Biblia: Biblia [French]. La bible historiée.

Edited by Jean de Rély.

Paris:  Antoine Vérard, [between 8 May and 25 Oct. 1499]
Fol.  Vol. I: A-B⁶ a-z⁸ ⁊⁸ aa-tt⁸ uu¹⁰ xx-zz⁸ ⁊⁊⁸ ↄↄ⁶. [12], i-CCC.liii, [39] leaves (uu10, ↄↄ6 blank).  Vol. II: π⁶ AA-PP⁸ QQ⁶ RR-VV⁸ XX¹⁰ AAA-BBB⁸ CCC-DDD⁶ EEE-XXX⁸ yyy⁶. [7], ii-CCCxxxviii leaves.  The second and third leaves of the preliminary quire designated π are numbered but not signed. 
Woodcuts;  woodcut printer’s device.
ISTC ib00623000;  GW 4310;  Goff B623;  CIBN B-448.

Dated by CIBN from the address, types and state of the device.

Comprises the Historia scholastica of Petrus Comestor (with additions from the authentic Bible text), translated by Guyart des Moulins, and further translations from the Vulgate, edited by Jean de Rély, with glosses (Goff, CIBN).

GIP number:	B37
Shelf-mark:	Sp Coll Euing Dq-b.10 (see main library entry for this item)
Note:	The two volumes bound together.
Provenance:	Valleboet (16th century):  ‘Valleboet’(?) at foot of π2r of vol. II, followed by a square drawn in black ink bisected from corner to corner into four triangles. George Offor (1787-1864), literary editor and book collector:  lot 189 (“a small portion of folio CCCXX torn off” - see Imperfections below) in Catalogue of the important and valuable library of the late George Offor ... which will be sold by auction, by ... Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge ... on ... 27th of June, 1865 ... (London:  1865);  sold to the London bookseller Bernard Quaritch for £10.10.0;  see the digitized annotated copy of the Offor sale catalogue in the Bodleian Library:  http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=o1EVAAAAQAAJ&pg=PP9#v=onepage&q&f=false. Bernard Quaritch (1819-1899), bookseller, London:  see above. William Euing (1788-1874), insurance broker, Glasgow:  purchased from Quaritch;  loose sheet of paper inserted with annotation “Bible Historiée - 189 Offor per BQ now in possession of W. Euing”;  Euing’s pencil note on A1r of vol. 1 “Offor per BQ 1.7.65 I/-” and a further note “Ent[ere]d in Cat. French Bibles No 27”. University of Glasgow:  Euing bequest, 1874.
Binding:	16th-century blind-tooled calf over wooden boards;  covers decorated with fillets to form a centre panel bordered by three frames made by three different foliate rolls;  the panel has a lattice-work design formed by intersecting fillets;  remains of two brass clasps;  edges of top outer corners of both boards protected with brass angle brackets (those at the lower corners now lost);  green-edged leaves;  rebacked in 19th century when an earlier front pastedown of paper was largely replaced.   Size:  363 x 254 mm.
Leaf size:	350 x 242 mm.
Annotations:	Vol. I:  signature t1, missigned by the printer “tiiii”, corrected in manuscript;  probable ownership inscription erased from top margin of A2r.   Vol. II:  possible name (unread) in black ink at foot of the second leaf of the first quire, followed by a square drawn in black ink bisected from corner to corner into four triangles;  19th-century number “570/18” (binder’s job number?) in pencil on yyy6v.
Decoration:	Vol. I:  undecorated.   Vol. II:  initials left blank by printer supplied in red and occasionally in blue;  capital strokes in red throughout;  on CC6v is a rough pen-and-ink drawing of St John copied from the woodcut on the facing page.
Imperfections:	Wanting the blank leaf ↄↄ6 of vol. I;  lower corner of qq8 (folio CCC.xx) of vol. I torn off with slight loss of text.