Mathews; J. Sudbury; J. Delahoy, at Deptford-Bridge; and M. Murray: and may be had of all the Booksellers and Newsmen, in London, Westminster, and at Bath, Bristol, Birmingham, Canterbury, Cambridge, [and 25 other towns in England]; and likewise in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Holland, Germany, America, &c. no date], [?1793 - 1794]. Folio, 397 x 230 mms., pp. vi, [7], 8 - 1080, weighing 5.7 kg. (12 pounds, 9 ounces), engraved frontispiece and 89 full-age engraved plates and maps, contemporary calf, rebacked, with old spine ornately gilt in compartments and red morocco label laid down, top and base of spine finely restored; covers scratched, but an interesting copy, with a small rectangular red morocco label, 110 x 42 mms., on the front paste-down end-paper, "John Hodges and Sarah Stroud/ Rotherhithe/ 1792," with their succeeding family history on five leaves at the end. A web site on the genealogy of the Hodges-Stroud alliance suggests that they never married, and that Louisa Lancaster Hodges, their daughter was baptised on 30 May 1794 at St. Mary's Rotherhithe, but went by the mother's surname. In fact, one of the records on the end-papers records, "Louisa Lancaster Stroud, the Daughter of the of the Aforementioned, Born May 8th 1794, Twenty Eight Minutes Past vie in the Morning at No. 296 Rotherhithe Street, Rother[hithe] & Baptised 30th May at St Marys Rotherhithe by the Rev. Shearman, Godfather, Mr. Willm Lancaster Snr Godmothers Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Baldwin." Timothy Priestley (1734 - 1814), one of six children of Jonas Priestley and Mary Swift and younger brother to Joseph Priestley (1733 - 1804), trained himself to work with brass and wood to make models for his older brother, but at an early age became interested in the dissenting ministry, and in 1760 was ordained priest to take up a role as past to a congregation at Kipping, Thornton, near Bradford. He eventually wound up in London, as minister of the Jewin Street Independent Church, London. At the same time he also edited the Christian's Magazine, or, Gospel Repository, which was designed to counteract unitarianism, with Selina, Countess of Huntingdon as the magazine's patron. ODNB gives the date of publication of this edition of the Bible as 1792, which is probably accurate, given the evidence of the bookplate. This seems to correspond to ESTC T95041, with copies located at the BL, Wisconsin-Madison, Chicago; and Dunedin in New Zealand What appears to be another issue, ESTC T200457 is located in the John Rylands Library. However, T95041 mentions two lists of subscribers, which are not present in this volume; nor is the portrait of Priestley, which is called for in the "Instructions to the Binder," but the somewhat eccentric placing of the plates and the admonitions about impressing the engravings, etc. suggest that each copy of the Bible was bound separately from the original issue numbers and that no two copies are likely to be exactly the same.

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Book number: 7725

Catalogue: Bible

Keywords: Bible family history prose

[BUTLER (Charles)]:

Horae Biblicae.

[?London] Printed in the year 1797. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [ii], 109 [110 Errata], uncut, original boards (worn), crudely rebacked with paper, later notes on end-papers, lacks front free end-paper, title taped to board, rather a sad copy. With the autograph of Michael Joseph Quin (1796 - 1843), the travel writer and Catholic journalist and a few corrections or annotations in his hand; and notes on Butler and Quin on the front paste-down end-paper by "Gal. Barrori," dated 1960. Butler (1750 - 1832), a Catholic, entered Lincoln's Inn in 1775 but could not proceed to the bar, as he could not take the oath of supremacy. The above work is a learned and succinct commentary on the Old and New Testaments as well as the sacred texts of other religions. The previous owner of this copy, Quin, when he was editing the Monthly Review and the Catholic Journal, while supporting Catholic emancipation, might very well have made Butler's acquaintance.

