University of Virginia Library

Images of the Word: Separately Published English Bible Illustration 1539-1830
by
G. E. Bentley, Jr [*]

What is a Bible?—are the New Testament or the Apocrypha or annotations or illustrations intrinsic to what Christians call the Bible? To whom does the Word of God belong?—to priests or to the king or to all believers? And what is the language of the Bible?—Hebrew (as in Genesis) or Aramaic or Greek (as in the Septuagint) or Latin (as in St Jerome's translation) or English?

The answers to such questions have profound consequences not only in theology and politics but in publishing history as well. In particular, for most of the English-speaking world since 1539 the language of the Bible has been English, since 1611 the most frequently reprinted English translation has been that commissioned by James I, and the Crown has claimed perpetual copyright in this Authorized Version of the Old and New Testaments.

However, many early Bibles were illustrated with manuscript illuminations or with woodcuts, and, in the period before moveable type was widely used, block-books often gave a maximum of Bible illustration with a minimum of biblical text. The English crown claimed exclusive publishing rights to the verbal text, but did this right encompass editions of the King James translation which were curtailed (say, the New Testament only) or editions with extensive learned annotations or with illustrations? The interpretation of these problems was in general delegated by the Crown to the Royal Printer (sometimes in association with his delegated associates the university presses of Oxford and Cambridge), and the interpretations seem to have changed profoundly between about 1611 and 1802—or at least the publishing practices apparently based upon such interpretations changed profoundly.

In this essay I wish to set forth some of the ways in which holy pictures were added to the Holy Word in Britain between 1539 and 1830. Throughout, the phrase "English Bible illustrations" refers to works intended for an audience in England, or perhaps in Britain. I have not looked for works published in the British colonies or in what became the United States of America—but no separate suite of Bible illustrations published in North America before 1830 is known to me.

Protestants in general and English Puritans in particular insisted that the text of the Bible should be very widely available, but there was tension between those Puritans, who wanted direct access to The Word of God—and nothing but The Word of God, not cluttered up with Papist and heathen graven images—and readers who wished to rejoice in the glory of God in both word and image. Some of the earliest translators of the Bible into English, such as William Tyndale, felt so strongly about the vital importance of what they were doing that they were willing to give up their lives for it and suffer martyrdom at the stake, but the earliest published English translations of the Bible were largely unadorned.

However, when Henry VIII decided to print these translations for his own church in 1540 rather than burning them and their authors, he or his agents commissioned for the adornment of the biblical text graven images not only similar to but identical with those which had appeared in Continental Roman Catholic Bibles printed in Latin. The decoration of the official Great Bible of the reformed Church of England was therefore scarcely distinguishable from that of the unreformed Church of Rome.

Naturally this was a grievance to iconoclastic Puritans, particularly since every parish church in England was required to possess a copy of this Great Bible with its graven images. Sculptured saints in British cathedrals lost their heads, stained glass windows in English churches were smashed, and

paintings on sacred walls and books were effaced. In official English Bibles—that is, in those printed by the King's printer and by Oxford and Cambridge university presses—illustrations became less and less common, and often they disappeared altogether. The fact of their disappearance is plain, and the cause probably lies in significant part with Puritans in general and iconoclasts in particular.

The designs which were allowed to persist longest were those of a strictly exemplary and explanatory character, exhibiting ceremonial details such as Aaron's Regalia and an altar with offerings. But of course these unimaginative designs still offended many Puritans, who deplored the elaborately scripted rituals of the High Church.

For over a century, from 1540 until 1659, there was scarcely any innovation or ambition manifested in the decoration of Bibles published in England, and the tradition that the Bible contained The Word of God but not The Image of God was so strong that there were very few illustrated English Bibles between 1660 and about 1740.

However, the desire for Bible illustrations plainly persisted, particularly among the prosperous middle classes, and speculative publishers found increasingly ingenious ways of circumventing the profitable Crown copyright in the Authorized Version of the Bible. What they did was, in general, no more publishing piracy, no more against the law, than is, say, the printing of English books in countries which do not recognize English or international copyright law, such as the United States before 1870 or China before the 1980s or Taiwan today. However, it did deliberately test the limits of the authority claimed by the Crown in the King James translation of the Bible. And sometimes what they did was regarded by the copyright holders as being morally reprehensible though perhaps not legally punishable.

There was no shortage of Bible illustrations, and entrepreneurs and picture-lovers achieved what the copyright laws and the iconoclastic tradition had combined to prevent: genuinely illustrated Bibles. For about seventy years from 1659, ambitious booksellers who had no right to publish the King James translation of the Bible nonetheless profited from its popularity by issuing suites of Bible-prints which the purchasers could bind with Bibles, even with Bibles purchased from the bookseller who sold them the prints. And beginning early in the eighteenth century, various ways were devised for printing Bible illustrations with the Authorized Version of the Bible without being sued for infringement of copyright.

The first authorized edition of the Bible in English, the Great Bible of 1539, which was placed in every parish church in the kingdom, was extensively illustrated with small, generally unimaginative woodcuts.[1] These designs

were scattered through the text, but most of them were concentrated in the legalistic sections of Exodus. The woodcuts themselves originated in Paris, but the designs had a long history before they were re-engraved in 1539.[2] They represented An Altar or The Regalia of the High Priest or Pharaoh's Host at the Red Sea, and the images were so highly stereotyped that one warrior or prophet could be used to depict many individuals—82 woodcuts made 97 prints. One of the most piquant (Plate 1) represents Bathsheba surprised while bathing in the public fountain by a servant who politely tips his hat to her and hands her a message, while David eagerly observes the scene from a window about forty feet away. The same scenes were repeated in later editions of the English Bible, sometimes from the same woodblocks and sometimes re-engraved, and a few were added, but the number of plates declined as the blocks wore out, and there were very few additions to the iconographical canon in England until over a century later.

While the tradition of Bible decoration was withering in England from 1540 to 1660, it was flourishing on the Continent. Not only were many of the Bibles printed in Italy and France and Germany illustrated lavishly and handsomely, but many suites of Bible illustrations were published separately,[3] to be enjoyed by themselves or added to the text of the Bible. These Continental designs were by artists as distinguished as Hans Sebald Beham (1529, 1533, 1537, 1539, 1551, 1553-54, 1561) and Holbein (1543, 1547, 1549) and Raphael (1649, 1675, 1698), and the publications were clearly aimed at an audience which was international, or at least multi-lingual. Of course the early titles were usually in Latin, but from a surprisingly early date these suites of Bible illustrations had titles in several languages, such as the Imagines et Figvrae Bibliorvm; Images et Figvres de la Bible; Beelden ende Figvren wt den Bybel (1580-82). The most common languages were Latin, German (later Dutch), and French, though a few are in English and Italian; I have found no example from Spain. Many of the biblical scenes represent fighting men in sixteenth-century armour. Of course, the images are often explicitly sympathetic to the Church of Rome; in Holbein's plate for Genesis i, "Adam and Heua ar also created" in The Images of the Old Testament (1549), for instance, Heua is taken from Adam's side by God wearing the pope's triple-tiara. The most ambitious of these works are in folio, of course, but there are many in quarto and even octavo,[4] and the number of plates is often staggering. Biblia veteris Testamenti et Historiae, Artificiosis picturis effigiata

(Francfurti: Chr. Egonolphus, 1551) had 281 octavo plates, and Histoire Sacrée de la Providence et de la Conduite de Dieu Sur les Hommes (Paris: l'Auteur, 1728) had five hundred in quarto! Many of these collections of plates were enormously ambitious, expensive, and beautiful, and, until after the death of Oliver Cromwell, there was nothing at all like them in England.

The declining emphasis upon visual biblical iconography in England was doubtless due in part to Puritan sentiments concerning Graven Images,[5] but it was also related to the lack of distinguished or even competent designers and engravers in England and to the lack of patronage or of a market for fine printing. In ideas and words the English press was extraordinarily vigorous and adventurous, but technically and aesthetically it was far behind its Continental rivals in Paris and Amsterdam and Venice.

