Ege Famous Bibles Leaf 47

Abstract

This image is from a collection created by Etta Hanson and given to the College in 1954. All items are from Otto Ege's estate. The leaf was contained and mounted in a mat created by Otto Ege, as were all other leaves in this collection. There is a typed description at the bottom of the mat, which reads: "Printed by John Baskerville, Printer to the University. The magnum opus of Baskerville, England’s greatest type-founder and printer. For the printing of this imperial folio Bible, he moved his press from Birmingham to Cambridge. As he was able to secure only 264 subscribers (at four guineas each) for the edition of 1250 copies, he had to borrow poundsymbol2000 to complete the work. It is a paradox that Baskerville should issued, at great financial loss, several edition of the Bible when he “unblushingly avowed not only his disbelief of, but his contempt for revealed religion, and that in terms too gross for repetition.” His Cambridge Bible is one of the four monumental printed editions— the other three being the Gutenberg 42 Line Bible, the Doves Press Bible, and the Rogers Oxford Lectern Bible."