In my aim to document every aspect of antique book collecting I must sometimes cover more specific topics, hence today's post.
A specimen book is usually a book that is an example for what the finished book or series will look like. It isn't something exclusive to the Holy Bible, this is merely a good example of one.
In this case, the bible specimen shown below is just a few pages of what the real book will be like - basically showing the same quality, design and style as the eventual real product.
This particular book is of interest because it is virtually unrecorded and features very large images of incredibly high quality. It may seem surprising that the publishers needed a specimen for the Bible - the most popular book ever printed according to circulation figures - and perhaps this could relate to economic pressures at the time and the cost of such a high-quality publishing. It is also a great example of a specimen, showing example pages including birth/ deaths registry for the family that owns the book, example engravings and maps and an example of what the text pages may look like.
I have added a number of photos below to show what an antique bible specimen may look like. Thanks for reading.
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