BINDING, Genevan.- Bible in French. La Bible, qu

BINDING, Genevan.- Bible in French. La Bible, qui est toute la Saincte Escriture du Vieil & du Nouveau Testament.

Geneva : Matthieu Berjon, 1605. 8vo ( 161 x 105 mm). 2 parts in one, separately titled, small Roman type, double column, musical notation to the Psalms, printer's woodcut device on titles, woodcut headpieces and initials. Ruled in red throughout. Contemporary binding, probably Genevan, of brown morocco richly gilt and inlaid to an all-over design, sides paneled with double fillets, outer border densely tooled and with very small onlays of darker brown calf, large central panel with a field of repeated lozenges built up from small foliate, arabesque, acorn and flower tools, each lozenge with an oval central onlay and four other small onlays, two circular and two diamond-shaped, the onlays gold-tooled, smooth spine similarly decorated, edges gilt and gauffered, evidence of two fore-edge ties; folding morocco-backed fitted cloth case. Condition: Lacking ties, joints a little rubbed, one very small round onlay lost from upper cover, discreet repair to a corner, a few small wormholes. Provenance: 17th or 18th-century ms. ex-dono on front flyleaf stating that the book was a gift from (Dominus) Cressi, author of excellent treatises on social customs; title dates altered in ink to 1585, a few later notes. rare edition of the french geneva version of the bible, a fine copy elaborately bound in a fashionable, richly tooled and onlaid "décor à repetition." This appears to have been the dress of choice for presentation or luxury copies of this edition: see a somewhat similar binding, of red morocco gilt, offered by Breslauer, catalogues 106/21 and 110/74. The edition is a close reprint of the octavo edition of 1588. Darlow & Moule 3744.