THE BOSTON EDITION OF THE BASKETT BIBLE - … · · 2015-02-25THE BOSTON EDITION OF THE BASKETT BIBLE ... cock was related to Henchman and knew of the ... Boston Edition of the

24 American Antiquarian Society [April,

THE BOSTON EDITIONOF THE BASKETT BIBLE

BY CHARLES L. NICHOLS.

INVESTIGATION in the course of bibliographicalstudy reveals many facts of great interest, not the

least of which are in the field of lost or ghbst books.Lost books are those evidence of the printing of whichis reasonably certain; ghost books, those the existenceof which depends upon probable rather than exactevidence. In either case the appearance of a singlecopy is the only proof positive of its existence, a resultdelayed frequently for many years.

One of the most interesting examples of this state-ment, and there are many, is the finding of the firstedition of the Massachusetts Bay Colony Laws.Edward Johnson, in his ' ' Wonder-working Provi-dence"^ of 1654, states that a collection of the existinglaws was ordered to be made and printed by theGeneral Court and that "in the year 1648 they wereprinted and to be seen of all men." As no copy turnedup it was the general opinion that there was some errorin the statement. Two hundred and fifty-five yearsafter this Evans, in his "American Bibliography"expressed the opinion that this edition had beenprinted as stated but that the price of three shillingsper copy^ was prohibitive and that the edition was usedas waste paper or burned. Five years later, in 1908, acopy was described in the Church catalogue and todaythis, the only known copy, after an interval of two

"Prince Society Edition, p. 205.*"Mn83aohusetts Colony It«cord8," Oct. 27, 1648, p. 262.

1927.] Boston Edition of the Baskett Bible 25

hundred and seventy years and more, has found itsway into tbe library of Mr. Henry E. Huntington.

Of the many books relegated to this shelf of lost orunreal issues, some bave been discovered like theabove, some proved never to have existed and othersstill remain, like Mohammed's coffin, between heavenand earth. It is a volume wbich comes under tbe lastclassification which will be discussed in the presentpaper.

In bis "History of Printing," issued in 1810, IsaiahThomas records the publication, in Boston, of the firstBible in tbe English language in tbe British Colonies.From 1830 through the years following eager collectorsof Americana searched carefully but in vain for thisbook and most of them finally concluded, in the wordsof George Bancroft,^ that "to print that Bible in BritishAmerica would have been piracy and the Bible, thoughprinted in German and in a native dialect, was neverprinted there in English till tbe land became free."From that date it has been the almost universalopinion, on this side of tbe Atlantic as well as inEngland, that Thomas was in error and that such abook never existed.

A copy of tbis long sought book was finally describedin tbe sale catalogue of tbe library of Thomas J. McKeein 1902 and the defenders of its title were correspond-ingly rejoiced. In 1919,̂ ^ however, it was proved thatthis copy was not what was claimed but a commonfraud due to a skillful change in tbe date on the titlepage and we are still searching for a genuine copy ofthis elusive book, tbe Baskett Bible of 1752.

Tbe History of Printing by Isaiah Thomas was apioneer work and like all such inevitably containssome errors. In 1810 Thomas had no local, state ornational histories and few biographies in wbicb tosearch for names dates or titles, so that his slender

""HiBtory of the United States," 1874, vol. 5, p. 266.'Nichols, C. L., "Is there tt Mark Baskett Bible o£ 1752?" "ColonialJ Society Puhll-

cations," vol. 21, p. 285.


sources of information seriously restricted his investiga-tions. He visited and examined all the librarieswithin his reach and gathered from all over the landan extensive collection of newspapers, books, tractsand pamphlets from which he culled much preciousinformation. Having had, for years, an extensivecorrespondence with printers and publishers through-out the British Colonies, in connection with theMassachusetts Spy, from these people he obtained aconsiderable amount of information, but sometimescasual and sometimes not to be relied upon. Underthese circumstances the result was, and still is, aremarkable book which stands today as it stood morethan one hundred years ago, as a valuable history ofprinting in America, the errors in which are largelythose of detail rather than of fact. It is fair for us toremember this in our consideration of the words ofThomas regarding the Baskett Bible.