The situation in publishing illustrations to the Bible in English was complicated by the fact that the copyright in the King James Translation of 1611 was held in perpetuity by the Crown, and the Authorized Version could be printed in England only by the King's Printer and his delegates, the learned university printers of Oxford and Cambridge.[6] Since, from 1611 onward, the text of the vast majority of Bibles printed in England was that of the King James translation, only these three printers had any significant incentive to produce illustrations to be published in English Bibles.[7] And since they had a monopoly on the most vendible translation with a growing market, they seemed to have little incentive to indulge in the added expense of illustrations. Indeed, the first important new illustrations printed by a Bible patentee (or his delegate) with the King James translation of the Bible were those produced for the great folio Bible of John Field in Cambridge in 1659-1660 (see Plate 2), followed by that of John Baskett in Oxford in 1716-1717.

However, there was clearly thought to be a market among the English for Bible illustrations, and in the sixteenth century at least two publications were aimed at it: Storys and Prophesis out of the Holy Scriptur Garnyschede with faire Ymages and wiih Deuoute Praeirs [by Nycholas Coppyn] (Andwarp: S. Cowke, 1536) in octavo, and The Images of the Old Testament (Lyons: Iohan Frellon, 1549), with 96 plates (by Holbein) in quarto. Further, English Bibles were sometimes extra-illustrated by the purchaser with plates from Continental publications; for instance, the splendid plates from Icones Biblicae invented and engraved by Jan Van Luyken (1722 and 1723) were added to a copy (now in Chicago: BS185 f 1717a) of The Holy Bible (Oxford: John Baskett, 1716-17), to a copy (now in Bodley) of The Holy Bible (London:

John Baskett, And the Assigns of Thomas Newcomb and Henry Hills, deceas'd, 1722-23) and to a copy (now in the Huntington) of The Holy Bible (Cambridge: Printed by Joseph Bentham; London: Sold by Benjamin Dod, 1762) (see Plate 3). Notice that all these illustrations for English Bibles were printed on the Continent.

Beginning in the late seventeenth century, a number of suites of plates were published separately but were intended to be added to the undecorated English Bibles published by the Bible patentees. The earliest of these probably originated on the Continent, but by 1672 English publishers had recognized the profits to be won and began printing separate suites of illustrations of the Bible. The emphasis was always on the narrative sections,[8] the Death of Abel or The Finding of Moses in the Bullrushes or the Birth of Christ, rather than on the more poetical books such as Job and the Psalms. And it was apparently assumed that the plates would actually be added to copies of the Bible rather than being studied or enjoyed by themselves. For instance, The Holy Bible in Sculpture was "Printed for Moses Pitt at the Angel in St. Pauls Church yard 1683 At whose said Shop Bibles Testaments and Common-Prayers in all Volumes are to be sold that are printed at the Theater in Oxford [i.e., the Clarendon Press]", and Boydell's Illustrations of Holy Writ (1813) was said on the title-page to be "Calculated to Ornament All Quarto and Octavo Editions of the Bible, and Sold in Parts without The Text".

New suites of illustrations intended to be added to the English text of the Bible were created for over fifty years, from 1671 to 1728.[9] After that there is a long pause, and the next new separate suite of Bible illustrations was published in 1786. The later suites are often very specialized in their purposes, "for hanging up in Nurseries" (1786) or to illustrate "Natural Science, Customs, Manners, &c" (1802) or to exhibit Scripture Costume (1819) or Medals, Illustrative of the Holy Scriptures (1830).

The reason why the fashion for separately-published suites of Bible illustrations faded away is fairly plain: it became possible to print integral illustrations to the King James translation of the Holy Bible without being sued by the patent-holders, and this of course was far more profitable than issuing the prints alone. Early in the eighteenth century there was apparently a change in the understanding of the nature of the perpetual Crown copyright in the King James translation of the Bible. Up to 1715, all the illustrated editions of the King James Translation of the Bible were published by the patent-holders, but thereafter scores of illustrated editions of the King James translation were published by booksellers who had no sort of claim on the copyright and who apparently made no financial or legal arrangement with the patent-holders.

This circumvention of the copyright may have originated in the illustrated editions in folio, quarto, octavo, duodecimo, and sexto-decimo of the

enormously popular Histoire de la Sainte Bible by the Sieur de Royaumont[10] which was published in French in 1670 (twice), 1680, 1683, 1686, 1687, 1688, 1691, 1697, 1698, 1699, 1701, 1702, 1712, 1713 (twice), 1717, 1719, 1721, 1727, 1735, 1764, 1766, 1770, 1774, 1782, 1802, 1804, 1810 (called La Bible de la Jeunesse), 1811, 1812, 1815, 1817, 1818 . . .; in Dutch in 1739; and in Portuguese in 1791. The brilliant innovation consists in printing the text of the Bible in order to explain its history. Royaumont's work has an equal number of text-pages and of prints; the text-page is a summary of an action in the Bible which is depicted on the facing plate.

In England, the Sieur de Royaumont's work was translated into English as:

• 1688 The History of the New Testament, tr. J. Raynor 2°
• 1690 The History of the Old Testament, tr. McCoughen 2°
• 1690 The History of the New Testament, tr. Samuel Royscroft 2°
• 1691 The History of the Old and New Testament (Second Edition) 8°
• 1699 The History of the Old and New Testament (Second Edition, Corrected) 4°
• 1700, 1701 The History of the Old and New Testament (Second Edition, Corrected and Enlarged) 2°
• 1703 The History of the Old and New Testament (Third Edition) 4°
• 1705 The History of the Old and New Testament (Third Impression) 2°
• 1711 The History of the Old and New Testament (Fourth Edition) 4°
• 1712 The History of the Old and New Testament (Fourth Impression) 2°
• 1780 An Abridgement of The History of the Old and New Testament, tr. J. Reeve 12°
• 1815 Joseph Reeve [actually the translator], The History of the Holy Bible (Fifth Edition) 8°
• 1826 Joseph Reeve, The History of the Holy Bible (Sixth Edition) 8°

The device of a History of the Bible incorporating the text of the Bible could readily be imitated, and the financial temptations to English booksellers were clearly irresistible. There were illustrated editions, usually in folio, called, with minor variants, The History of the Holy Bible—by Samuel Wesley (in verse, 1704 ff), an anonymous writer (1716 ff), Laurence Howell (1716 ff), J. Hamond (1727 ff), Thomas Stackhouse (1733 ff), S. Smith (1735 ff), Laurence Clarke (1737), John Marchant (1761), John Fleetwood (1769 ff), and

Edward Kimpton (1781). There were over fifty such editions from 1704 through 1781, and then the fashion dwindled away.[11]

The device had demonstrated that, by making additions to the text of the Bible, it was possible to evade the copyright restrictions on the publication of the King James translation. The same thing was attempted in other works with titles which came closer and closer to "The Holy Bible". For instance, the text attributed to S. Smith was variously entitled The Family Companion . . . Being a New and Compleat History of the Old and New Testament (London: J. Wilford, 1735); The Compleat History of the Old and New Testament; or, A Family Bible (London: W. Rayner, 1735, 1737); and Family Companion or Annotations upon the Holy Bible (London: The Author, 1739).

A large proportion of these illustrated versions of the King James translation were called The Family Bible, often with the addition of an adjective such as Complete (1761-62), Christian's (1763-67), Elegant (1765-67), Universal (1758-59), Royal (1761), Imperial (1811-14), or Evangelical (1811-14). And as the singular allure of "Christian's", "New", and "Universal" wore off, publishers increasingly tried to refurbish it by cramming in as many fashionable adjectives as possible, as in The Christian's New, Complete, and Universal Family Bible (1794) and The Royal Standard Devotional Family Bible (1812-14).

By the end of the eighteenth century, a clear convention had developed with regard to the enforcement of the copyright in the King James Translation. The custom had grown up of permitting, or at least winking at, the publication of the King James translation by booksellers other than the patent-holders if they made significant additions or alterations to it, issuing it with learned notes, or Explained by Way of Question and Answer (1748), or with engravings. The situation was still so obscure late in the eighteenth century that Thomas Macklin felt he had to ask Oxford for permission to print the Authorised Version. According to the minutes of the meeting of the Delegates of Oxford University Press for Friday 29 January 1790,

Macklin's Bible was eventually printed in six (not three) volumes in folio (not large quarto) in 1793-1800 with enormously ambitious illustrations and with a very small number of notes printed so far down the page that they were often trimmed off. According to the "Case of the University of Oxford upon their Right of printing Bibles and common prayer &.c" (concluding with a legal opinion of 13 April 1797), The convention was explained in 1802 by "John Reeves, Esq. One of the Patentees of the Office of King's Printer": In general, works which called themselves merely The Bible or The Holy Bible were printed for the copyright-holders; other titles demonstrate the ingenuity with which this copyright was evaded.