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Book number: 5538

Catalogue: Bible

Keywords: Bible Catholicism prose

[FONTAINE (Nicholas)]:

An Abridgment of the History of the Old and New Testament, interspersed with Moral and Instructive Reflections chiefly out of The Holy Father. By J. Reeve

Exeter: Printed by R. Thorn, And Sold by Him, and T. Lewin..., London, 1780. FIRST EDITION of this abridgment. 8vo (in 4s), 173 x 108 mms., pp. [iii] iv - vii [vii Errata], 390, [3] 4 - 178, viii, [8 adverts], contemporary calf, red leather label; slight wear to joints and extremities, but a very good copy, with a ownership inscription on the recto of the front free end-paper that affirms a comment on the volume cited below: "Mary Weld/ Sales House Shepton Mallet Somersetshire/ This book belongs to the Monastery of the / Visitation of our Lady Sales House/ Shepton Mallet Somersetshire/ April 23d 1831." Mary Sales Weld was Mother Superior at the Monastery [sic] from 1810 to at least 1831. The Jesuit and Biblical scholar Joseph Reeve (1733–1820) wrote a number of ecclesiastical and theological works, but also turned out a rather good poem published in 1776, Ugbrooke Park. This abridgment proved to be popular and reached a fourth edition by 1795. However, not everyone was thrilled with the Roman Catholic overtones, and The Monthly Review suggested caution: "In this abridgement of the Sacred History, the reflections, moral and religious, which are interspersed, are sensible, useful and sometimes excellent: But it is necessary to warn our readers, that the principles of Popery are so interwoven with the historical and other passages of scripture, that the unwary may be misled, and brought to imagine that the tenets of the Church of Rome are founded on, or supported by, the Sacred Volume; than which nothing can be more false and erroneous. We therefore wonder, that in books of this kind, if published by Protestants, the exceptionable passages should not be omitted; or, at least, accompanied by some satisfactory guard, and antidote, for the sake of general readers, in a Protestant country." ESTC T150444 locates five copies in these islands, and Newberry and University of Texas in Austin; OCLC adds Pitts Theology at Emory, Cornell, St. Louis.

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Book number: 8809

Catalogue: Bible

Keywords: Bible morality prose

MACBEAN (Alexander):

A Dictionary of the Bible; or, an Explanation of the Proper Names and Difficult Words in the Old and New Testament, accented as they ought to be pronounced. With Other Useful Particulars, For Those Who Would Understand The Sacred Scriptures, And Read Them With Propriety. The Second Edition, Corrected and Enlarged.

London: Printed for G. G. J. & J. Robinson, W. Goldsmith, Scatcherd & Whitaker..., 1792. 12mo, 178 x 98 mms., unpaginated, pp. [192], including three leaves of adverts at end, but without half-title, contemporary mottled calf, with spine slightly adversely affected; lacks label, but a good copy with the armorial bookplate of Abel John Ram Esq. on the front paste-down end-paper. Little is of known of MacBean's life, though he clearly obtained a degree at some stage, probably from a Scottish university, where the first degree was an A. M. Dr. Johnson took pity on him, found him literary work, and wrote a preface to his Dictionary of Ancient Geography (1773), in which, according to Johnson, MacBean "had given as much labour to Capua as to Rome." MacBean spent most of his life in great poverty; when he died in 1784, Johnson said of him, "He was very pious; he was very innocent; he did no ill, and of doing good a continual tenour of distress allowed him few opportunities." ESTC 006390985 locates copies in BL (2), Cambridge, Bodleian, National Trust, Longleat House; Notre Dame, Yale; Toronto, McMaster.

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Book number: 8528

Catalogue: Bible

Keywords: Bible scholarship prose

ROBINSON (Thomas):

Scripture Characters: or, A Practical Improvement of the Principal Histories in the Old and New Testament. In Four Volumes. The Third Edition.

London: Printed for the Author; and sold by J. Mathews..., C. Dilly..., and by the Booksellers in Leicester, 1793. 4 volumes. 12mo, pp. [vii], viii - xi [xii Contents], 443 [444 blank]; [iv], 448 [449 -464 Index]; [iv], 490; [iv], 473 [474 blank, 475 - 495 Index, 496 Errata, contemporary tree calf, gilt spines, black leather labels on three volumes, fragment of label on volume 2, joints cracked, tops and bases of spines worn, top portion of spine missing on volume 4. With the contemporary autograph "Joseph Pomery" on the title-page of each volume, and "Rich Williams/ May 3 1867" on the front paste-down end-paper of each volume. Robinson (1749–1813) the volume that led to this larger series, Theological Miscellany, in 1784, and the complete set first appeared in 1793, printed by Bensley, who also printed the fourth edition when it was published in 1800. Given the success of the book, one wonders why Robinson chose to have this third edition printed for himself. The scripture characters themselves seem to be exclusively male: the volumes beginning with Adam (but no mention of Eve), but Esther and the Virgin Mary manage to find themselves included. ESTC T100123 locates copies of this edition at the BL and University of London Library only.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 5885

Catalogue: Bible

Keywords: Bible Christianity prose