On page 107, of volume I, of the 1874 edition of theHistory of Printing, we read: "The booksellers of thistown were enterprising. Kneeland & Green printed,principally for Daniel Henchman, an edition of theBible in small quarto. This was the first Bible printedin America in the English language. It was carriedthrough the press as privately as possible, and had theLondon imprint from the copy from which it was re-printed, viz.: 'London: printed by Mark Baskett,Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty,' inorder to prevent a prosecution from those in Englandand Scotland, who published the Bible by a patentfrom the Crown; or. Cum privilegio, as did the Englishuniversities of Oxford and Cambridge. When I wasan apprentice [1756-1765], I often heard those who hadassisted at the case and press in printing this Bible,make mention of the fact. The late Governor Han-cock was related to Henchman and knew of theparticulars of the transaction. He possessed a copyof this impression. As it has a London imprint, atthis day it can be distinguished from an English


edition, of the same date, only by those who areacquainted with the niceties of typography. ThisBible issued from the press about the time that thepartnership of Kneeland & Green expired [1752].The edition was not large; I have been informed thatit did not exceed seven or eight hundred copies. Anedition of the New Testament, in duodecimo, wasprinted by Rogers & Fowle [1740-1750], not long beforethis impression of the Bible came from the press, forthose at whose expense it was issued. Both the Bibleand the Testament were well executed. These wereheavy undertakings for that day, but Henchman was aman of property; and it is said that several otherprincipal booksellers of Boston were concerned withhim in this business. "

Again on page 123 of this edition Thomas writes:"During the partnership of Rogers & Fowle theyprinted an edition of about 2000 copies of the NewTestament, 12 mo. for D. Henchman and 2 or 3 otherprincipal booksellers, as has been already observed.This impression of the Testament, the first in theEnglish language printed in this country, was, as Ihave been informed, completed at the press beforeKneeland & Green began the edition of the Bible whichhas been mentioned. Zechariah Fowle, with whom Iserved my apprenticeship, as well as several othersrepeatedly mentioned to me this edition of the Testa-ment. He was at the time a journeyman with Rogers& Fowle and worked at the press. He informed methat, on account of the weakness of his constitution,he greatly injured his health by the performance.Privacy in the business was necessary and, as fewhands were intrusted with the secret, the press workwas, as he thought, very laborious. I mention theseminute circumstances in proof that an edition of theTestament did issue from the office of Rogers & Fowlebecause I have heard that the fact has been disputed. "

Here we have a detailed statement by Thomas of thetransaction and to it is added, in the paragraphs re-

28 American Antiqitarian Sodety [April,

lating to the Testament by Rogers & Fowle, more cir-cumstantial evidence, as to the year of its printing,of large importance. Such a statement, with itswealth of detail, bears the earmarks of truth and ofthe belief of Thomas in the event. It must have beenthe result of a memory deeply impressed at the timewhen the facts were made known to him. This wasa period in his life when he was most readily influencedby the statements of his fellow workers and a time,also, when he was striving to become a better printerthan those about him, so that his mind was awake toall such facts relating to the art which he already lovedand continued to hold in reverence to his life's end.Not only was this told him at the most impressionableperiod of his life, but he wrote of it in his Historyof Printing at the age of 55 or 56 in the enjoyment ofhis full mental faculties and ten years after his mindhad been occupied with printing his own Bibles of1791 and 1797. This occupation would have naturallyrecalled to mind other editions of the Bible and amongthem perhaps the details of this story. Certainly noone can read the account which he gave of the Bostonedition without being strongly inclined to believe in theexistence of such an occurrence. It seems to me thatone of the most convincing points in the narrative iscontained in the last sentence of the second quotation:"I mention these minute circumstances in proof thatan edition of the Testament did issue from the officeof Rogers & Fowle because I have heard that the facthas been disputed. " This sentence shows that, at thetime of writing this account, there was doubt about theprinting of the duodecimo; that he must have soughtconfirmation of it from persons who might be expectedto know of it, and that he must have considered thewhole matter with great care in writing his story of itin order to overcome such doubt as he found to be feltregarding the truth of the whole transaction. The twoundertakings are so intimately interwoven in thisnarrative that we are forced to accept the conclusionthat a quarto was printed as well as the duodecimo.


