Beschreibung:

Miniature Book.- Embroidered Binding.- Taylor (John, "the water poet") Verbum sempiternum [&] Salvator mundi, 2 parts in 1 bound back to back, the first with blanks A1 & 2 (the first laid down) and E16, the second with blanks A1 (blank but for signature) and D15 & 16, the first with variant title with "sempiternum" rather than "sempiternae", bound in attractive contemporary embroidered dos à dos binding of cream silk embroidered with coloured silks and silver thread forming design of flower to one cover and plant with fruits (?strawberries) to other, g.e., a little rubbed and soiled, some stitching fraying, [Bondy p.15; Spielmann p.264, quoting 1616 as first edition; STC 23810], 39 x 28mm., Jo.Beale for John Hamman, 1614. ⁂ Extremely rare; a charmingly-bound copy of one of the earliest "thumb" Bibles, comprising the Old and New Testaments in verse by John Taylor "the water poet". ESTC records only one copy, in Aberdeen University Library, but with the title of the first reading "Verbum sempiternae" although all the bibliographies and reprints quote "sempiternum". There are no copies on WorldCat and ESTC lists only 2 copies of the second edition of 1616 (British Library, and Huntington Library in America). We have been able to trace only 2 copies at auction: Christie's New York in 1989 bound in contemporary black morocco but lacking the blanks, and described as "One of only two copies known, the only one in private hands"; another in 1999 bound in contemporary blind-tooled morocco and lacking some blanks.