1792 Hodge & Campbell

The Self-Interpreting Bible… To Which are Annexed Marginal References And Illustrations, An Exact Summary of the Several Books, A Paraphrase on the Most Obscure or Important Parts, An Analysis of the Contents of Each Chapter, Explanatory Notes, And Evangelical Reflections. By the Late Reverend John Brown… New-York: Hodge and Campbell, 1792.

Very large folio. 520 leaves. Twenty inserted engraved plates. Collates complete. Some leaves supplied from another copy. This copy with the Apocrypha, often not included. The earliest Bible printed in New York. The first American printing of John Brown’s famous and eventually ubiquitous annotated and illustrated Family Folio Bible. [Brown’s Bible first appeared in Edinburgh in 1778 (Herbert 1261).]

This 1792 Hodge & Campbell New York printing is famous as the first United States printing of the Brown Bible and for its List of Subscribers, which starts with George Washington as President and continues through a “Who’s Who” of Post-Revolutionary American culture, politics and society. This edition is also rightfully famous for its engraved Frontispiece: one of the greatest and most inspirational illustrations in any American book. The allegorical patriotic motif shows a woman representing American, wearing a feather Indian (Native American) headdress, holding in her hand a copy of The United States Constitution and receiving from an attendant a Holy Bible.

Provenance: A Subscriber’s Copy, long the hands of the Von Norstrand family with their family notes and records. Modern full leather binding. Near fine copy.

Please Note: This is a low-resolution photo, which shows the format, but makes reading the text nearly impossible. In reality, the text of these Bibles is large enough and clear enough to read very easily.

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