20; 20pp. text in both English and German, plus twenty-five original leaves tipped into accompanying folders. Large folio in a custom red clamshell box. Limited Edition of sixty copies, with fifty of the regular series and ten additional deluxe copies containing six extra leaves of illustrations from the illustrated Bibles included in the collection. This is one of fifty regular copies, numbered by hand.
The German Bible in America has a long and significant history, reflective of the European culture which gave it birth, the local conditions of Pennsylvania, where it rose to its greatest heights, and the rich German-American culture created by emigrants and their descendants in the 19th-century United States. From the first American edition of a Bible in German, in 1743, through the late 19th century, numerous printers and publishers issued Bibles in various formats, ranging from large folios intended for lectern use to smaller versions for personal study.
This leaf book celebrates the range and richness of these productions, indicative of the world of German culture in America in the 18th and 19th centuries, as expressed through its most widely studied text, in a series of twenty-five leaves. Each set contains two versions of the descriptive text, one in English and the other in German, with an introduction by Don Yoder, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, Folklore and Folk-Life at the University of Pennsylvania. Further text describes the printers of each of the leaves, the circumstances under which they were printed, and other attributes. Each leaf is enclosed in an individual folder.