Four cardinal points stand out preeminently in hisdescription :

1. That Kneeland & Green printed an edition ofthe Bible for D. Henchman.

2. That the size was small quarto.3. That the date was not after 1752.4. That the imprint was " Mark Baskett. "Before considering these points, it will be well to

learn something with regard to the Baskett Bible, whichit is claimed was used as copy, and of the family whichprinted it. John Baskett,' who was called the greatestmonopolist of Bibles that ever lived, leased on October28, 1713, the Bible printing at Oxford and absorbedalso that of London. He printed Bibles of varioussizes from this time in Oxford and London and for afew years at Edinburgh alsp until his death in 1742.The printing was then continued by his two sons(presumably) Thomas and Richard in 1743-1745,and after the death of Richard in 1745 by Thomasalone, the imprint in Oxford reading: "ThomasBaskett, Printter to the University" and in London;"Thomas Baskett, Printer to the King's Most ExcellentMajesty and the Assigns of Robert Baskett." Onthe death of Thomas Baskett in 1761, his son, Mark,continued the business until 1769 when he sold out toJohn Eyre from whom it descended to the presentfirm of Eyre & Spottiswoode of London.^ In or about1763 the Oxford business was transferred to London,one office being used from this time for the entireestablishment.

The name given to John Baskett, of monopolist ofBibles, was richly deserved, but also was earned by hisefi"orts to publish a better Bible than had been executedbefore, as an inducement to a larger trade. His mostambitious attempt was the folio Bible of 1717, know

•Madan, "Chart of Oxford Printing," p. 21. Darlow & Moule. "Historical Catalogueof Printed Biblea," no. 706.

'The office building at No. 1 Printer Street has been ooaupied and used oontinuously«nee 1777, by the firm of Eyre & Spottiswoode.

30 American Antiquarian Soeiety [April,

today as "The Vinegar Bible" because of the wellknown error. Unfortunately so many other mistakesescaped the proof reader that this Bible was alsonamed "A Baskett full of printer's errors." It hadan engraved title page and many full page engravingsthroughout the text. He printed several copies ofthis edition on vellum, one of them being presented bybim to tbe Bodleian Library at Oxford and two othersare known today, one in the British Museum and theother in tbe library at Blenheim. During his lifeother special editions, with engraved title page andfull page engravings, were issued from time to timein the various sizes which Baskett printed.

In our own collection are several Bibles, printed bythis family, varying in size and date of printing, amongthem being an octavo dated 1725. This contains,with an engraved title page, two hundred and fifty-seven full page engravings bound in with tbe text, alltbe pages being enclosed within two red lines. Thisbook was printed in London and the New Testamentwas dated 1724, a varying date being not uncommonwhen the parts were bound up together.

Baskett issued folio, quarto, octavo and duodecimosizes yearly in Oxford and London sometimes morethan one size, sometimes in more than one city thesame year. Of the quarto size, whicb particularlyinterests us, be issued many from time to time, thefirst being dated 1715 and printed in London, and thefollowing year the same size bad tbe imprint of Oxford.Our copy of tbis size contains the Old Testamentprinted in Oxford in 1716, and the New Testament withthe imprint of London in tbe year 1715. While manyquarto Bibles were printed in Oxford by the Baskettsfrom the year 1716, no quarto Bible was issued inLondon from 1715 until 1756. After 1761 one wasprinted in that city yearly by Mark Baskett until 1769.In tbis size, quarto, special editions were publishedalso from time to time with engraved title pages andfull page engravings, having two or even four engrav-


ings to the page. This special edition was alwaysprinted on better paper, with larger type^—small Picaor English as it was then called—and with a largerpage; the ordinary issue was printed in Long Primerand on common paper. The special edition had 56lines to the full page, and the ordinary issue, 65lines.

One of these special editions is of particular interestto us. When on April 30, 1789, George Washingtonwas standing on the balcony of Federal Hall, on WallStreet,in New York City,prepared for his inauguration,it was discovered that no Bible had been provided.The Marshall of the occasion secured one from theMasonic Lodge, also on Wall Street, of which hewas Master, and the oath of office was administeredon that book. This incident was related in theWorcester Telegram of March 3, 1921, and a cut of thatBible, opened at the 50th chapter of Genesis, thepage used by Washington, was reproduced in thearticle. The writer stated that, at the request ofWarren G. Harding, an enthusiastic Mason, thesame Bible was taken to the city of Washington byfour members of the same Lodge to be used on thefollowing day at Harding's inauguration. Beingdesirous of knowing the edition of that Bible I wrote tothe Library of Congress and received reply that theimprint was: "London: Printed by Mark Baskett,Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty and theAssigns of Robert Baskett. 1767. " This Bible wasthe last of the special editions printed by the Baskettfamily, the business being sold out in 1769 as abovestated.

