Notes: [1] There is a strip of vellum pasted to the top of the front cover with writing in Latin in red and black ink; the writing is a bit rubbed. It appears to include “104,” perhaps a shelf number. David C. Lachman, who sold the Bible to Green Collection, suggested that it may date to the early 16th century, though he provided no evidence to support this. [2] Two bookplates are pasted inside the front cover. One shows the 1883 bequest by Parker, rector of Luffincott, Devon, to the “Bishopric of Cornwall”; and the other, overlapping part of the first, is from the cathedral at Truro. It is unclear who the Bishop of Cornwall was at the time of acquisition in 1883. Bishop Edward White Benson served from 1877 to 1883, and Bishop George Wilkinson served from 1883 to 1891. [3] A not fully legible inscription on the back inside cover, likely in pencil, includes the date March 16, 1866. [4] A second not fully legible inscription on the back inside cover, in what appears to be blue pencil or ink, includes the date March 26, 1867. [5] Thornton acquired many items from the Truro Cathedral collection at auction, from the Dominic Winter auctioneers at South Cerney, England, near Swindon. See Barker, below, in “Select References.” [6] Sotheby’s London Continental Books, Manuscripts, and Science sale on June 5, 2007, Lot 33. In response to questions about this sale, the auction house Christie’s suggests this Bible had only recently left Truro Cathedral. The London bookseller John Thornton bought Bishop Philpott’s Library en masse and sold it over the next few years at a series of auction houses. See Barker, below in “Select References.” David C. Lachman likely acquired it from one of these auction houses; see the Lachman provenance entry and note 8. [7] On the first page, a not fully legible inscription reads: “Jos.[eph] Fr[ancis] Xav.[ier] Zinsmeister Can.[on] Spalaling [spelling uncertain].” Spalaling is perhaps a city, or an alternative spelling of a city, in Germany, but this is uncertain. [8] Museum of the Bible spoke with David Lachman’s wife by telephone on October 31, 2019, but the Lachmans provided no further information.

Select References

Nicholas Barker, “The Bishop Phillpotts Library, Truro,” The Book Collector 56, no. 4 (Winter 2007): 493–500.