The most ingenious or devious form of evasion was in The Holy Bible (London: Printed by J. W. Pasham, 1776) uniformly with five lines (3/8") of "NOTES" on each oddly-tall duodecimo leaf. The work was printed with notes, thus adhering to the convention for Bibles printed by those who did not hold a patent, but the notes were normally trimmed off by the binder,[16] so that it was sold as a naked Bible, scarcely distinguishable from copyright Bibles except in its publisher.[17] Reeves protested at what he called this

However, through a generous toleration, or a timorous uncertainty as to the enforceability of the patent, neither Reeves nor the other patent-holders challenged the practice in the courts.

The separately published suites of Bible illustrations are rarely to be found today in their separate state, even though they were issued with their own title-pages, often undated. Instead, they are usually found bound with undecorated Bibles of a somewhat later date. Since the illustrations and their title-page were entirely engraved on copper, with no type-set text at all, it was easy to print them again whenever they were needed, and a few of these suites of prints seem to have been issued, probably reprinted, over periods of fifty to seventy-five years.

The separate suites of prints never originated with a Bible patent-holder, but each suite of prints was usually bound with Bibles published by the same Bible patent-holder. It seems likely that the suites of prints and the unillustrated Bible text were often bought at the same time from the same bookseller, perhaps even from the patent-holder,[19] though the dates of the Bibles and of the suites of Bible-illustrations rarely coincide. For instance, the Cole plates published by Ware (c. 1715) were added to Bibles of 1715-63 published by the Basketts, and in one Bible (1726) they are accompanied by a portrait (published by Ware) of George II who did not begin his reign until the next year. There was a symbiotic relationship between the publisher of the prints and the publisher of the Bible, and it was in the interest of each to foster the publication of the other.

Since the text and illustrations were printed by different printers, and since the purchaser could choose whether to illustrate his Bible and which illustrations to buy, each copy of the Bible with separately published illustrations is, in effect, unique. There are, of course, patterns of choice related to what the bookseller had to offer; for instance, Sturt's plates are generally found in Bibles published by the Basketts. However, the choice seems to have been up to the purchaser, and the combinations of Bible editions and separate illustrations are remarkably various.

The list below records the chief separately published suites of Bible illustrations intended at least in part for an English market.[20] I presume that the

date on the Bible indicates the approximate date of purchase (or at least the terminus a quo) of both the Bible and the suite of prints and that the two separate publications were bound together on the directions of the purchaser rather than for the bookseller.

At least up to 1826, in England the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, and the New Testament were apparently invariably printed as separate units, each with its discrete signatures and (usually) title-page. A bookseller would ordinarily deal with only one Bible-patent-holder, but he usually had stacks of different testaments (Old, Apocryphal, New), different sizes (folio to duodecimo), and different dates (say, 1672, 1675, 1680, 1682) which he could offer to customers. It might be a matter of chance whether a customer wanting, say, a whole quarto Bible was given Testaments all from the same year or from several years. In the Bibles described below, a duplication of dates normally indicates that the several title-pages bear more than one date, the earlier one generally that in the Old Testament.

Note also that by "Bible" I mean the Old and the New Testament together and that I usually do not record the presence or absence of the Apocrypha. The Book of Common Prayer was often bound with copies of the Bible printed by the same publisher, but I ignore these unless they help to date other works within the same covers. The Bibles in English here are all of the King James translation.

• 1. The Images of the Old Testament; Lately expressed [by Hans Holbein], set forthe in Ynglishe and Frenche, vuith a playn and brief exposition (Lyons: Iohan Frellon, 1549) 4°

  There are 96 interesting unsigned plates (one per page) with text in English above and in French below the designs, repeated from the Historiorum Veteris Testamenti

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  Icones . . . Latina & Gallica expositione (Lugduni: Ioannem & Franciscum Frellonus, 1543, 1547).

• 2. Icones Biblicae Praecipius sacrae Scripturae: Historias eleganter & graphice representantes; Biblische Figuren Daerinnen die Farnaemste Historien in Heiliger Schrift begriffer geschichlemessig entworffen zün; Figures de la Bible Demonstrans les Principales Histoires de la Sancte Escriture; Figgers of the Bible In who almost every History of the holy Schripture [sic] are described; Bybel Printen Vertoonende de voornaemiste Historien en afbeeldsels der Heyliger Schrifture . . . (Amsterdam: Dancker Danckertsz, Kunst-en-Caert-verkooper, 1659) 2°

  [This title-page is engraved; an additional, typeset, title-page gives similar information in Dutch:] Byble Printen . . . . <British Library: 3128 g 8>

  There are 248 good plates occupying the top half of the rectos, with explanatory text below in Latin (in roman type), French (italic), German (gothic), English (roman), and Dutch (roman).

• 3. Historiae Sacrae Veteris et Novi Testamenti; Biblische Figuren, Darinnen die fürnembste Historien, in Heiliger Schrifft begriffen, geshichtmässig entworffen; Figures de la Bible Demonstrans les Principales Histoires de la Saincte Escriture; Bybelsche Figuren Vertonende de voornaemste Historien der Heylige Schrifture; Figures of the Bible, in w[h]ich almost every History of the holy Scriptures is discribed (Amsteldami: Nicolai Vischer [The British Museum Department of Prints and Drawings catalogue <157 * b 25> guesses 1660?, while the British Library catalogue <1605/4> guesses 1685?] 2°

  [The British Library copy has a duplicate typeset title-page entirely in Dutch:] Bybel Printen: Vertoonende De Voornaemste Historien Der Heylige Schrifture . . . (Amsteldam: Nicholaes Visscher [n.d.]).

  [There are also half-titles in five languages offering different identifications of the work:] Iconum Bibliocorum Pars II . . . Historien en Openbaringen des Nieuwen Testaments . . . Le Thresor des Histoires du Nouveau Testament . . . Die Historien des Geschichten und Offenbahringen des Newen Testament . . . and Thesaurus Historium Novi Testamenti Elegantissimis Iconibus expressus . . . The Treasurie Of Histories of the New Testament, most elegantly expressed by Emblems.

  There are 125 fine double-page engravings, constituting the entire work, signed "Nic. Visscher[21] excud." mostly after Dutch designers, the chief of whom are Marten de Vos and P. P. Rubens. Below each design is a title in Latin and a poetical description in Dutch, with occasional additions in German, French, and English (see Plate 4).

  The plates were sometimes used to extra-illustrate copies of The Holy Bible in folio, particularly those printed in Amsterdam, e.g.:

  • 1672 (Amsterdam: Stephen Swart) <Chicago: fBS185 1672a>
  • 1679 ([Amsterdam: Stephan Swart]) <California and Oriel College (Oxford)>
  • 1701 (London: Charles Bill, And the Executrix of Thomas Newcomb) <Huntington: 112980>

• 4. The History of ye Old & New Testament in Cutts (London: Printed by Wm R: [Ware] for Iohn Williams, F: H. Van Houe sculpsit, 1671) <British Library: C 310-b 23> 8°

  [Another version is dated 1672] 8°, 12°, 32°

  There are two to six somewhat crude engravings per print in the Old Testament (the prints numbered 1-50) and the Apocrypha (number 51-56) and whole-page engravings in the New Testament (numbered 1-85). Biblical artists had few opportunities

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  to represent the female human form divine, or even not so divine, as in Van Hove's scene of the seduction of Lot (Plate 5), and they seized every opportunity to do so, with Eve in the garden of Eden, Lot and his daughters, David and Bathsheba, and Susanna and the Elders, and where they could not find an occasion for female nudity in the Bible, they created one, with partially draped figures of personified Virtue or Temperance. But they found themselves cruelly frustrated when they confronted the New Testament.

