A rare Bible, printed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, has been discovered in a Cotswolds vicarage.
Printed in Rouen, France in 1566, the Bible is the oldest ever seen by senior auctioneer Philip Taubenheim and will go under the hammer in December at Wotton Auction Rooms in Wotton-under-Edge.
“It just looks like a large 18th century Bible, partly because it has been re-bound, but if we open the cover, we find the original date of 1566, which is about as early as English Bibles generally come,” explained Mr Taubenheim.
“This is a really rare survivor from that period, it was thought enough about in the 18th century to rebind it. What is particularly rare about this one is that not only does it contain the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, and the New Testament, it also has all sorts of interesting details in the front, page after page.
“For instance, it gives you a chance to find and calculate the date of Easter, and it’s still very accurate. We have a dozen pages running from January to December, giving all the feast days and the days of the saints and everything running through month by month.
“These have often been removed because everybody would just want to come to the Old and the New Testaments, so all this has survived really very well. We’ve never handled a Bible of this age before.”
The title page bears the inscription: ‘The Bible in Englyshe of the largest and greatest volume: that is to saye, the contentes of all the Holye Scripture, booth of the Oulde and Newe Testament According to the translation apoynted by the Queenes Majesties injunctions to be read in all churches within her Majesties realme,’ and the name of its creator, Richard Camarden.
The Bible goes up for sale on Wednesday, December 10th and has an estimated price of £1,000 – £1,500.
“We’re estimating it as £1,000 to £1,500, but we could find it makes £2,000, or it could make £3,000. It’s a very rare opportunity for somebody to take on a really early and exciting Bible,” added Mr Taubenheim.
“The last buyers have been American. In this world, and particularly as it is an internet sale is clearly photographed, anybody in the world can have a go by buying this, and it could well go to America.”
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