H i s t o r y , P h i l o s o p h y & R e l i g i o n 72 “The Highest Point In English Bible Printing”: Baskerville’s Masterpiece, The Magnificent 1763 Folio Bible, Bound In Full Morocco-Gilt 93. (BIBLE) The Holy Bible, Containing the Old Testament and the New. Cambridge, 1763. Large, thick folio (13-1/2 by 20 inches), early full straight-grain black morocco gilt. $18,000. First Baskerville edition, one of only 1250 copies, splendidly bound in early full morocco gilt. “This edition ‘has always been regarded as Baskerville’s magnum opus and is his most magnificent as well as his most characteristic specimen’” (Herbert 1146). “His most ambitious undertaking…widelyacclaimedashismasterpiece” (Art of thePrintedBook, 26). “Aesthetically, the highest point in English Bible printing so far was John Baskerville’s folio printed at Cambridge in 1763… The Bible uses his types, paper and ink, and shows his characteristic ‘machine-made’ finish: very smooth and even in color and impression, with glossy black ink on smooth paper. The design is traditional, but the quality of material and workmanship is so high, and the conventions are so delicately modified and consistently applied that the result is extremely impressive” (Cambridge History of the Bible, 464). Beautifully printed in two columns of large type. With Apocrypha. List of subscribers present, in third state. Darlow & Moule 857. Huntington Library, Great Books in Great Editions 6. Bookplate. Interior generally fine, expert restoration to beautiful binding.
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