The Bible, that is, the holy Scriptures conteined in the Olde and Newe Testament, translated according to the Ebrew and Greeke, and conferred with the best translations in diuers languages. With most profitable annotations vpon all the hard places, and other things of great importance. by Bible. English. 1599. Geneva–Tomson–Junius - 1599 [i.e., 1633 or later]

London: Impr. by the deputies of Christopher Barker, 1599 [i.e., 1633 or later]. 4to (22 cm, 8.6"). Add. t.-p., [3], 190, 127, 121, [11] ff.; illus.

At least five editions appeared with this 1599 imprint, almost none of which were actually printed that year. Darlow and Moule note, "The phenomena of the various editions described under the year 1599 . . . constitute one of the most curious problems in the bibliography of the English Bible." Clearly there was a demand (by English Puritans and by Pilgrims in the Low Countries and America, among others) for Geneva Bibles, with their strongly Protestant marginal notes, well after they could no longer be printed openly in London. Pocock is of the opinion that recognizing this, Robert Barker "adopted" various early-17th-century Amsterdam and Dort Genevas; the back-dating and "back-attributing" on their title-pages would have associated these with and effectively disguised them as a popular and approved Bible printed by his own father, who died in that year and whose press he took over in the year following. STC attributes the whole array of editions purely to Stam in Amsterdam, who as publisher also would have benefitted from the fame and innocuousness in England of Christopher Barker's actual 1599 edition, though he would have had no reason in Dutch law for disguise.
    The text at hand here is the Geneva version (as usual, without the Apocrypha), with Tomson's revised New Testament and Junius's Revelation — but this copy thoroughly muddies the waters with a title-page supplied from another copy, possibly even the genuine 1599 printing. The New Testament title-page also gives 1599 (as does the colophon), but is original to the present copy.
    The woodcut title-page border (repeated for the New Testament's separate title-page) is the classic depiction of the Twelve Tribes of Israel in panels on the left and the Twelve Apostles on the right, with rondelles of the Four Evangelists. The text is illustrated with woodcuts of Noah's Ark, the crossing of the Red Sea, the artifacts associated with the Tabernacle and the Temple, the vision of Ezekiel, etc., along with maps of the suggested location of the Garden of Eden, the Israelites' wanderings in the wilderness, and the Holy Land.
    Binding: Early 19th-century signed binding by Hering (stamped on front free endpaper): oxblood morocco framed and panelled in gilt triple fillets, spine with gilt-stamped title and dateline and gilt-ruled compartments, turn-ins with gilt roll. All edges gilt. Hering, one of the most prominent London binders of his period, was spoken of by Timperley as => "the head of the craft" at that time.
    Provenance: Laid-in letter from a London bookseller to Pennsylvania collector John S. Cochran of Lancaster, dated 1948, optimistically but incorrectly affirming this to be "the earliest of many editions of this date.
    
    See Rumball-Petre, Rare Bibles, 116; Darlow & Moule 193; Herbert 254; STC 2178. For note on Hering, see: Charles Henry Timperley's Dictionary of printers and printing (1839), p. 835. Binding as above, lightly rubbed and spine slightly sunned; front hinge (inside) cracked, joint holding strongly. Two original brown silk bookmarks present and still attached. Front free endpaper with affixed slip of earlier cataloguing. A few early leaves with old repairs to upper or outer areas, in one case resulting in slight darkening of one woodcut and in another with loss of printed text, very carefully and neatly supplied in ink. Scattered light spotting, pages clean overall. A sound copy of an interesting Bible, modestly but elegantly bound.