Bible in English [The Bishops' Bible, 1st Edition]

5 parts in one volume, folio (15 ¼ x 10 in.; 387 x 254 mm). Black letter, text in double columns, 57 lines to the full column, title-page comprised of a word panel (three words xylographic words "The.Holie.Bible" within a woodcut architectural border) above a large engraving by Franz Hogenberg incorporating a medallion portrait of Elizabeth I, the royal arms and allegorical figures, engraved portrait of the Earl of Leicester on divisional title for Part 2, woodcuts after within architectural borders after Virgil Solis on divisional titles for Part 3 and the Apocrypha, New Testament title-page within woodcut allegorical border, 127 other narrative woodcuts after Solis within architectural borders, 7 woodcut maps and numerous diagrams, one full-page woodcut of the Order of Encampment around the Tabernaclet, two other miscellaneous woodcuts, a large engraved initial B with a portrait of William Cecil, Lord Burghley at the beginning of Psalms, almanac and calendar printed in red and black, woodcut initials; general title age-darkened and reinforced on verso, light text browning and staining, side-notes shaved on F4v in Part 1, a few mends to minor marginal tears (one or two slightly affecting text or side-note). Nineteenth-century brown morocco, paneled in blind with a foliate roll tool, inner panel with a smaller acanthus leaf tool, the spine in six compartments with raised bands, similarly tooled in blind and lettered gilt, vellum doublures and guards; joints and bands rubbed, doublures and guards a bit soiled. Brown morocco folding case.

Formatting the Word of God 8.7; STC 2099; ESTC S122070 (with the erroneous inclusion of **¹⁰ in the collation); Herbert 125 (typographical error in the collation, listing the final quire as V⁸ instead of V⁶); Luborsky & Ingram 2099

First edition of the version known as the "Bishops' Bible," a major revision of the Great Bible overseen by Matthew Parker (1504–1575), Archbishop of Canterbury, in concert with eight other bishops, and produced in response to the Geneva Bible, which, while widely popular, never received official approval.

"In typography and illustration this is perhaps the most sumptuous in the long series of folio English Bibles" (Herbert). Most of the woodcuts in the text are after illustrations by Virgil Solis for the Luther Bible (Frankfurt, 1560) and were used again in a Dutch Bible published at Cologne in 1566 before making their way to England. Elizabeth I is featured in an engraved medallion portrait on the general title-page. Curiously, two members of her court appear in the Bible as well: Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester is placed below the title of the second part of the Bible, which begins with the Book of Joshua, thus associating him with Joshua, the successor to Moses as leader of Israel.  Wililam Cecil, Baron Burghley, appears "at the head of the Psalms as initial B to Beatus Vir, paying Burghley the compliment of possessing the blessedness of the Psalmist's eulogy of the godly" (A.M. Hind, Engraving in England in the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries: The Tudor Period) 

An outstanding, complete copy. Of the 18 copies that have appeared at auction in the past 50 years, all have been imperfect and defective. Tipped in to the flyleaf is a manuscript by Francis Fry dated 1876: "This is a magnificent copy of the first edition of the Bishops' Bible 1568. Perfect every leaf is the true edition. The Title is in fine condition equal to the proof impression which I have."