Bible in Miniature or a Concise History of the Old & New Testaments. Harris, W. London. 1771. Unusual variant, having 278, [2] printed pages in gatherings of 8 (the final printed page ends with the catchword 'the' and the whole page is offset against the recto of the rear free endpaper - indicating that no pages are missing; Adomeit describes it as being complete with T4 and 279 pages. 14 plates as called for by Adomeit at pages 10, 22, 55, 61, 79, 91, 123, 129, 147, 157, 187, 235, 239 & 269. 2 title-pages, the second at page 153. Very mild browning. 34 x 40 mm. Original brown calf (upper spine reaching over to the top corner of the front cover is worn away to reveal the binding structure below; short closed split at foot of spine; minuscule hole near leading edge of front cover;front hing cracked but holding firm). Much scarcer and rarer than the 1780 published Newbery thumb-bible. Exceedingly rare abridged children's Bible in its original binding, Hariss's "Bible in Miniature" is the second of its kind in England, preceded only by the 1727 "Biblia" printed for R. Wilkin (the date being altered by hand to 1728 in many copies). It was re-published by Harris in 1774 and in 1775. Adomeit, B19. Adomeit lists Roscoe as having located just 2 copies existing (both copies at Guildhall and Bodleian Libraries being defective) But WorldCat, OCLC number 37225541 lists three copies (Princeton, Indiana and Oxford University libraries - at least one of them being defective). Bondy, 33. Spielmann, 16 and Welsh, 1005, (but both only list a different typesetting with 255 printed pages in gatherings of 16; Adomeit 18). OCLC, 1083012063, WorldCat locates 5 copies worldwide of the more commonly surviving version - with 255 printed pages in gatherings of 16; Adomeit 18 - (British Library, Bodleian, Cambridge, N. Carolina, and Indiana). 17 firsts2024