The Holy Bible, Containing the Old Testament and the New: 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

BASKETT, John

Published by Printed by John Baskett, Printer to the King's most Excellent Majesty, for Great Britain; and to the University, Oxford, 1717

About this Item

Unpaginated. 52 cm folio volume in 58 cm specially designed brown cloth box. Frontispiece, title page vignette, 59 engravings at beginning and end of books, plus decorations. Black and red title pages and headings in Table of Lessons and Kalendar. Full leather incised binding by Keith Felton of Georgetown in period style. New endpapers. Occasional darkened pages, dampstains to margins, small chips. Professional repairs to bottom corners in I Kings, Chapters II to XVI, with some loss of text. Edge repairs to first pages. A magnificent edition of the Bible, printed in large type. Includes beautiful vignettes engraved on steel by Baroque artists such as James Thornhill (the first English artist to be knighted), Gerard and Michael Vandergucht, Louis Cheron and Louis du Guernier. Preliminary matter includes Table of Lessons and Kalendar. Apocrypha inserted before New Testament. Third issue with no printed rules between columns of print. John Baskett was the leading publisher of English Bibles in the first half of the 18th century. From 1710 to 1743 he had a monopoly on Bible publishing in England and Scotland. Despite this version's obvious attractiveness, however, it earned the nickname "A Baskett-ful of Errors" due to the large number of typographical mistakes. The book earned its title "Vinegar Bible" from the biggest typo of all, the misprinted headline above Luke XX which states "The parable of the vinegar" instead of "The parable of the vineyard." Two distinct varieties of the Vinegar Bible occur, but this is Type A with the large frontispiece engraved by Du Bose showing Moses writing the first words of Genesis, title page vignette with scene of Oxford, and engraving of the Annunciation on the New Testament title page. Type B, on the other hand, had engravings illustrating allegorical subjects instead of Bible story scenes. Herbert 942A. "Vinegar Bible", First edition, third issue. Seller Inventory # 119306

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Holy Bible, Containing the Old Testament...

Publisher: Printed by John Baskett, Printer to the King's most Excellent Majesty, for Great Britain; and to the University, Oxford

Publication Date: 1717

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very good

Edition: 1st Edition