The paper used in the ordinary editions of theseBibles was obtained from the same source for manyyears and had uniformly as water-marks the cloverleaf and the fluer-de-lis. The type was also LongPrimer in size and the ornaments in the headpiece andthe intial letters were always the same from 1740 to1760, as may be seen in the first page of text in the


quarto Bible dated Oxford, 1749, and reproduced hereas an example.

Returning now to the four points in the narrative ofIsaiah Thomas we take up the first:

I. That Kneeland & Green printed an edition ofthe Bible for Daniel Henchman.

Daniel Henchman began business in 1712 and be-came the principal bookseller and publisher in Boston,a position which he held until his death in 1761. Hewas a large dealer in English books and shared withLondon publishers in some of their greater under-takings, like the six volume edition of the works of IsaacWatts, in 1750, which he advertised in the Boston news-papers of that year. In 1749, Henchman had printedfor him the "Life of David Brainerd" by JonathanEdwards, a volume of 334 pages. The printed list ofsubscribers contains 1700 names largely from the NewEngland Colonies, but among them 122 from NewYork, 200 from Pennsylvania and one from NorthCarolina, showing the large field at that time for re-ligious works. This book was printed by Rogers &Fowle, the competitors of Kneeland & Green. Eachof these firms produced books of several hundred pagesyearly, some of which contained lists of subscribers,like ''Defence of Infant Baptism" by Peter Clark,printed by Kneeland & Green with a list of three orfour hundred subscribers.

Kneeland & Green were prominent printers inBoston from 1727 to 1752 when Timothy Green dis-solved the partnership and went to New London tocarry on the business of his invalid father. In additionto their regular work they were government printersfrom 1742 to 1752 and this part of the business wascontinued by Kneeland until his retirement in 1764.The government printing of the Acts & Laws and theJournal of the House amounted to one or more hundredfolio pages each year. In addition to this the firmpublished a weekly newspaper and after the dissolu-tion of partnership in 1752 the paper was continued by


Kneeland alone until it was stopped in consequence ofthe Provincial Stamp Act of 1755.

A somewhat careful study has been made by me ofthe books printed by Kneeland & Green during theperiod from 1749 to 1754 of which there are in our ownlibrary over 80% of the titles listed by Evans in addi-tion to their newspaper and the government documentsprinted by them.

A study of the paper on which their books wereprinted reveals the usual variation in quality from thelower grades used in the newspaper to the paper em-ployed for the government documents equal andperhaps superior to that grade used by ThomasBaskettin his special editions. This paper, while largelydomestic, came also from abroad, Italy as well asEngland contributing to their stock. The exact water-mark of the Baskett Bible was not found during thisperiod, but it is seen in a book printed by Kneeland in1756. Some of their paper contains both the cloverleaf and the fleur-de-lis, not identical with but like theothers and was, perhaps, a poorer grade of the same,it being the custom of paper makers to vary the water-mark with the grade of their paper.

The ornamental headpiece, used in all the quartos ofBaskett in that period, is made up from a figure re-corded in the Caslon Type Specimen Book of 1763, asNo. 12 of the Great Primer Flowers. While it does notoccur in Caslon's Broadside of Type Specimens of1734, I find the fiower used in books printed by Knee-land & Green as early as 1719 and by other Bostonprinters of that period. It is a significant fact that ofseven books printed by Kneeland & Green in 1752 fourhad this flower used as headpiece and of seventeen in1753 twelve had it in the same position. Of the initialletters used in the Bible of 1749 there is no trace in anyof the books or pamphlets before or after 1752 byKneeland or any other printer on this side of theAtlantic. "Whether these letters, and there are butfive of them used in that Bible, were cut in wood or

34 Anwrkan Antiquarian Society [April,

type metal is uncertain, but probably the latter. Itmust have been easy to obtain them from the makersin England however and, indeed, there was, in Boston,at that period a man who could have cut them in woodor metal. James Turner worked in Boston from 1743to 1756 and was a skilled engraver, as is evidenced byhis cuts of Boston in the American Magazirie andHistorical Chronide issued by Rogers & Fowle, thefirst successful magazine in the British Colonies.

