Bibliographic Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English LiteratureKent, Henry Watson
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Bibliographic Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature
Kent, Henry Watson
Best books; English literature -- First editions -- Bibliography; English literature -- History and criticism
The other title-page is seen in the facsimile. It is printed
with a woodcut border which represents above, the Evangelists
Matthew and Mark, the Adonai, Lamb, and Dove in cartouches,
while below are found St. Luke and St. John, the Lamb on the
altar, and the cherub's head, Barker's ornament. The tents and
shields of the Twelve Tribes are represented in twelve round
panels on the left side, and the Twelve Apostles, similarly
framed, on the right. The signatures RL [monogram
reverse-R&L] and CS [monogram over semi-circle] are seen
at the bottom of the title panel. This border, like the great
primer black letter of the text, had been previously used
by Christopher Barker, in an edition of the "Bishops Bible,"
published in 1585, and by Robert in 1602; afterward, in an
edition of the New Testament (Royal Version) published
in 1617, and also in other works. While more finished in
execution, the design is similar in idea to one often used
by Barker, notably in a Bible printed in 1593, and bears some
resemblance to a border found in Plantin's "Great Bible."
The copper-plate title is sometimes found with what is called
the first issue of the work, sometimes with the second, and
sometimes with the editions of 1613 and 1617. It has been
suggested that it was intended to be used with the woodcut
border always found with the New Testament in both issues, and
usually ascribed to the second, although "there is no ground
for supposing that it was always issued with it." That Boel
took the motive of the tents and shields of the Tribes for
a minor detail in his border, is a point worthy of notice
because this fact might, with some reason, be used to prove
that inasmuch as his engraving was made some time after the
unknown wood-engraver's border, it could hardly have appeared
with the first issue.
We quote the following from W. I. Loftie's _A Century of
Bibles_:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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