  Note that the same Van Hove plates are printed on paper of various sizes corresponding to different formats, the size determining the number of prints per page. They are found in The Holy Bible, mostly published by the Bible patentees T. and later John Bill:

  • 1658 (London: Iohn Field) <British Library: C 65 aa 4> 32°
  • 1672 (London: Assigns of T. Bill & Chr: Barker) <Huntington: 272433> 12°
  • 1672, 1675 (London: Assigns of John Bill, & by Henry Hills, & Thomas Newcomb) <British Library: C 128 c 12> plates heavily and crudely coloured 8°
  • 1675, 1680 (London: John Bill & Christopher Barker) <Bible Society> 8°
  • 1675, 1682 (London: Assigns of John Bill, & by Henry Hills, & Thomas Newcomb [The New Testament is: Assigns of John Bill & Christopher Barker]) <British Library: C 128 c 12> 8°
  • 1676 (London: Assigns of I. Bill & Chr. Barker) <Chicago: BS 185 1676> 12°
  • 1678 (London: John Bill, Christopher Barker, Thomas Newcomb & Henry Hills) <Huntington: 438000 264> 4°

• 5. Pictures of the Old and New Testaments, Showing the most nottable Historys, in 150 Copper Platis, brought in Copper by the most famouss and pri[n]cipal Masters. To which is addet A Historical Declaration tothe more Lightunig off Each Plate, put into the English Tongny bya good knower of y[e] Historys, off the Bible; Tableaux du Vieux & Nouveaux Testament Ou sont representée en 150 Figures, les Histoires les plus Remarquables du Vieux & Nouveau Testament, Graveé par les plus Habilles Maitres Ou l'on â Joint une Explication Historique, pour l'Intelligence de Chaque Tableau; Ecrites en Anglois par un savant Connoisseur de l'Histoire sacrée, & traduit en François (Amsterdam: Chez Reinier & Josua Ottens [The Bodley catalogue <Vet B3 d22) guesses 1672, though 1700 seems more plausible to me]) 4°

  The 152 plates (including the two frontispieces) have very simple borders with a title in English at the top and in French and Dutch at the bottom and explanations on facing pages in English (at the top) and French (see Plate 6).

• 6. The Holy Bible in Sculpture or The History's mentioned in the Old and New Testament lively represented in Copper Cutts (London: Printed for Moses Pitt at the Angel in St Pauls Church yard 1683 At whose said Shop Bibles Testaments and Common-Prayers in all Volum[e]s are to be sold that are printed at the Theater in Oxford, 1683) I. Sturt Sc. 4°

  The 167 rather crude, anonymous plates are sometimes printed four to six to a page. They are found in:

  • 1682 The Holy Bible (Oxford [& London]: M. Pitt) <California>
  • 1683 The Holy Bible and The Book of Common Prayer (Oxford: Printed at ye Theatre in Oxford Sold [in London] by M. Pitt at ye Angel in St. Pauls Churchyard [n.d.].) with The New Testament (Oxford: Printed at the Theater, and are to be sold [in London] by Moses Pitt, . . . Peter Parker, . . . Thomas Guy, . . . Ann Leake . . ., 1683) <Huntington: 43000 233> 4°

• 7. The History of the old & new Testament described in Figures ([?London: ?Samuel Keble, ?1699])

  No publisher is identified on the title-page, but an "ADVERTISEMENT of some Bookes Printed for Samuel Keble at ye Turkes Head in Fleet-street" in a similar engraved leaf-and-blossom border (in the Chicago copy of the 1699 Bible below)

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  implies that the publisher was Samuel Keble. There are 194 dull plates with as many as six designs to a leaf (see Plate 7). They are found in The Holy Bible:
  • 1671, 1676 (London: John Bill & Christopher Barker) <British Library: C 108 b 23> 8°
  • 1699 (London: Charles Bill & the executrix of Thomas Newcomb) <Chicago: BS 185 1698> 16°
  • 1716 (Edinburgh: James Watson) <Chicago: BS 185 1716> 12°

• 8. The Historical Part of the Holy Bible or the Old and New Testament Exactly and Compleatly Describ'd in above Two Hundred Historys Curiously Engrav'd by J: Cole From Designs of ye best Masters ([London:] Richard Ware at the Bible & Sun Warwick Lane Amen Corner Likewise sells all sorts of Bibles Com prayers & Testaments [c. 1715]) 2°

  [In the 1735-36 Bible (below)—though not in those of 1736 and 1758—it was altered to read:] . . . Two Hundred Historical Cuts Curiously Engraven From Designs of ye best Masters (London: Printed & Sold by H. Parson, B. Whitledge, J. Clarke, J. Hayward, & S. Aris [c. 1735])

  There are 204 poor designs on 49 plates, mostly four to a page. An engraved portrait ([London:] Richard Ware, n.d.) of George II (who reigned 1727-60) was added with the Cole plates in Bibles of 1726 [sic] and 1758 below. The Cole plates are found exclusively in copies of The Holy Bible published by the Bible patentees John and, later, Thomas and Mark Baskett:

  • 1715 (Oxford: John Baskett) <Chicago: f BS 185 1715a> 4°
  • 1719 (Oxford: John Baskett) <Huntington: 34956> 4°
  • 1724 (London & Oxford: J. Baskett) <British Library> 4°
  • 1725, 1728 (Oxford: John Baskett) <British Library: 3053 f 12> 4°
  • 1726 (Oxford: John Baskett) <Victoria> 4°
  • 1726 (Edinburgh: John Baskett) <Huntington: 40847> 4°
  • 1728 (Oxford: John Baskett) <British Library: 3054 d 13>
  • 1733 (Oxford: John Baskett) <Bible Society> 4°
  • 1735, 1736 (Oxford: John Baskett) <Australia: RB 1736 CLI 1939> 4°
  • 1736 (Oxford: John Baskett) <Bodley: Bib Eng 1736> 4°
  • 1756 (Oxford: Thomas Baskett) <Bible Society> 4°
  • 1758 (Oxford: Thomas Baskett) <Chicago: BS x 145 A14 1758> 4°
  • 1763 (London: Mark Baskett & the Assigns of Robert Baskett) <South Australia> 4°

  Note that Ware also produced engraved quarto title-pages for both The Book of Common Prayer and The Holy Bible ([London:] Printed and Sold by Richard Ware at ye Bible & Sun[22]—copies are in the quarto Bible (1758) above—but I have no evidence that he ever produced texts to go with them. The imprint in The Book of Common Prayer continues: "A Curious Set of Cuts for all Sorts of House Bibles Engrav'd by I. Sturt to which is added Six Maps of Sacred Geography . . . ."[23]

  The most prolific English Bible-illustrator of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was probably John Sturt, who made a number of suites of biblical engravings. The Sturt plates are quite distinct from those of Cole (above)—for one thing, they are larger—though some designs are very similar. For instance, in Eve taken

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  from the side of Adam for Genesis ii, the dogs at the bottom and the elk at the left are identical, though in the Cole version the lion, birds, rabbit, horse, trees, &c., are distinctly different.

  (i) The first of these Sturt engravings was probably the suite of over 330 plates—180 for the Old Testament and 152 for the New Testament, plus title-pages—which were printed integrally with the text, on the same octavo pages as the poetry, in Samuel Wesley, The History of the Old Testament in Verse with One Hundred and Eighty Sculptures . . . The Cuts done By J. Sturt (London: Cha. Harper, 1704)—Vol. II is called The History of the Holy Bible (n.d.);[24] The History of the Old and New Testament Attempted in Verse: And adorn'd with Three Hundred & Thirty Sculptures . . . The Cuts done by J. Sturt (London: John Hooke, 1716;[25] the New Testament title-page of 1721 gives the publisher as C. Harper); The History of the New Testament . . . Attempted in Verse, And Adorn'd with CLII Sculptures The Cuts done by J. Sturt The Third Edition (London: Thomas Ward, 1717).

  (ii) These 330-some octavo plates of c. 1704 are distinct from Sturt's 150 octavo plates of c. 1715 which appeared in Laurence Howell, A Complete History of The Holy Bible . . . Adorn'd with above 150 Cuts, engraven by J. Sturt In Three Volumes ([London:] E. Nutt & J. Sturt, 1716).[26] Many of the Howell plates are reprinted integrally in J. Hamond, An Historical Narration of the Whole Bible . . . curiously adorn'd with proper Cuts engraven by Mr. John Sturt (London: R. Ware, 1717; 1723; 1727;[27] 1749), both octavo; the 1749 plates bear references to the Hamond text.

  These plates for Wesley (1704 ff) and for Howell (1716 ff) and Hamond (1717 ff) are quite distinct from The Historical Part of the Holy Bible [28]—see below.

  Sturt also engraved whole suites of plates for The Book of Common Prayer, The Orthodox Communicant, and Sacred Geography (1725—see below) as well as title-pages for The Holy Bible for Moses Pitt (1683, quarto—called The Holy Bible in Sculpture) and for Charles Bill and the Executrix of Thomas Newcomb (1701, folio; 1706, quarto).