Here then we find skill, financial ability and specialmaterial at hand, or within reach, to enable these mento produce a Boston edition of the Baskett Bible.Study of the titles recorded by Evans, of books issuedby the various printers at this time, shows that therewas no other firm of printers in Boston after the retire-ment of Rogers & Fowle in 1750 who approachedKneeland & Green in the size of their business or whoare recorded as doing work for Daniel Henchman.The statement of Thomas then that they were theprinters of this Bible seems probable.

IL The question of the size of the book next demandsour attention, and Thomas calls it small quarto.

As the folio size was used ordinarily in the Churchesand was in consequence called the pulpit or preachingBible, and as the sale of this size would be morerestricted than any other, we can be reasonably certainthat the folio size was not used. The very elaborateornamental initials at the beginning of each book inboth testaments always found in this size would alsorender it unlikely that the folio would be reproducedin the Colonies. As the duodecimo New Testamenthad been issued by Rogers & Fowle in an edition of2000 copies not long before "this impression of theBible came from the press," it would seem improbablethat another edition, even of the complete Bible,could have been sold so soon and we may thereforeexclude this size.

The octavo and quarto sizes remain. It may be


stated here that no octavo Baskett Bible which I haveseen has either headpiece, tailpiece or ornamentalinitials, as is the case with all editions in quarto, a factwhich would render copying much easier.

It was this fact, lack of ornaments, wbich made iteasier for Rogers & Fowle to reproduce their duo-decimo. Of this, there is in consequence, no knowncopy, for with tbis ease of reproduction goes thepractical impossibility of discovering a copy of such anissue by comparison with the English edition fromwhich it was reproduced. Tbe duodecimo and octavosizes were used as personal Bibles, the smaller beinglater called the School Bible in contrast with theChurcb folio and tbe quarto Family Bibles.

With the large number of people interested in religi-ous matters, as we have seen in the long lists of sub-scribers appended to the books then printed, and withtbe widespread custom of family worsbip, it may beinferred that a larger field of trade would be opened bythe quarto than by any other size of Bible. We maytherefore assume that Thomas was right in his state-ment tbat the size was quarto.

IIL Next comes tbe question of the year of printingand issue of the Bible.

Thomas wrote that the book, "issued from the pressabout tbe time the partnership of Kneeland & Greenexpired" which occurred in 1752, but nowhere does herecord the exact year. He also states that the duo-decimo of Rogers & Fowle was printed not long beforetbis impression of the Bible and tbat "it was completedat the press before Kneeland & Green began tbeiredition." As this first essay was also undertaken byDaniel Henchman and other booksellers of Boston,it isreasonable to assume that those copies bad been orwere being successfully disposed of before Henchmanwould enter upon a much greater and more expensiveundertaking. Indeed it was probably the very successof that wbich was tbe deciding factor in the secondventure.


It is fair to infer that, as Rogers & Fowle dissolvedpartnership in 1750, the duodecimo had been printedsome time before that year and we may take 1745 and1752 as the extreme limits of the two undertakings.As, however, Thomas states that the quarto was issuednot long before the partnership of Kneeland & Greenwas dissolved, the time of printing would be nearer1752 than 1745. To determine the length of timerequired to print such a book, quarto in size, containingmore than 1200 pages it is necessary to know somethingof the number of workmen in the office, the amount oftype on hand and the quantity of yearly output of theprinters of that Bible. Evans lists the number ofbooks printed by this firm in 1749 as fourteen, com-prising about 400 pages with 300 folio pages of Govern-ment documents; in 1750, as twenty books consistingof 600 pages with 280 of Government printing; and in1751, twenty-seven titles which had 600 pages with160 folio pages, these in addition to the weeklynewspaper. These figures, all that are available, donot represent a very large shop nor can they guide usas to the length of time required to print the 1200pages of the Bible in addition to their yearly output.For further light let us turn to the work of IsaiahThomas, forty years later, upon his Bibles of 1791.

In 1789 Thomas issued a Prospectus soliciting sub-scribers to a Quarto Bible for which he had alreadysecured special type and special paper. From a letterin the possession of the writer we learn that he beganprinting it in September 1790 and completed both thequarto and folio Bibles in December 1791, a periodof about fifteen months. We have records of twelvebooks printed by him in 1790 aggregating 4000 pages,and in 1791, of fifteen books of 1650 pages whichadded to those of the two Bibles would make aboutthe same number although much more in amount ofactual work because of the size of the Bible pages.During these years Thomas had, in Worcester, four orfive presses, with eight or ten apprentices and there


must have been about the same number of journey-men. Even under these circumstances it seemed tome almost impossible that the two Bibles could havebeen completed in so short a time.

