Thumb Bible. Verbum Sempiternum [and] Salvator Mundi, [by John Taylor]. F. Collins for T. Ilive. At the Nags-Head in Jewen Street. London. 1693.

[285 of 288] printed pages; imprimatur leaf 'A' (with small drop of red sealing wax to recto) and The Bible & New Testament half-titles all with typographical borders at head and foot, blank leaf K8 present bearing 18th/19th-century ownership signature Henry Jonathan Clarke, final leaf of Revelation present (h5) but lacking final 3 leaves h6-h8 (h7 & h8 blanks), some light marginal fraying, occasional light pencil markings to few leaves, very light blue stain at head of leaves d1-g8, leaves slightly sprung, upper edge of leaves with initials 'M. R.', upper pastedown with ownership inscription John Clarke November 18th 1812'. "The epistle" and "To the reader" signed: J. Taylor. The New Testament has special t.p. with title: Salvator mundi. Imprimatur, dated Octob. 6, 1693, signed: G. Lancaster. Signatures: A-K⁸ a-h5. A Thumb Bible in verse, which Wing records as 32mo. Provenance: Ralph Ewart Ford (1897-1974), precision engineer and founder of Fords (Finsbury) Ltd. In Bedford. A member of the Bibliographical Society, he formed one of the largest collections of English Bibles in England. During the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, a selection of the rarest and most important early English Bibles from Ralph Ford’s collection went on display in a touring exhibition across England, including the Chapter House at Westminster Abbey. 37 x 48 mm. Contemporary calf, initials 'M. R.' in blind to boards, lacking clasps. Some very slight wear. A rather defective copy sold at Sothebys October 23rd 1967 for £120.00. The earliest known edition, dated 1614, was published under title: Verbum sempiternae (later corrected to sempiternum); cf. Stone, W.M. The Thumb Bible of John Taylor (1928). There were two 1693 editions, the first (as here) is that printed by F. Collins in London for T. Ilive, and the second edition, 'with amendments', of the same size, bears only the T. Ilive imprint. Many more editions followed during the next century and the latest, reprinting the 1693 edition, were published by Longman in London in 1850. The great popularity of these texts is perhaps explained by the fact that this Thames waterman turned poet had, as Harvey's Oxford Companion to English Literature remarks, "a marked talent for expressing himself in rollicking verse and prose" (Bondy). A paraphrase of the Old and New Testaments, in verse. Adomeit, B12 (locates copies in ten libraries - the British Library copy is imperfect). Bondy, 13-5.  ESTC, R184924. Johnston, ivA. Welsh, 1177. Wing, T525. OCLC, 34281709. WorldCat locates 13 copies worldwide.