The latter — a lovely collect for Advent — thanks God for his “Holy Scriptures” as well as for his Son.

The New Testament has a separate title-page dated 1660; the accompanying psalter’s title-page is dated 1663.

Provenance: Front pastedown with early inked inscription of John Shipton; his “J S” (“I S”) is stamped on each cover. The collect (on front the free endpaper) and the psalms (on the final blank) are in his hand.

Binding: 18th-century brown morocco, covers framed in gilt double fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons; no spine label (nor sign that any was present). Each cover bears a central gilt-stamped floral decoration that may have been meant to obscure a (now) clearly visible, mistakenly stamped “S I” ; the correct “I S” is stamped one letter to either side of the device, flanking it!  (Above, we have supplied an enlargement of this as it is on the BACK cover, where the situation is a little easier to see.)  All edges gilt.

•  Bible: Darlow & Moule 530; ESTC R14727; Herbert 675; Wing (rev.) B2263. Psalms: ESTC R36653; Wing (rev.) B2481A. Bound as above, a bit scuffed over joints and extremities, with gilt dimmed. Pages trimmed closely, in a few cases touching headers. One leaf with outer margin nicked, with loss of shouldernote; one leaf with paper flaw, resulting in loss of a few words. A few instances of small spots, with most pages clean. A nice little Bible of its sort, made the more evocative by its inscriptions and the more interesting for its binding detail.