Study of these two Bibles, however, showed aconsiderable saving of time in the process. BothBibles were printed with the same type, in the case ofthe folio the page being given dignity by leading thetype with increased length of page and narrowercolumns. It was discovered, by comparison of brokenand imperfect type in sections of the text with the samesections in each Bible that both books were carriedalong in succession, signature by signature and afterthe signature of one issue had been printed the typewas not distributed but the lines were put again intothe composing stick and rearranged for the varyingwidth of the column of the other issue. This process isemployed in every printing office when changing wordsor sentences in galley-proof, but Thomas used it in anentire book, thus making a material saving of time inplace of distributing and reoomposing. As the Pros-pectus of 1789 spoke of the quarto and made nomention of a folio Bible it may be inferred that thelatter was an after thought perhaps because of a sug-gestion of the above method. This whole transactionmeant the possession of a large office, with long prepa-ration and careful management of time and workon the part of Mr. Thomas, an extraordinary resultparticularly when we consider that he had just startedhis Boston business of Thomas & Andrews in additionto his work in Worcester.

Comparison of these two firms of Kneeland & Greenand Thomas shows that the latter had more thandouble the amount of work and that he must have hada much larger plant to enable him to print tíiese twoBibles in the fifteen months recorded. In a smalleroffice and without the special type it can be fairlystated that Kneeland & Green would have required atleast 12 or 14 months for their work on the Bible.


Taking into consideration the completion and bindingof the books the transaction must have seen a year anda half elapse before distribution could have beeneffected. If, as Thomas states, the Kneeland & Greenedition was finished not long before 1752, the time ofdissolution of their partnership, the year 1750 may betaken as the time of beginning the work.

The Bible was printed for Daniel Henchman andother booksellers of Boston of whom there were, at thistime, seven or eight who had been established twenty-five or thirty years. How many of these entered intothis transaction is not known but one thing is certainthat competition entered into the matter of thesale of the books and we can be sure that all who didtake part would demand and receive their proportionat the same time and with the same date on the titlepage. This means that the whole edition was finishedand dated alike, as was pointed out by Mr. Wilber-force Eames, and that the suggestion of varying titlepages and varying dates can be therefore excluded fromthe discussion.

This book was to be sold by the dealers, not bysubscription but as imported, and their profit musthave been made out of the difference in the cost ofprinting in Boston and London.^ The quality of theEnglish edition had to be maintained, however, for,the book being sold as imported, the purchaser wouldbe the severest critic of any differences in condition orappearance. If the truth of the transaction had beentold any one, few persons would buy a Bible, of allbooks, with such a history and its possibilities.

While we have concluded that the whole editionmust have had the same year for its date and that thedate was not before 1750 or after 1752, we have, as yet,no sufficient data to decide the exact year which ap-peared on the title page of this Bible.^ Kneeland &

'Isaiah Thomas stated that hia royal quarto Bible would be sold for seven dollars iaWorcester, while that of the English trade cost eight or nine dollars.

'It is a curious and iierhupa BÍgniacaiit fact that there ia no quarto B&ekett Biblewith date 1750 or 1751 ÍD any of the great libraries of Great Britain or Ataerica.


Green may have retained the date of the Englishedition used as copy though it is doubtful if the book-sellers would have accepted this, and it seems moreprobable that they would use the date of completion oftheir labors, as that would give the booksellers the argu-ment of a recent importation and an up to date Bible.

IV. The fourth point for our consideration is thequestion of the imprint, which was, Thomas says:"London; Mark Baskett, Printer to the King'sMost Excellent Majesty. "

If my reasoning is correct it would appear thatKneeland & Green printed in quarto form a Bible notfar from 1752, taking as their copy one of the issues ofThomas Baskett. It behooves us to discover, ifpossible, which of them could have been used.

There is no general catalogue of the complete issuesof the Baskett Bibles. The British Museum has alarge number of them, the list being available in theirprinted catalogue. The Bodleian Library of Oxfordhas also a large collection and a third is in the libraryof the British and Foreign Bible Society, of whichcollection Darlow & Moule have compiled an elaborateHistorical Catalogue. From this catalogue it will beseen that in no other part of England was a quartoBible issued by any other printer between 1740 and1752 so that other Bible printers need not be considered.Among the issues of Thomas Baskett a quarto wasprinted in the years 1746, 1747, and 1749, but none in1748, 1750 or 1751 the next being in 1752. These wereall issued in Oxford, not London, and had the imprint"Thomas Baskett, Printer to the University." Oneof these three Bibles was with little question used ascopy in this reprinting. The one dated 1746 had anumber of errors of the compositor and as one of theothers was without doubt available either that of 1747or 1749 was the probable copy.

