The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Newly Translated out of the Original Tongues: And with the former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised. By his Majesty’s Special Command. Appointed to be Read in Churches. [Together with]: The Historical Part of the Holy Bible or the Old and New Testament Exquisitely describ’d in near Three Hundred Historys. Engraved by John Sturt.

Item Number: 140285

Oxford: Printed by John Baskett, Printer to the University, 1733/London: Sold by Richard Ware at the Bible and Sun in Amen Corner, [c. 1733].

Rare early 18th century Oxford King James Bible, elaborately bound together with interleaved sheets from an exquisitely illustrated History of the Holy Bible with engravings after John Sturt. Thick quarto, elaborately bound in full contemporary morroco in the “Harleian” style with gilt tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, morocco spine label lettered in gilt, black morocco centerpieces embellished with gilt sun rays and cherubs, gilt-stamped with the initials “JHS” (Jesus Hominum Salvator) within gilt scrolled borders, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers, illustrated with 132 plates on interleaved sheets, each containing several images after original engravings by John Sturt. In near fine condition. A splendid presentation.

The King James Bible, first published in 1611, is "the only literary masterpiece ever to be produced by a committee and was the work of nearly 50 translators… [who] lived at a period when the genius of the language was in full flower… [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). This 18th-century Oxford edition is illustrated with 132 plates on interleaved sheets, each containing several images 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; 200 of the Sturt illustrations were re-engraved by John Cole and offered separately by Ware in 1727.