Good friends of mine, who live a five-minute drive away, bought a large oceanside property down on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, about two years ago. They go down to visit the property regularly and have become fiends with the couple who live across the road from them. This couple, in their early 90s, have decided to sell their property and move back to Vancouver Island to be close to their children. They are selling their antiques and other items including an old bible. My friends said, they had a bookdealer friend who might be interested in the book, and my phone number was given to the couple. Shortly thereafter, I got a phone call from them, and they advised that it was a Breeches Bible, printed in London in 1606. However, the front cover was detached and the first few pages, including the title page were missing. Was I interested? I said yes, and that I would coordinate coming down to visit them the next time my friends came down to visit their property. And so, I came down there last weekend.
Meanwhile, I did some research on this bible. From the Encyclopedia Britannica:
“Geneva Bible, English translation of the Bible published in Geneva (New Testament, 1557; Old Testament, 1560) by a colony of Protestant scholars in exile from England who worked under the general direction of Miles Coverdale and John Knox and under the influence of John Calvin. The English churchmen had fled London during the repressive reign of the Roman Catholic Mary I, which had halted the publication of Bibles there.”
“The work acquired the sobriquet “Breeches Bible” because it described Adam and Eve as having made “breeches” to cover their nakedness (Genesis 3:7), instead of “aprons” or “loincloths.” The Great Bible (named for its large page size and first ordered by Henry VIII in
1538) was restored to the churches after Elizabeth I’s succession halted persecution of
Anglicans and Protestants, but the Geneva Bible, imported from Europe and not printed in
England until 1576, quickly surpassed the Great Bible in public favour. The Geneva Bible was
the first Bible in English to add numbered verses. It was also one of the first to include extensive commentary notes, which were later deemed “seditious” by King James when he banned the Geneva Bible in 1611. Despite the king’s contempt, the work’s enduring popularity made the Geneva Bible an important influence on the translators of the King James Version.”
OK. The bible was important. The three things that drive value for a book are importance,
condition and scarcity.
Now to have a look at the Breeches Bible that were for sale on Abebooks. Twenty-five copies of the some 200 editions of the bible printed from 1576 to 1644. Prices went from US$3,500 to US$17,000. The more expensive books were early printings, folio copies or miniature copies.
The most common and lower priced copies were those printed in London between 1606 and
1609. There was one 1606 bible priced at US$4,000. There was my benchmark.
I read the descriptions of the 25 bibles. What I learnt was that almost all copies contained not
only the Breeches Bible but other works such as books of prayer, psalms, and so on. They were all different.
And the condition of some of the books left much to be desired. Damp stains, missing pages, and discolouration was prevalent.
Armed with information, I knocked on the couple’s door.
They were very delightful, and we chatted for a while before THE BOOK was brought out for me to look at.
My heart sank a bit. The cover and spine were expected but that top page was not in good
shape at all. The biggest problem was that it was cropped, i.e. the pages were trimmed by the
binder before being bound into the book. I was asked, does that mean that this bible was
rebound? I responded by saying, I don’t know yet. I proceeded to go through the entire volume page by page.
Five pages in I came to The Preface. Well, can’t be that many pages missing. About fifty pages in, I came to the Breeches Bible Old Testament title page. Hurray! The first section of the book was a book of prayers. It was damaged but it protected the bible. Obviously, when the binder went to work the earlier printed book of prayers was cropped to match the size of the pages of the bible. A happy moment for me and the owners.
I continued to go through the book. And my friend walked in, they had just arrived to visit their property. We chatted for a bit, and I started to go through the book page by page, collating it. After a few minutes, I lifted my head and said pardon me I’m not being rude but I’m working here. MY friend said he’d never seen me work before!
I was tracking the page number as I was going through and it suddenly dawned on me that only the right-hand pages were numbered. And they didn’t go 1,3,5 but 1.2.3. It was a leaf count not a page count. The first time I have ever seen this. And then I came to the end of the Old Testament and the New Testament started, continuing the “page” count not starting over. I was very happy with the condition of the book. The paper was supple and the text very legible and throughout the pages were neatly red lined. These lines appear to be printed and not drawn. So, the pages would have had to go through the presses twice.
Following the New Testament was a lengthy section called “The first Alphabet of directions to
common places, containing all the Hebrew, Caldean, Greeke, Latine, or other strange names,
dispersed throughout the whole bible. This was like an encyclopedia or glossary of names for
the bible. This was the last section of the Breeches Bible.
The next section in the book was “The Whole Booke of Psalmes” 1607. It would appear that
most copies of the Breeches Bibles that I researched included this, although the dates varied,
depending on what the publisher had on hand. What is very interesting is that at the end of this section, there was a few pages of prayers, followed by an index that covered both the Psalms and the prayers. It was dated 1629.
It is logical to assume that the printer/publisher printed all copies of the book in 1606, but they would remain on the shelves until someone bought the bible. It is only in the nineteenth century that publishers bound their books. It was left up to the purchaser to bind the books once purchased. In fact, maybe it was up to the purchaser to decide what got bound in with the actual bible. This leads to the next intriguing element associated with this volume.
The cover of the book has the initials T F. The purchaser had it bound with his initials. The very last page in this book is a blank page that is somewhat torn and incomplete but written in pencil is the apparent ownership signature of Thomas Fell.
Off to Wikipedia! And to my surprise and delight, here is what I found:
“Thomas Fell (1598 – 1658), was a lawyer, member of parliament and vice-chancellor of
the Duchy of Lancaster. Fell was born at Hawkshead, near Ulverston. He was the son of
George Fell, a gentleman of ancient Lancashire family. He was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1623, called to the bar in 1631, and practised successfully for several years. In 1648, Oliver
Cromwell named him a commissioner for the safety of the county, and in 1649 he was
nominated vice-chancellor of the duchy and attorney for the County Palatine. Fell was
considered a leading puritan in the district of Furness, and practised hospitality with his wife's
assistance.”
His call to the bar in 1631 and the last date in the book of 1629, are close. To have determined initial provenance is special.
Before I met with the couple, I looked around for someone who could restore the bible but it
would appear that the last person capable of doing so in Nova Scotia retired several years ago.
I found someone in Ontario who had very good credentials and we have gone back and forth
and on Monday, I will send the book to him for repair.
When negotiating the purchase price for the book, I had to reduce the price for the rebinding,
and we settled on a figure.
Then, I went across the road to join up with my friends and to have a walk around their
wonderful seaside Shangri-la.
Part 2 of this musing will be written following the restoration of the Breeches Bible. Fingers
crossed.