These three, however, resemble each other so closelyin text, in head piece and in ornamental initials that,

40 American Antiquarian Soeiety [April,

except for the possible use of the date, it does notmatter whicb of them was employed as copy unlesstextual errors, wbicb may have varied in them, werecopied in the new edition. The point it is desired tobring out is that "Thomas Baskett; Printer to theUniversity, Oxford" must have been the imprint oftbe new edition, not; "Mark Baskett; Printer to theicing's Most Excellent Majesty, London." wbicbimprint was not used on a Bible of Baskett from 1716until 1761. It is an interesting fact that there is norecord that Tbomas bad in bis possession a copy of anyBaskett Bible at the time of writing bis History ofPrinting or later in his collections. And yet he musthave examined somewhere a Mark Bavskett Bible, bychance, when seeking to make his detailed statement.It may bave been one of the thirty Bibles used by theClergy of Worcester county when deciding, for Mr.Thomas, the most correct text for the Tbomas quartoof 1791. Wherever he secured bis imprint it was amistake as we have seen and this mistake has alwaysmisled those wbo have been searching for a copy of thisedition. For this reason it may be well to repeat thatas the Boston edition was printed in, or about theyear, 1752 and as we may infer that it had tbe samedate, whicb date was nine or ten years before the firstof the Mark Baskett Bibles of the 1760s was issued,search for a copy of this book can never be rewardedby study of the Mark Baskett editions.

There is one more point of importance made byTbomas, in bis account of tbe Bible. He states thatboth Bibles were well executed and, "at this day it(quarto) can be distinguished from an English editionof the same date only by tbose who are acquaintedwith tbe niceties of typography. " Tbe exact meaningof that expression may be fraught with evidence towardtbe discovery of a copy of the Bible. If it refers totextual errors it does not follow that discovery of theserequires typographical knowledge, but if broken typeor imperfect letters, or those from the wrong font or

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»lOir. 1 And God fatd, ' Let there be light: and*•*• there wt» light. •

I î And the evinine and tlic mominE were 'iff'»*'the third day. Cimlt

14 5 Aivl Cod faiil, r.et there be ' liphrs in V'^\.the tinn»nner)t or the heaven, to divide J the ti*y \,!¡^from the night : and let them be tor lif̂ na, anil \\¿. ¡yf..tew (é»roní, and Ibr dayi, an<l yean. :•

• 1 And kt them be tur lißftM in ilie (¡rtna-t.L jiment oi the heaven, tu give ligtit IJ|H>II the earth:''» -iffan(i it WM Co. '"^ * |^

I« And God nude two preat lights; tlici!lï."ffreater light \ to rule the day, and the Ifilirr t''"*•liRlit to nile the nif̂ ht : /• m i ',• th.- (tars allu. '^¡¡^

l^ .^nd God let them m rhc tirmaraeiit of^^^,the heaven, to give liglit upun the earth, ^^

ift And to * tille oi-er the dav, and over the E )"•night, and ro divide tlic lifiht trotn the riaik " " 'neli: and Goii IJw that ti <I.M ßuo<l.

i<̂ And the evening and tlie mciriiinj; werethe lotirth day.

~^. ^ AnA r.nA Ai,* * t •» th^ wntfn hrinir h i FMr.

BASKETT BIBLE, 1746

n The Firft BOOK, of MOSES,C A L L E D

G E N E S I S .C H A P . I.

•fii trMtim tfhtaven imd tarib, y if tht /ie^,6 tf th*ßmunmnt, ^ ^ ¡ht inrtkftfm-atfÂfrimílttMIm, II enJm.tiit/mil/ni, 14 »fthtfun,m*)«, anJß.irs, to c / / /* anJfiwl, 14 »fteafllu- T /, j/f Í, 1 '. . / mj:. il ibi imagt «/G'Mt (9 j/i-/J i/v û^piinlmrm ¡f luJ,

•~ -' ~ >j • th« beginning Gt>dcreated the heaven andthe earth.

