[Rarebooks] King James Bible by Baskerville

[Pia Oliver]

[BASKERVILLE, John]. The Holy Bible, Containing 
the Old Testament and the New: Translated out of 
the Original Tongues, and with the former 
Translations Diligently Compared and Revised, By 
His Majesty's Special Command. Cambridge: John 
Baskerville, 1763. Royal folio (19-1/4" x 
12-1/2"), contemporary full red morocco extra, 
covers panelled in gilt, gilt-decorated spine, 
dentelles, all edges gilt with the binders ticket 
of Staggemeier and Welcher. A very nice copy. 
With the third and most complete list of 
subscribers.
"One of the most beautifully printed books in the 
world" (Dibdin). A Baskerville masterpiece, 
regarded as the finest and most important work 
from Baskerville's Cambridge Press. The 1763 
Bible was John Baskerville's magnum opus and has 
been described by Reed as  his "most magnificent 
as well as his most characteristic specimen".
      The Bible was printed in Baskerville's Great 
Primer type, a handsome font distinguished by its 
slender and delicate form which combines both 
clarity and elegance. Gaskell declared that the 
title-page to the New Testament is "a perfect 
page of fine printing".
      Although the Baskerville Bible is now 
recognized as an artistic and typographical 
success, it was initially a financial failure. 
£2,000 to print, and five years later almost half 
of the copies were remaindered to a London 
bookseller. The Cambridge Bible was Baskerville's 
last great book; it drained him physically and 
financially, and after its completion his quest 
for typographical perfection waned considerably. 
If he had never printed anything else, this Bible 
would have assured him a permanent position 
among the foremost printers of the eighteenth 
century.
[Gaskell, John Baskerville #26.  Darlow & Moule 
857.  Herbert, Historical Catalogue of Printed 
Bibles 1146.  Huntington Library. A Bibliograpy, 
Great Books in Great Editions 6.  Straus & Dent, 
Baskerville 65. Reed, History of the Old English 
Letter Foundries, pp. 267-288.  Rumball - Petrie, 
Rare Bibles 145].			$7,500.00

Please view this beautiful piece of English 
history at 
<http://www.randallhouserarebooks.com/indbooks/baskerville.html>

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