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[The Holy Bible… done into Verse for the Benefit of weak Memories]. London: Benjamin Harris Senior, 1698.
Details
MINIATURE BIBLE, in English – HARRIS, Benjamin (d. c.1716)
[The Holy Bible… done into Verse for the Benefit of weak Memories]. London: Benjamin Harris Senior, 1698.
Rare first edition illustrated miniature Bible in verse – part of a distinct sub-strand of Puritan literature aimed specifically at children – preserved in the original stamped binding. The Holy Bible, in Verse was written and published by Benjamin Harris, who was active as an author, printer, publisher, and bookseller in London and Boston. One of the first printers to publish juvenilia in any quantity, Harris was closely involved in the production of America’s most famous early children’s book, The New England Primer (1690). First active as a publisher in London from 1673, beyond printing and selling books, he also published pamphlets and newspapers, including the pungently anti-Catholic Protestant Tutor of 1679. Harris’ muscular brand of Puritan activism caused him political difficulty: charged with defamation and briefly imprisoned, he fled to Boston in 1686 to escape a second stint in gaol, founding a successful coffee house and bookshop with his son, Benjamin Junior. In 1690, he oversaw the first edition of The New England Primer, the first school book produced in and for New England, which remained the standard text for over a century and went through four million copies until 1830. In 1695, Harris Senior returned to London, where the first edition of the Holy Bible, in Verse was first published in 1698 (the first American edition known at present was published in Boston in 1717). It summarises the Old and New Testaments in 1,000 verses and incorporates woodcut illustrations at a time when the use of pictures to enliven children’s reading was very much the exception. See Alderson and de Marez Oyens, Be Merry and Wise, no 32; Charles L. Nichols, ‘The Holy Bible in Verse’, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 36 (April 1926); Wilbur Macey Stone, ‘The Holy Bible in Verse, 1698’, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 44 (April 1934); Gottfried Adam, Thumb Bibles (2022), pp.63-72. Apparently unrecorded: not in Darlow & Moule or ESTC (cf. ESTC R511166).
ESTC records what seems to be another issue of the 1698 first edition, the same described by American collector Wilbur Macey Stone in 1934 and by Alderson and de Marez Oyens (with reference to a copy held at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, PML84565; lacking 14 leaves), which has an additional 14 half-size woodcut illustrations. The binding of the Morgan copy has a different image to our copy blocked on the front cover – a Native American shooting arrows at birds – which indicates that it may have belonged to an issue reserved by the publisher for the American market. Both issues are scarce: the only record of ours seems to be in two further copies, both appearing at auction (Forum Auctions, 28 January 2021, lot 58, in a later binding and lacking the final two leaves; and Christie’s, 14 December 2022, lot 149, also lacking the title leaf).
32mo (73 x 55mm). Collation: A-D8 (lacking the letterpress title A1; retaining the blank D8); additional title on A2r within woodcut border, preface signed by B. Harris, Junior on A2v, two woodcuts to A3r and C4r, letterpress title for The New Testament dated 1698 at C3r, publisher’s advertisement leaf D7 (faint staining including A2-3 and B1, minute wormhole at base of D6-7, bottom left corner of first quire pushed and corners sometimes minorly dog-eared elsewhere, a few edges slightly nicked). Original panel-stamped sheep over thin boards, front cover depicting two figures, possibly Adam and Eve, the lower cover with a vase of flowers bearing the initials ‘WH’ (text block detached, losses of leather at head, centre and foot of spine, rubbed). Provenance: Mary Streater (b.c. 1837; pencil inscription dated 1844 inside upper cover – by descent [offered at Sotheby’s, 23 May 1983, lot 222, and subsequently withdrawn].
[The Holy Bible… done into Verse for the Benefit of weak Memories]. London: Benjamin Harris Senior, 1698.
Rare first edition illustrated miniature Bible in verse – part of a distinct sub-strand of Puritan literature aimed specifically at children – preserved in the original stamped binding. The Holy Bible, in Verse was written and published by Benjamin Harris, who was active as an author, printer, publisher, and bookseller in London and Boston. One of the first printers to publish juvenilia in any quantity, Harris was closely involved in the production of America’s most famous early children’s book, The New England Primer (1690). First active as a publisher in London from 1673, beyond printing and selling books, he also published pamphlets and newspapers, including the pungently anti-Catholic Protestant Tutor of 1679. Harris’ muscular brand of Puritan activism caused him political difficulty: charged with defamation and briefly imprisoned, he fled to Boston in 1686 to escape a second stint in gaol, founding a successful coffee house and bookshop with his son, Benjamin Junior. In 1690, he oversaw the first edition of The New England Primer, the first school book produced in and for New England, which remained the standard text for over a century and went through four million copies until 1830. In 1695, Harris Senior returned to London, where the first edition of the Holy Bible, in Verse was first published in 1698 (the first American edition known at present was published in Boston in 1717). It summarises the Old and New Testaments in 1,000 verses and incorporates woodcut illustrations at a time when the use of pictures to enliven children’s reading was very much the exception. See Alderson and de Marez Oyens, Be Merry and Wise, no 32; Charles L. Nichols, ‘The Holy Bible in Verse’, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 36 (April 1926); Wilbur Macey Stone, ‘The Holy Bible in Verse, 1698’, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 44 (April 1934); Gottfried Adam, Thumb Bibles (2022), pp.63-72. Apparently unrecorded: not in Darlow & Moule or ESTC (cf. ESTC R511166).
ESTC records what seems to be another issue of the 1698 first edition, the same described by American collector Wilbur Macey Stone in 1934 and by Alderson and de Marez Oyens (with reference to a copy held at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, PML84565; lacking 14 leaves), which has an additional 14 half-size woodcut illustrations. The binding of the Morgan copy has a different image to our copy blocked on the front cover – a Native American shooting arrows at birds – which indicates that it may have belonged to an issue reserved by the publisher for the American market. Both issues are scarce: the only record of ours seems to be in two further copies, both appearing at auction (Forum Auctions, 28 January 2021, lot 58, in a later binding and lacking the final two leaves; and Christie’s, 14 December 2022, lot 149, also lacking the title leaf).
32mo (73 x 55mm). Collation: A-D8 (lacking the letterpress title A1; retaining the blank D8); additional title on A2r within woodcut border, preface signed by B. Harris, Junior on A2v, two woodcuts to A3r and C4r, letterpress title for The New Testament dated 1698 at C3r, publisher’s advertisement leaf D7 (faint staining including A2-3 and B1, minute wormhole at base of D6-7, bottom left corner of first quire pushed and corners sometimes minorly dog-eared elsewhere, a few edges slightly nicked). Original panel-stamped sheep over thin boards, front cover depicting two figures, possibly Adam and Eve, the lower cover with a vase of flowers bearing the initials ‘WH’ (text block detached, losses of leather at head, centre and foot of spine, rubbed). Provenance: Mary Streater (b.c. 1837; pencil inscription dated 1844 inside upper cover – by descent [offered at Sotheby’s, 23 May 1983, lot 222, and subsequently withdrawn].
Brought to you by
Eugenio Donadoni
Senior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts