Bible in a Book-Box

Erläuterte Bibel mit Fragen, das ist, die ganze Heilige Schrift, Alten und Neuen Testaments, nach der teutschen Ubersetzung Herrn D. Martin Luthers … Altdorf, Joh. Adam Hessel for Ernst Friderich Zobel, 1751.

Three vols bound in five, 8vo; a very good copy; bound in contemporary (Swiss?) sheep, spines gilt in compartments with gilt red paper lettering-pieces, blue paste-patterned edges, marbled pastedowns, preserved together in a pull-off case of sheep over board, ruled in blind, spine gilt-ruled in compartments between false raised bands, one compartment stained black and lettered directly in gilt (‘BIBLIA SACRA IN IV BAND SAMT ANHANG’), lined with marbled paper; bindings and box somewhat rubbed, a few chips to endcaps, otherwise very well-preserved; ink inscription to front free endpaper of the New Testament ‘Bibel Buch. / vor mich. / Andreas Sprecher. / Ao 1784.

£2,250

Approximately:
US $3,043€2,583

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Erläuterte Bibel mit Fragen, das ist, die ganze Heilige Schrift, Alten und Neuen Testaments, nach der teutschen Ubersetzung Herrn D. Martin Luthers …

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A German Bible with extensive apparatus, divided into five volumes and strikingly bound in a book-shaped pull-off case.

While many boxes and cases of the period served to protect books in transit, the large case here makes the volumes inside it considerably less mobile and was likely intended to make the book inside – and the process of reading it – more impressive. The Zobel Bible is a not-overly-imposing octavo edition most often found bound as three volumes in one, but here split into five volumes, substantially increasing both the cost and the size of the binding.

VD18 10242384.