  His suite of separate plates for the Bible was called:

• 9. The Historical Part of the Holy Bible, or the Old and New Testament Exquisitely and Accurately describ'd in near Three Hundred Historys Engraven by John Sturt, From Designs of the Greatest Masters ([London:] Sold by Richd Ware at the Bible and Sun in Amen Corner; all sorts of Bibles and Common Prayers, Adorn'd wth Mr Sturts fine Cutts, his Engrav'd Common Prayer, and Orthodox Communicant, etc. [c. 1722])

  Sturt's plates for The Historical Part of the Holy Bible were in progress by the time those for Howell's book were published in 1716, for an advertisement in Volume I of that work announced: "There is likewise a new Set of Cuts for the Holy Bible

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  and Common Prayer in Folio, Quarto, and Octavo [29] near finish'd by the said Mr. Sturt, and will be publish'd in a short Time." They were bound with Bibles of 1722 onwards, and they had certainly appeared by 1727, when "A Catalogue of Books: Sold by R. Ware, at the Bible and Sun in Amen Corner", in Hamond's Historical Narration (London: Ware, 1727), offered "A curious Set of Bible Cuts; containing near 300 Histories, adapted to Folio and Quarto Bibles Engrav'd by Mr John Sturt, from the Designs of the greatest Masters".

  The good plates are octavo size and were printed one to a page in the octavo editions, two to a page above an ornament in quarto editions (see Plate 8),[30] and four to a page above a vignette in folio editions. Sturt's Historical Part plates are four times the size of those in Wesley. Some are essentially the same as in Wesley (e.g., Genesis xviii, 10-15, Jacob's Ladder), but many are quite different (e.g., Genesis iv, 2-8, Cain and Abel).

  The imprint on the copperplate for the title of The Historical Part of the Holy Bible was slightly altered over the years. In the copy of the title-page with the 1775-76 Bible (below), Ware's name and address (but not the list of what he sold) was changed to Fielding & Walker (n.d.), and some of the plates are similarly altered; and on the title-page with the 1777 Bible (below) the bookseller's name is given as W. Dawson (n.d.).

  Sets of Sturt's plates for The Historical Part of the Holy Bible are associated with The Holy Bible published chiefly by the Basketts:

  • 1722, 1723 (London: Baskett) <Bible Society[31]> 2°
  • 1722, 1723 with Sturt's Sacred Geography (London: R. Ware, 1727) (London: John Baskett And the Assigns of Thomas Newcomb and Henry Hills, 1723) <Bodley: Bib Eng 1723 b1>
  • 1723 (Oxford: John Baskett) Genesis-Ruth only <Bodley: Broxb 48.8> 4°
  • 1753, 1754 (London: Thomas Baskett, And the Assigns of Robert Baskett) <British Library: L 14 e 2> 2°
  • 1765 (Oxford: Mark Baskett) <British Library: C 108 f 15>[32] 4°
  • 1775 with Sturt's Sacred Geography (London: Richard Ware, 1775) <Australia: RBq CLI 3401> 4°
  • 1775, 1776 (Cambridge: Printed by John Archdeacon for London: John Beecroft, John Rivington, Benjamin White, & Edward Dilly, and Cambridge: T. & J. Merrill) <British Library: 3050 eee 10> 4°
  • 1777 (Oxford: Printed by T. Wright & W. Gill for London: S. Crowder, and Oxford: W. Jackson) <British Library: L 10 a 7> 4°

  They were also copied about 1740 in Dublin—see no. 12, below.

• 10. Sacred Geography,[33] Contained in Six Maps, viz. I. Shewing the Situation of Paradise and the Country inhabited by the Patriarches. II. The Peopling of the World by the Sons of Noah, and the Israelites Journeying in the Wilderness. III. A Plan of the City of Jerusalem with a View of Solomon's Temple, and all the sacred Utensils therein. IV. The Holy Land, divided into the Twelve Tribes of Israel, in which is exactly traced our Saviour's Travels. V. The Land of Canaan. VI. The Travels of St.

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  Paul, and the rest of the Apostles. The whole very useful for the better Understanding of the Holy Bible. (London: Richard Ware, 1716 [and 1725, 1727, 1775[34]]) 2°
  • 1716 <Bodley: 0.3.1; British Library Maps 118 e 7), separate issue, 2°
  • 1725 <Bodley: Bib Eng 1723 b1> with The Holy Bible (1722-23), 2°; <Bodley: Broxb 48.8> with The Holy Bible (1723), 4°
  • 1727 <Bible Society> with The Holy Bible (1756); <Bodley: Bib Eng 1723 b 4> with The Holy Bible (1722-23), 4°
  • 1777 <Australia: RBq CLI 3401> with Sturt's Historical Part of the Holy Bible (London: Richd Ware, [n.d.]), 4°

  Sturt's Sacred Geography is advertised (1) in "A Catalogue of Books: Sold by R. Ware, at the Bible and Sun in Amen-Corner" (in J. Hamond, An Historical Narrative of the Whole Bible [London: R. Ware, 1727] <Bodley: Montagu 208>), (2) in a list of Books Printed for and Sold by R. Ware (1732) (in A Brief Concordance or Table to the Holy Bible enlarged by John Downame [London: R. Ware, 1732] <Bodley: Bib Eng 1736>) and (3) on the title-page of The Book of Common Prayer ([London:] Printed and Sold by Richard Ware at ye Bible & Sun on Ludgate Hill [date cut off]) bound with The Holy Bible (Oxford: Thomas Baskett, 1758) <Chicago: BX S 1435 A14 17578>.

  The double-page folio maps[35] (see Plate 9) are found in copies of The Holy Bible printed chiefly for the Basketts in London and Oxford:

  • 1722, 1723 (London: John Baskett, and the Assigns of Thomas Newcomb, & Henry Hills) <Bodley: Bib Eng 1723 b 1 and Bib Eng 1723 b 4 and Bible Society[36]> 2°
  • 1723 (Oxford: John Baskett) <Bodley: Broxb 48.8> 4°
  • 1756 (Oxford: Thomas Baskett) <Bible Society> 4°
  • 1777 (Oxford: Printed by T. Wright & W. Gill for London: S. Crowder and Oxford: W. Jackson <British Library: L 10 a 7> 4°

  These suites of English plates are regularly associated with one of the Bible patentees: Van Hove's History of ye Old & New Testament in Cutts (London: John Williams) with the Bills in London, and the sets by Cole (The Historical Part . . . [London: Richard Ware]) and Sturt (The Historical Part . . . [London: Richard Ware]) and Sacred Geography [London: Richard Ware]) with the Basketts in Oxford.

• 11. Taferelen der Voornaamste Geschiedenissen van Oude en Nieuwe Testament, en Andere Boeken, bij de Heilege Schrift Gevoegt, door de vermaarde Kunstanaars Hoet, Houbraken, en Picart Getekent, en van de Beste Meesters in Kuper Gesneden, en met Beschrijvingen uitgebreid ('s Graavenghaage: Pieter Hondt, 1728) Mediaan Papier 2°

  [A duplicate, engraved title-page reads:] Figures de la Bible (La Haye: Pierre de Hondt, 1728) B. Picart inv. & fec 1719

  [A half-title for Vol. III is called:] Figures qui Representent les Evenemens les plus Memorables du Nouveau Testament [no imprint] <British Museum Print Room: 157 e 1>

  There are three volumes with 185 very fine plates (see Plate 10), twenty-five of

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  them double-page size, chiefly after Houbrake(n) (17), B. Picart (52), and G. Hoet (105), each with titles in Hebrew, English, German, Latin, French and Dutch and one leaf of descriptive text in Dutch. There are also 206 vignettes, a few of which are fine; some are as much as 7" x 4", larger than the full-page plates in some Bibles, and about half (101) are after Picart.

  The English inscriptions on the plates indicate that the work was intended in part for an English market.

