LA BIBLE, QUI EST TOUTE LA SAINTE ESCRITURE DU VIEIL ET DU NOUVEAU TESTAMENT
Petite French copy of the Bible, apocrypha, and a musical Psalter, with a manuscript title page to disguise its content – a fascinating piece of Huguenot Protestant history.
Very good.
Price: $3,000.00
LA BIBLE, QUI EST TOUTE LA SAINTE ESCRITURE DU VIEIL ET DU NOUVEAU TESTAMENT
After the Edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685, personal Bible ownership was prohibited, and the production of French Bibles moved to other printing centers such as Amsterdam. The Musée Protestant describes how, while French soldiers raiding the homes of suspected Protestants were taught to recognize the title page of a Bible, they tended to be otherwise illiterate. The manuscript facsimile title page on this copy may have been created by a contemporary owner who wanted to disguise the nature of this book from soldiers looking for a specific pictorial title page, or (more likely) supplied after the immediate danger was over.
This Geneva version of the French Bible also presents a snapshot of women in the publishing industry. It was published by the widow of J. J. Schipper, who ran the publishing house after his death. Their daughter, Cornelia, assumed control of the business after her mother's death, and subsequently passed it on to her own daughter Anna.
The 1678 Old Testament and Apocrypha are completed by the 1692 New Testament and Psalms of David. "The Bibliography of French Bibles: Seventeenth Century French-Language Editions of the Scriptures" notes numerous hybridized copies featuring the 1678 titles and later editions; the Cambridge British and Foreign Bible Society holds a copy in the same arrangement.
Read more: Musée Protestant, "The Bible in Times of Persecution for the French Protestants (1685-1760)." Bettye Thomas Chambers, "Bibliography of French Bibles: Seventeenth Century French-Language Editions of the Scriptures," pages 563-565. De Amsterdamse Boekhandel 1680-1725, Volume 4.<br />
The Object
Amsterdam: La Veuve de Schippers, [1678]. 5.5'' x 3''. Bound with: Les Pseaumes de David, Mis en Rime Françoise par Clement Marot, et Theodore de Beze. Amsterdam: La Veuve de Schippers, 1692. AND Les Pseaumes de David, Mis en Rime Françoise. Amsterdam: La Veuve de Schippers, 1692. Full contemporary red goatskin tooled in gilt with five raised bands. All edges gilt, with gilt dentelles, pink silk ribbon marker, double comb marbled endpapers. Engraved title pages for New Testament and Psalter. Letterpress musical notation in Psalter. Partially removed ink name to front pastedown, "Methu[?]n." 17th century scrap of paper with pen trials and ink inscription of a portion of a prayer laid in. Occasional ink marginalia. Ink inscription to rear pastedown, "Rendez/ vous–." Some soiling and scuffing to boards, mild creasing to spine; joints somewhat tender. Some wear to page edges, with occasional light chipping not affecting text. Lacks first title page and table of contents; supplied in contemporary manuscript facsimile. Lacks first leaf of Psalms; supplied in contemporary manuscript facsimile.
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