“THE KING JAMES VERSION IS THE BIBLE OF THE HEART”: 1752 OXFORD EDITION OF THE KING JAMES BIBLE, ILLUSTRATED WITH OVER 200 FINE ENGRAVINGS AFTER JOHN STURT, HANDSOMELY BOUND WITH BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER IN ELABORATELY GILT-DECORATED MOROCCO

BIBLE. The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments… Oxford: Thomas Baskett, 1752. Thick quarto, contemporary full dark brown morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spine and boards with red morocco-gilt inlays to boards, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt.

1752 Oxford edition of the venerable King James Bible—“the most celebrated book in the English-speaking world” (Campbell, 1)—bound with a contemporary edition of the beloved Book of Common Prayer, in distinguished elaborately gilt-decorated contemporary morocco. Copiously illustrated with: engraved frontispiece portrait of George II; additional engraved title page for the prayer book, engraved allegorical frontispiece for the Bible, 204 delicate copper-plates (four each on 51 interleaved sheets) re-engraved by John Cole after images created by master engraver John Sturt and engraved title page for Cole’s work; and six folding maps.

First published in 1611, the King James Version of the Bible has exercised an incalculable impact on piety, language and literature throughout the English-speaking world. “Other translations may engage the mind, but the King James Version is the Bible of the heart” (Campbell, 275). The interior boasts 204 copper-plate engravings (on 51 interleaved sheets, each containing four separate images on two plates) after original engravings by John Sturt, England’s most noted engraver of books. In 1717, Sturt produced a series of 436 biblical scenes for Samuel Wesley’s History of the Holy Bible; John Cole re-engraved 204 to be offered separately by publisher Richard Ware in 1727. The six engraved folding maps depict the ancient Mediterranean world, the Garden of Eden, Jerusalem and the Temple, the Holy Land, the region of Jesus’ ministry and various apostolic voyages. This Bible bound with a contemporary Oxford edition of the magisterial Book of Common Prayer, first issued in 1549 and “a source of spiritual inspiration… for most Englishmen second only to the Bible” itself (PMM 75). Prayer book with engraved frontispiece portrait of King George II, additional engraved title page by Sturt, woodcut historiated initial and tailpiece. Bible with additional engraved title page and engraved title page for Cole’s engravings. Includes Apocrypha. Bound with concordance. Darlow & Moule 827. Herbert 1095. Griffiths 1752:7. Armorial bookplate of Leonard Knight Elmhirst, renowned agricultural economist and educational innovator. Old manuscript family record to preliminaries (covering the years 1750-83).

Small hole to map of apostolc travels. Closed tear to first plate of Cole’s engravings, affecting one image. Text with occasional light foxing. Inner paper hinges partly split, binding sound and strong. Contemporary morocco in excellent, gilt bright. A beautiful Bible.