“IF EVERYTHING ELSE IN OUR LANGUAGE SHOULD PERISH, IT WOULD ALONE SUFFICE…”: 1629 KING JAMES BIBLE AND BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, IN HANDSOME FULL CONTEMPORARY BINDING

BIBLE. The Holy Bible, Contayning the Old Testament and the New… London: Bonham Norton and John Bill, 1629. Thick octavo, contemporary full paneled brown calf, raised bands. $6200.

Distinguished 1629 King James Bible, bound with a contemporary edition of the Book of Common Prayer, ornamented with woodcuts, in contemporary paneled calf-gilt.

The King James Version of the Bible (first published 1611) has exercised an incalculable impact on piety, language and literature throughout the English-speaking world. Macaulay praised it as “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). Bound with a 1629 edition of the venerable Book of Common Prayer—“as a source of spiritual inspiration, it is for most Englishmen second only to the Bible” (PMM 75). Illustrated with elaborate woodcut general and the New Testament title pages, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. Ruled in red throughout. Includes Apocrypha. Bound with a contemporary edition of Sternhold and Hopkins’ popular metrical psalter. Darlow & Moule 325. Herbert 425. Griffiths 1629:4 (prayer book). Old markings and marginalia.

Scattered light foxing, a few closed tears. Prayer book without leaves A1-A2, Bible complete. Final few leaves of metrical psalter with mild soiling. Without rear free endpaper. Contemporary calf-gilt handsome and supple; remnants of brass clasps on lower board, without catches. An excellent Bible.