Bible in English | The Bible of the Revolution, in a contemporary binding and with contemporary provenance

Bible in English

The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, Newly Translated out of the Original Tongues, and with the Former Translations diligently Compared and Revised. Philadelphia: Printed and sold by R[obert]. Aitken, 1782–1781

Two parts in one volume, 12mo (153 x 90 mm). General title with woodcut arms of Pennsylvania within border of printer's ornaments, congressional resolution leaf (=3A6) bound after the general title, separate title-page for the New Testament with woodcut vignette and separate register, the whole enclosed within an ornamental border, printer's woodcut monogram on verso, text in double columns, no pagination; first few leaves with a couple of tiny wormholes and minor fraying at fore-edge corners not affecting text, some browning, foxing, and soiling, trimmed close at top with a very few headlines just touched, tiny hole in lower margin of last leaf, lacking blank leaf Aaa6 between the Testaments. Contemporary, likely original, sheep; worn, front joint cracked at top, lacking front free endpaper, but absolutely unrestored. Half blue morocco slipcase, chemise.

First edition of the "Bible of the Revolution," the first complete Bible in English to be printed in America and the only Bible ever endorsed by Congress. With misprints reading "not" for "now" in 2 Kings 7:12; Hosea 6 misnumbered "7"; and "thy doctrine" for "the doctrine" in 1 Timothy 4:16.

Prior to the War of American Independence, British printers held the royal patent to publish the King James Bible to the exclusion of American printers. During the war importation of English Bibles ceased, prompting Robert Aitken (also the congressional printer) to undertake the production of an English-language Bible. When the Treaty of Paris was signed on 3 September, the ban on Bibles from England was lifted, which subsequently threatened sales of this first complete American edition. The "Bible Congress" of 1782, as it was known, passed a resolution—or rather endorsement—on 10 September in an attempt to protect Aitken’s investment. In true entrepreneurial spirit, Aitken inserted a copy of the endorsement, in prominent view, just after the general title-page.

Although the edition has been estimated to be 10,000 copies, the Aitken Bible is increasingly uncommon in the market, particularly preserved in a contemporary binding and with contemporary provenance.

PROVENANCE

Paul Shipman (contemporary note on rear free endpaper, "Paul Shipman's Bible bought of Majr. William Helms in Hacketstown December 23th 1783 price of 6/-. Printed by Robt. Aitken at Pope Head three doors above the Coffey house in Market Street Philadelphia in 1782.") — descended through the Shipman family (four pages of annotations by the Shipman family, beginning with the marriage of Paul Shipman and Mary Bond in 1780 and extending through the death of George Shipman in 1846) 

REFERENCE

Celebration of My Country 92; Formatting the Word of God 12.3; ESTC W4490; Evans 17473; Gutjahr, An American Bible: A History of the Good Book in the United States (Stanford University Press, 1999), pp. 20–26 passim; Herbert 1283; Hildeburn 4126, 4184; Hills, English Bible in America 11; Sabin 5165