• 12. The Historical Part of the Holy Bible . . . [with] near Three Hundred Historys Engraven From Designs of the Greatest Masters [Sturt is not named] (Dublin: George Grierson [c. 1740[37]])

  Sturt's plates from The Historical Part of the Holy Bible (No. 9 above) were copied in Ireland, probably without permission, and issued with the new title-page above (see Plate 11). The only copy of this I have seen is bound, as it was probably first sold, with

  1740 The Holy Bible (Dublin: George Grierson) <British Library: L 10 f 2> 2°
  

• 13. A Series of Prints of Scripture History, designed as Ornaments for those Apartments in which Children receive the first Rudiments of their Education (London: John Marshall [?1786]) Price, pasted on Boards, for hanging up in Nurseries, 1s.6d.—in Sheets 8d.—sewed in Marble Paper, for the Pocket, 10d.—neatly Bound in Red Leather, 1s.2d. <British Library: 03128 e 7> 3 1/2" x 4"

  The only type-set text, aside from the title-page, is the introduction, which says the publisher is acting on a passage in Mme Genlis' Adele and Theodore: "One Room was hung with Pictures representing Parts of Scripture History" for the edification of the children. There are 27 numbered plates for the Old Testament, though the text below calls for 31. (The text mentions a companion volume called A Series of Prints of the New Testament.) Another companion volume by Mrs Trimmer was entitled: A Description of a Set of Prints of Scripture [Old Testament] History: contained in A Set of Easy Lessons (London: John Marshall [1786]) <British Library: 03128 e 7>.

  The Series of Prints is of course remarkably fugitive. I have evidence of:

  • 1805 A New Series of Prints, Accompanied by Easy Lessons: Consisting of Subjects Taken from The New Testament By Mrs. Trimmer (London: J. Harris & J. Hatchard) <Huntington> There are 40 surprisingly good plates about 2" x 3".
  • 1812 Mrs Trimmer, A Series of Prints of Scripture History . . . (London: John Marshall) <Opie Collection, Bodley>
  • 1816 Mrs Trimmer, A New Series of Prints . . . [for] the New Testament (London: J. Harris) <Opie Collection, Bodley>
  • 1821 Mrs Trimmer, A Series of Prints Taken from the New Testament described and illustrated by Mrs Trimmers' Scripture Lessons (London: Baldwin, Craddock, & Joy, N. Hailes, & John Marshall) <Opie Collection, Bodley> (see Plate 12)
  • 1828 Mrs Trimmer, Scripture Lessons, Designed to Accompany A Series of Prints, from the New Testament (London: Baldwin & Cradock, N. Hailes, and John Marshall) with 64 plates <Dr E. B. Bentley>
  There were certainly more editions than I have traced.

• 14. Scripture Illustrated by Means of Engravings referring to Natural Science, Customs, Manners, &c. (London: C. Taylor, 1802)

  This too is a remarkably fugitive work, and in fact I have seen no copy; my information

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  comes from Lowndes.[38] There are also said to be editions of 1803 and 1814. Presumably such prints today survive chiefly distributed through extra-illustrated Bibles with no title-page to indicate their source.

• 15. Scripture Illustrated; or, A Series of Engravings, taken from the Old and New Testament: Designed by W.M. Craig, Esq. and cut in wood by Bewick, C. & J. Nesbit, Branston, Austin, Clennel, Hole [i.e., Berryman], Lee, &c. &c. with A Table of Directions to the Passages from which the Designs are Taken (London: Engraved and Printed for Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe, 1806; T. Bensley, Printer) <British Museum Print Room: 166 * d 11> 8°

  The work consists of 93 somewhat simplistic engravings, with a printed description of 80 "small" woodcuts (two to a page; see Plate 13) and 13 "large" ones. There is no other text at all. Bewick, whose name leads all the rest, signed only four woodcuts.

• 16. A Set of Engravings, from the Designs of Corbould and Riley, Adapted to Illustrate the Old and New Testaments (London, 1810) 4°

  The work is remarkably fugitive, and my only information about it comes from Lowndes.

• 17. The Sacred Writings Illustrated, in A Series of Engravings on Wood, By the Most Approved Artists: To Which Is Added, A Concise Account of the Origin, Rise, and Progress of the Art (Lewes: Sussex Press, John Baxter, 1811) <British Library: 1215 L 9; Victoria & Albert: 94 k 50> 4°

  There are 29 numbered uninteresting plates (see Plate 14), designed by Craig (20) and Corbould (4); the only text is the "Concise Account" on pp. 1-8.

• 18. Boydell's Illustrations of Holy Writ; Being A Set of Copper Plate Engravings Calculated to Ornament All Quarto and Octavo Editions of the Bible, and Sold in Parts without The Text. Engraved by Isaac Taylor, after the Designs of Isaac Taylor, Jun. (London: Boydell & Co., Cheapside, 1813. Printed by W. Bulmer and Co., Cleveland-Row, St. James's) <Bodley: Ang 1; British Library: 1109 kk 9; GEB>

  A prospectus (with the British Library copy) of 1 November 1813, the date of Part I, announced that the work was "to be completed in a set of One Hundred Copper-Plate Engravings" at £1.10 for proofs, 10s 6d for lettered quarto impressions, and 7s 6d for lettered octavo impressions, but I have only seen three Parts, with ten plates each, the second two Parts undated. There is a "Description of the Plates" but, of course, no biblical text. The plates are of indifferent quality and are much smaller than quarto size, with wide white margins (see Plate 15).

• 19. Scripture Costume; Exhibited in a Series of Engravings, Drawn under the Superintendance of Benjamin West, P.R.A. by R. Satchwell, with Biographical Sketches and Historical Remarks on the Manners and Customs of Eastern Nations (London: S. Leigh, 1819) 4°

  My information about the work derives from Lowndes and the National Union Catalog.

• 20. The Old Testament Illustrated with Engravings by Charles Heath from the Designs of Richard Westall Esqr R.A. (London: Hurst Robinson, & C°, 1 Jan. 1821) 2°

  [The cover-label calls it:] Westall's Illustrations of the Holy Bible In Thirty-One

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  Plates Engraved by Charles Heath[;] Prints on India Paper, Price £6.6s. <Melbourne: BX ef 220 91 W522>

  The highly-finished plates of this elusive work are about 10" x 12" printed on paper 12" x 18", but the design-size is only about 4" x 5" (see Plate 16), clearly so that they could be used in illustration of Bibles of small format. I have seen only one copy of the work, in the University of Melbourne.

• 21. Sixty Illustrations and Embellishments of the Holy Scriptures from Superior Designs by Eminent Masters, Engraved in Outline and Tinted, with Descriptions in French and English (London: Bagster, 1824) 12°

  My only information about the work derives from Lowndes.

• 22. Copy of a Series of Medals, Illustrative of the Holy Scriptures Published by Edward Thomason, of Birmingham, and Struck Off at his Manufactory. Size of the Medals, Three Inches in Diameter. Entered at Stationers' Hall. April, 1830 (Birmingham: Printed by the Author for J. C. Barlow [1830]) <Bodley: Arch Num III 220; British Library: 604 b 14> 2°

  There are three handsome embossed designs in Green on each page, with facing descriptions, 60 designs on 20 pages.

These works are not really illustrated Bibles but are separate suites of illustrations designed to be combined with separately-printed Bibles.

In a few works with "biblical" text, the illustrations are the raison d'etre of the publication. One such work is:

(There were also editions in 1677 and 1682.) The Youths Visible Bible on pp. 1-156 consists of woodcuts with twelve simple designs (e.g., on the first, Adder, Adversitie, Ants, Age, Almes, Alter, Apples, Arrows, Ark, Asp, Ass, Ax) followed by six pages of parallel passages from the Bible, English on the left, citation in the middle, Latin on the right (see Plate 17).

A somewhat similar work was:

The work is remarkably fugitive, not to say silly. I have seen very few copies, but, as they were entirely printed from woodcuts, they were unlikely to change much from edition to edition except in the title-page. It consists of 126-134 pages with three to four woodcuts per page, crude pictures doing duty for words—e.g., "And the Lord [cartouche with Hebrew IHVH] formed [cartouche of a naked horizontal man]" (p. 4). It was clearly a valuable property, repeatedly reprinted, in at least these forms:

• 1784 2nd Edition <British Library>
• 1785 2nd Edition
• 1785 3rd Edition <British Library>
• 1786 4th Edition <British Library>
• 1787 5th Edition <Bible Society>
• 1788 6th Edition <British Library>
• 1789 Dublin
• 1790 8th Edition <Bodley>
• 1791 9th Edition <British Library>
• 1792 10th Edition
• 1792 11th Edition <Bodley, Victoria>
• 1794 13th Edition
• 1795 13th Edition <Bible Society>
• 1796 13th Edition <Bodley>
• 1812 20th Edition[39]

The first eleven London editions were published by Thomas Hodgson, the rest by Robert Bassam.

