(COLOR PRINTING). BIBLE IN ENGLISH. GENESIS PRINTED IN COLORS. SHOWING THE ORIGINAL SOURCES FROM WHICH IT IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN COMPILED by BISSELL, EDWIN CONE - 1892: Genesis Printed in Seven Colors as a Clue to its Various Textual Sources

This item is currently on reserve; please contact dealer for more details. 248 x 168 mm. (9 3/4 x 6 1/2").
xv, [1], 59 pp.
FIRST EDITION.

Publisher's brown cloth, covers with blind-stamped borders, gilt titling, smooth spine.

Text printed in black, blue, green, orange, yellow, brown, and red.

Extremities lightly rubbed, two small stains to lower cover, a touch of browning to edges of leaves, isolated faint foxing, but a fine copy, clean and fresh internally with colors undimmed by time, in a well-preserved binding.

This curious volume represents an effort by Congregational minister and biblical scholar Edwin Bissell (1832-94) to make the multiple sources of the Book of Genesis clear to readers at a glance. In the introduction, he explains the various documents from which the text was compiled, and assigns them colors. For example, the two sources that used the name "Jehovah" for God are in black and orange, while the one that used the name "Elohim" is in red. Chapter 14 of Genesis, which appears in only one source, is in yellow, editorial additions are in green, and materials from the laws of Moses known as the Priests' Code are in blue. The text of the volume is limited to Genesis due to cost considerations; color printing was not a cheap undertaking at this time.