1 And the e.-inh w »«irhout form, and void,and darfcncb U-HÎ uponthefaocof thedeçp: andthe Spiiit of God moved\i\ion Ihe fa« ot the wa-ter».

î And God faid, » L « there be li|i« : andthere wai light.

i j AtKl the e\'ening and tbe motninc werethe third day. Chrift

14 % And God fjid, ^xt there be ' lieht» in «^^J-the firmament of the heaven, 10 divided the day J ^from the night : and let them be for lipii, and rca.i,«,forfealbni, and fr>r diy», and y rar*. I m *

( ç And let them be tor liRht» in the firm»- J , ^ ^ment ot' tbe heaven, to give light upon the earth : itt ¿^and it wai (o. ' " ' * ' . ,

16 And God made two gre« light! ( the ^ " ' ^

E tvater light t to rule the day, and the lelTcr t^r«.ght to lule ihe nj^h! : ht m,¡3i the dart «Ifo. i'/,/^

17 And God fet ibetn in ihe finnanient ofX'tl^,the hcavcfl, to Rive light upon the earth, *t.

I a And to ' ruk over tne day, and over the • !«•.nighr, and to divuie the light (i-om ihe djrk-''• "•net«: arid God faw that it ii>ai good.

t') And the evening jnd the morning weretht tbuith day. /

HASKKTT Biiu.K. 1740


errors by the compositor, these would be more difficultfor the non-printer; and if to the character of the page,its ornaments and letters, that too would lead to theinference that it did refer to these latter rather than totextual errors alone.

A curious example of carelessness in printing occurson the first page of the text of Genesis in the 1746 quartoof Thomas Baskett. On this page the period followingthe heading is out of line, the ornamental initial " I " isupside down and the parts which make up the head-piece are, in several elements very irregularly set up.It is doubtful if these points would attract the eye ofthe general reader as there are no textual errors on thepage although the text is very irregularly printed, butthey are cited as an example of the kind of investiga-tion required in studying such questions.

On the other hand let me present an example of realaccomplishment when minute investigation is faith-fully carried out. Dr. Schwenke, by such study of theGutenberg Bible, has proved that the book was printedin ten sections on six presses, that the body of the typewas twice filed down from 40 to 41, and finally to42 lines to the page. The first thirty pages wereprinted on three presses and when it was decided toincrease the size of the edition these pages were resetand reprinted. The paper for this increase in num-bers was purchased in large quantities instead of smalladditional lots. All of these conclusions were reachedby careful study and comparison of a few of the forty-two copies of this first Bible printed with movabletype. When such material results follow the carefulinvestigations of the student we need not despair ofreaching a happy solution of our problem, even thoughwe have, as yet, no known copies to compare witheach other or with known English Bibles.

In conclusion it should be said that the aim of thisstudy is, not to present definite facts for that is notpossible with our present knowledge, but to define thelimits of that knowledge and to state fairly reasonableconclusions and inferences.


While the reliability of the general description byIsaiah Thomas of this Boston Bible seems strong initself, the fallibility of human memory is so well knownthat only contemporary evidence can give strength tohis statement and show how much of his detail can berelied upon. Such evidence as is available in thevarious branches of work at that period has beenpresented to you and as a summary we can state withreasonable confidence:

1. That Kneeland & Green did print a quarto Biblefor the booksellers of Boston between 1750 and 1752.

2. That whatever the exact date of issue, it was thesame for the whole edition, which was small.

3. That it resembled the quarto Bibles of 1747 and1749 with the imprint of Thomas, not Mark Baskett.

4. That no Bible of Mark Baskett of London,printed between 1761 and 1769 could be part of theBoston edition.

5. That of this small edition, there must be aconsiderable number still in existence in families, whichcontain their family records because such are preservedwith more care, and which have been handed downfrom generation to generation; or perhaps a few mayhave been deposited for safe keeping in our libraries,of which we have several examples, though of differentimprints, like those of the Paine and Chandler families.

It is not unlikely that examination and careful com-parison of these family Bibles will reveal the longsought copy of this edition, which can then be calledour first Bible in the English language printed in theBritish Colonies.

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THE BOSTON EDITION OF THE BASKETT BIBLE - … · · 2015-02-25THE BOSTON EDITION OF THE BASKETT BIBLE ... cock was related to Henchman and knew of the ... Boston Edition of the