The re-establishment of the tradition of printed Bible-illustration in England was a slow and somewhat devious process, and the tension between Puritans, the King's Printer, and the iconophiles was only gradually relaxed. Apparently it was the development of two innovations which made the relaxation possible or at least acceptable. The first was the idea of separate suites of Bible illustrations which could be combined with the printed Bible at the inclination of the purchaser, and the second was the concept that a Bible which is something more than the King James Translation, with notes or illustrations, was not governed by the Crown patent in the King James Translation.

There were, of course, suites of separate English Bible prints after 1830,[40]

but the climax of accomplishment in Bible printing and illustration in England was the magnificent Macklin Bible "Embellished with Engravings, from Pictures and Designs by the Most Eminent English Artists" first published in folio Parts in 1791-1800, expanded with the addition of the Apocrypha in 1816, and re-issued in 1816-24 (see Plate 18). Its only rival was the suite of Illustrations of the Book of Job which William Blake designed, engraved, and published in 1826 (see Plate 19). For imaginative ambition, heroic size, dignity, sophistication of engraving, and quality of designs, nothing like them by English artists, engravers, and printers had appeared in England before or would appear again. After 1800, the focus of English Bible illustration frequently shifted from divine and heroic events to biblical (that is to say, oriental) landscape and geography and topography and natural science and costume and customs. From 1549 to 1830 artistic and legal innovation and accomplishment in English Bible illustration flourished vigorously, but by about 1800 most of the changes had been rung. By 1830 the heroic days of English biblical martyrs, iconoclastic Puritans, and publishing pirates had largely passed.

APPENDIX: Separate Bible Illustrations Printed on the Continent 1529-1802

• 1529 HSB Typis in Apocalypsi Joannis depicti (Frankfort); HSB Imaginum in Apocalypsi Johannis descriptio (Frankforti, 1549)

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• 1533 Biblisch Historien Figürlich Fürgebildet Durch den wolberümpten Sebald Beham von Nüremberg HSB (Franckfort am Meyn: Christian Egonolph [1533])—engraved throughout on 79 small plates with German inscriptions 4°

  With an added Latin title, Biblicae Historiae, Artificiosissime depictae . . . [1537]—76 plates with a line of Latin above and of German below (the British Library copy <683 e 14> has English verses added in a sixteenth-century hand) 8°

  Biblicae Historiae, Magno artificio depictae, & utilitatis publicae causa Latinis Epigrammatibus a Georgio Æmylio illustrate. HSB ([1539])—79 plates with Latin epigrams added below the designs 4°

  Biblia veteris Testamenti et Historiae, Artificiosis picturis effigiata (Francfurti: Christianus Egonolphum, 1551); (Franc.: Hermannum Gulffericum, 1553, 1554)—281 plates by Beham and others 8°

  Biblia . . . Biblische Historien künstlich fürgemalet (1551); (Franc: Wigandium Gallum, 1561)—281 plates by Beham and others 8°

• 1537 Doctrina, vita et passio Iesv Christi, Iuxta Noui Testamenti fidem & ordinem, artificiossime effigiata; Lere, Leben und Sterben Jesu Christi Inhale des gantzen newen Testaments Kunstlich Fürgebildet (Frankforti: Christanum Egonolphum)—70 plates with German and Latin inscriptions, including Typi in Apocalypsi Ioannis Depicti vt Clarivs Vaticinia Ioannis intelligi possint. ISB (Francoforti: Christianus Egonolphus)—27 plates 4°
• 1543 Hstoriorum Veteris Testamenti Icones . . . Latina & Gallica expositione (Lugduni: Ioannem & Franciscum Frellonus, 1543; 1547); The Images of the Old Testament, Lately expressed, set forth in Ynglishe and Frenche, vuith a playn and brief exposition (Lyons: Iohan Frellon, 1549)—96 small plates from the Old Testament [by Holbein]; the Historium has 4 lines of Latin above the design and 4 of German below it; the Images has text above in French and below in German 4°
• 1551 Biblia veteris Testamenti et Historiae, Artificiosis picturis effigiata [ed. P Artopoeus]; Biblische Historien Künstelich Fürgemalet (Francfurti: Christianum Egonolphum, 1551; Franc.: Hermannum Gulffericum, 1553, 1554; Franc. Wigandum Gallum, 1561)—280 fair plates by H. S. Beham and others printed back-to-back with Latin above the design and German beneath 16°
• 1552 VS. Biblische Figures des Alten [und Neüwen] Testaments gantz Künstlich weiterberümpten Vergilium Solis Malar und Kunststecher zu Nürnberg (Franckfort am Mayn: K. M. Freiheyt, 1552, 1562; 1560)—211 plates with German and Latin inscriptions[41] 4°

• 1554 Wohl gerissner und geschnidter Figuren aussz der Bible—plates by Bernhard Salomon; Figures del Vecchio Testaments con Versi Toscani [by Damian Maraffi] (Lione: Giovanni di Tournes, 1554)—220+ plates by Moni & Bernhard Salomon 8°

  Wolgerissnen . . . (1564); Icones Historicae Veteris et Novi Testamenti . . .; Figvres Historiqves dv Vievx et dv Novveauv Testament . . . (Geneve: Samvel de Tovrnes, 1680; 1681)—358 plates with quatrains inscribed in Latin and French for "la Ieunesse" 8°

• 1555 Qvadrins Historiqves de la Bible Reuuz, & augmentez d'un grand nombre de figures (Lion: Iean de Tovrnes, 1555, 1556; 1556, 1558; 1558; 1562; 1578)—309 vignettes 2" x 3" printed back-to-back each with a French quatrain, including Figures du Nouveau Testament (Lion: Ian de Tournes, 1556, &c) 4°

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• 1564 John Bockpergern, Neuwe Biblische Figures de Alter und Neuwen Testaments (Frankfort am Main: Sigmund Feyerabend)—151 plates with inscriptions in German and Latin 8°

• 1565 [Guillaume Gueroult] Figures de la Bible, illustrées de huictans francoys (1565, 1570)—woodcuts by Pierre Eskreich, verses by Guillaume Gueroult; Figure de la Biblia, illustrate de Stanze Tuscane [versi vulgari in the Nvovo Testamento] Per Gabriel Simconi (Lione: Gulielmo Rovillio, 1570, 1577), 448 plates by Pierre Eskrich 8°

  Neue Künstliche Figuren Biblischer Historien gründlich von Tobia Stimmer gerissen (Basel: Thoma Gwarin, 1576)—179 plates printed back-to-back with German inscriptions 4°

  Nouae Tobiae Stimmeri Sacrorvm Bibliorvm Figurae: Versirvs Latinis & Germanicis exposita; Newe Biblische Figuren durch Tobiam Stimmer gerissen Mit Lateinischer unnd Teutschen Bersen aussgelegt (Strasburg: Bernhart Jobin, 1589, 1590, 1625)—166 plates with Latin and German inscriptions 8°

• 1571 [Jost Amman] Bibliorum Utrisque Testament Icones (Cologne: G. Calenius, J. Quentels, 1571) 2°

  Newe Biblische Figuren (Frankfort am Mayn, 1571; 1579; title in Latin, 1584)—200 plates with German inscriptions [by H. P. Rebenstock] 8°

  Kunstliche und volgerissene Figuren der förnamsten Evangelium durch gantz Jar (1587)

