48

FIRST BIBLE PRINTED BY A WOMAN IN AMERICA

Charles Thomson, translator.

The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Covenant.

Philadelphia: Jane Aitken, 1808
[249 (of 252); 245; 222; 240] leaves. 4 volumes. 8vo, contemporary calf, two spine heads chipped, minor wear; minor foxing; lacking 3 leaves (Volume I, C2-4); early bookplates of the Union Theological Seminary, Virginia on front pastedowns. 

  • Notes: "Thomson's Bible" was the first American translation of the Septuagint into English, as well as the first Bible printed by a woman in America. Charles Thomson, who served as secretary to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1789, purchased a copy of the Septuagint at auction and spent 20 years constructing this translation. The printer Jane Aitken (1764-1832) inherited her father's important Philadelphia shop in 1802, and remained an active binder and publisher through 1813. Hills 153; Wright, pages 113-121 ("still valued for its vigor and perspicuity").
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