Verbum Sempiternum. A New Edition [and:] Salvator Mundi. Thirteenth Edition, with Amendments

Boston: Printed by Thomas Fleet, 1802. The tenth American thumb Bible. Separate title pages to each work. With three wood or metal cuts in N.T. [10],13-160; vi, 107, [2], ii-iv, iv pp. 1 vols. Miniature (2-1/16 x 3-1/4 inches), in 12s. Dappled tan pastepaper over wooden boards. Leaf A1 in OT supplied and remargined. The tenth American thumb Bible. Separate title pages to each work. With three wood or metal cuts in N.T. [10],13-160; vi, 107, [2], ii-iv, iv pp. 1 vols. Miniature (2-1/16 x 3-1/4 inches), in 12s. A splendid copy of the miniature Bible printed by Thomas Fleet in 1801-2, the tenth American thumb Bible. The text is a paraphrase of the Old and New Testaments by John Taylor (1578-1653), known as the Water Poet; the earliest surviving edition of which was printed in London in 1614. In America, five editions were printed in the 1760s, and four more between 1786 and 1799. All are rare and survive in just a few copies. After about 1810, the number of thumb Bibles (and the variousness of their titles and imprints) increased markedly.

The Fleet thumb Bible is two volumes bound as one, each with a separate dated title page. Following the New Testament are Prayers for Morning and Prayers for Evening.

There are four other recorded copies of this book: at the Morgan Library (PML81221, lacking all half title and titles and other leaves); at AAS (the Welch Stone copy lacking the half title and six pages of the Old Testament); at the Boston Public library (rebound); and at the Lilly Library (bibliographer Ruth Adomeit’s copy, in the original binding lacking the first leaf).

A gorgeous copy in original binding. Shaw & Shoemaker 1383; Welch 1293.10; Adomeit A10