• 1580 Imagines et Figurae Bibliorvm; Images et Figures de la Bible; Beelden ende Figuren wt den Bybel ([no place:] Iacobus Villanus, 1580, 1581, 1582)—60 plates by Pev Borcht with inscriptions in Latin and French [by Hendrick Jansen] 4°
• 1582 Figures de la Bible declarée par stances par G[abriel] C[happuys], Augmentée de grand nombre de figures aux Actes des Apostres (Lyon: Estienne Michel)
• 1587 Icones Evangelorum, plates with inscriptions by C. Lautenbach 4°
• 1593 Evangelicae Historiae Imagines ex ordine Evangeliorum quae toto anno in Missae sacrificio recitantur (Antwerpiae, 1593-1595; 1647)—153 plates mostly by Jerome, Anthony, and John Wierix with inscriptions by Hieron Natalis 2°
• 1595 Cristoph Weigel, Historien von Iesu Christi . . . aus der Heiliger Evangelisten Matthaeo urgebildet, 144 plates; Historien aus dem I und II Buch Samuelis, I und II Buch von der Konigen, I und II Buch der Chronica . . .—122 plates 12°
• 1610 Icones Sanctorum In singulos anni dies cum Elogiis & Indici Chronologii ([no place:] Martius Mittnacht Excud Augustae Vindelicoru)—48 plates with 9 designs on each 8°
• 1610 Sanctorvm et Martyrvm Christi Icones quaedam artifiosissimae; Der heiligen und Martirer Gottes künstliche Bildnussen (Franc.: Chr. Egonolphum)—76 numbered anonymous woodcuts 8°
• 1614 Figures de la Saincte Bible Accompagnées de Briefs Discovrs contenans la plvs Grande parties des Histories sacré du vieil et novveav Testaments (Paris: Iean le Clerc, 1614; 1666; 1688; 1724)—272 anonymous plates [by Jean Leclerc] with a paraphrase of a biblical passage below each 2°
• 1649 Sacrae Historiae Aeta a Raphael Vrbin in Vaticanis Xistis ad Pictvrae Miracvlvm Expressa Nicolavs Chapron (Romae, 1649); Imagines Veteris ac Novi Testamenti a Raphael Sanctio Vrbinate . . . (Roma: G. Rossi, 1675)—52 plates engraved by Nicholas Chapron with titles in Latin 4°
• 1659 Icones Biblicae Praecipius sacrae Scripturae, Historias eleganter & graphice representantes . . .; Biblische Figuren . . .; Figures de la Bible . . .; Figgers of the Bible . . .; Bybel Printen . . . (Amsterdam: Danekert Danckertsz); Icones Biblicae Veteris et Novi Testamenti . . .; Figuren Biblischer Historien Alten und Neüen Testaments . . . (Nurnberg: Johann Leonhard [1679, 1680])—248 plates with inscriptions in Latin, French, German, English, and Dutch (1659) or in Latin and German (1679-80) 2°
• 1674 Theatrum Biblicum (Amsterdam)—with plates engraved by Claes Jansz Visscher; 248 plates with inscriptions in Latin and German

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• 1680 Icones Historicae Veteris et Novi Testamenti Carminibus Latinis & Gallicis illustratae in quibus exponitis Historia in singulis exhibita Figuris; Figures Historiqves dv Vievx et dv Novveav Testament Accompagnées de Quadrains en Latin & François, qui exposent l'Histoire representée en chaque Figure (Geneve: Samvel de Tovrnes, 1680; 1681)—358 vignettes ("tableaux qu'on a crû avoir de la force en frapant l'imagination par les yeux") by Bernard Salomon ("Le Petit Bernard"), with four lines of Latin above and four in French below added especially for "la Ieunesse" 8°
• 1685 Historiae Sacrae Veteris et Novi Testamenti . . .; Biblische Figuren . . .; Figures de la Bible . . .; Bybelsche Figuren . . .; Figures of the Bible in w[h]ich almost every History of the Holy Scriptures is discribed (Amsteldami: Nicolai Visscher [1685?])—125 fine double-page plates engraved by Nic. Visscher with inscriptions in Latin and Dutch and sometimes also in French, German, and English 4°

• 1694 Biblisches Engel- u. Kunst-werk, alles desjenige was in Heilegen Göttlichen Schrift . . . in zierlichen Kupfern (Augspurg: Johan Ulrich Kraussen, 1694); with a title-page calling it Historische Bilder-Bible (1702) 8°

  With a duplicate title-page calling it Historische Bilder-Bible (1705)—188 plates (a vignette below a full scene) by Kraus on 94 leaves 2°

• 1695 Sacrae Scripturae Loquens in Imaginibus; Die Durch Bildnussen redende Heilige Schrift Alt und Neuen Testaments . . . (Nurnberg: Christoph Weigel, Kupferstecher [1695], the New Testament called Historia von Iesu Christi)—210 ambitious engravings by Weigel mostly after Caspar & Jan Luyken with four designs per plate and German descriptions on the facing versos 2°

  It also seems to have been issued in Parts, e.g., Die v Bücher Moses (1695); Historiae Celebriores Veteris [et Novi] Testamenti Iconibus . . . (Noribergae: [no publisher], 1712)—261 plates with verse descriptions in Latin and German 2°

• 1698 Historia del Testamento Vecchio Dipinta in Roma nel Vaticano da Raffaelle Vrbino et intagliata in rame da Sisto Badaloccis et Giovani Lanfranchi Parmigiana al Sig Annibale Carracci (A Roma appresso a Giouanni Orlandi)—53 engravings; the only copy I have seen has the signature of "W Blake 1773". oblong 8°
• 1700 [D. Martin] Historie des Ouden en Nieuwen Testaments (Amsterdam, 1700)—440+ plates 2°
• 1700 Pictures of the Old and New Testaments . . .; Tableaux du Vieux & Nouveau Testament . . . (Amsterdam: Renier & Josua Ottens [1700?])—152 plates with inscriptions in French, Dutch, and English 4°
• 1702 Bybelsche Historien des Ouden en des Niewen Testaments (Dordrecht & Amsterdam)—306 plates on 55 leaves 2°
• 1722 Icones Biblicae . . .; Figures Du Vieux et du Nouveau Testament . . .; Print-Verbeeldingen . . . (Amsterdam: Pieter Mortier[42] [1722?]); Afbeeldingen der Merkwaardigsten Geschiedenissen van het Oude en Nieuwe Testament . . .; [Another title-page calls it:] Icones Biblicae Veteris et N: Testamenti . . .; Figures du Vieux et du Nouveau Testament Inventées et Gravées par Jan Luyken; Printverbeeldingen der Historien des Ouden en Nieuwen Testaments . . . (Amsterdam: Joh. Covens & Corn. Mortier, 1729); Histoire les plus Remarquables de l'ancient

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  et du Nouveau Testament Gravée en cuivre Par le célèbre Jean Luyken (Amsterdam: Jean Covens & Corneille Mortier, 1732); Zedelyke en sticklelyke (Amsteldam: K. van der Sys, 1734); Icones Biblicae . . . (Amsterdam: F. Houttuyn, 1747)—119 fine prints, many double-page, with inscriptions in Dutch and French and two pages of description in Dutch (1729) or French (1732) per plate, the pictorial emphasis being upon the wonderful and the curious rather than the heroic and the divine 2°
• 1728 Histoire Sacrée de la Providence et de la Conduite de Dieu Sur les Hommes . . . Tirée de l'Ancien et du Nouveau Testament, Representée En cinq cent Tableaux . . . (Paris: l'Auteur [M. de Marne]); Figures de la Bible contenues en Cinq Cens Tableaux . . . pour l'instruction de la Jeunesse (Paris: G. Desprey, 1767)—500 prints engraved by de Marne with two designs per plate and inscriptions in Latin and French 4°
• 1728 Taferelen der Voornaamste Geschiedenissen van Oude en Nieuwe Testament . . .; [Another title-page reads:] Figures de la Bible . . . ('s Graavenhaag: Pieter Hondt or La Haye: Pierre de Hondt)—185 very fine plates mostly after G. Hoet and B. Picart with inscriptions in Hebrew, English, French, German, Latin, and Dutch and a leaf of description per plate in Dutch, plus 206 large vignettes 2°
• 1748 Josepho & Joanne Klauber, Fratribus, Historiae Biblicae Veteris et Novi Testamenti . . .; Biblische Geschichten Alter und Neuen Testaments . . . In Hundert Fruchbaren Blätteren . . . (Augspurg: [no publisher, ?1748])—100 fascinating plates by I. A. Stockmann-Klauber Cath or C.P.S.C.M. 8° height, 2° width
• 1758 Driehondert Schrifturlyke Dicttafereelen met nieuwe Keurige Kunstplaten (Amsterdam: Jacobus Loveringh)—286 plates by J. C. Phillips with two prints per leaf plus a leaf of description each 8°
• 1802 Storia del Vecchio e del Nuovo Testamento Rappresentate in figure . . . (Roma: Vol. I: [no publisher], 1802; Vol. II: Presso l'incisore Bernardino Olivieri [no date]; Vol. III: [no publisher], 1804)—156 prints with two designs each, one above the other 4°

Notes