Bible Design and Binding

R. L. Allan's Oxford Long Primer in Highland Goatskin

"Maybe you should try the Long Primer." I'd given that advice a thousand times to people who e-mailed looking for a nice, readable edition of the KJV in a quality binding. I said maybe because I'd never seen one myself. Based on what I knew of R. L. Allan's, I assumed the Long Primer was good. Nicholas Gray, who presides over the Glasgow-based temple of goodness, confided that the Long Primer was his favorite setting of the KJV, and other Bible Design Blog readers said the same thing. So when the box arrived from Scotland including, among other things, a copy of Item #53 -- "Allan's Oxford Reference Bible, Long Primer with Chain References, Goatskin Leather, Cyclopedic Concordance" -- I was anxious to see if the recommendation I'd been making was any good.

Not that I was worried.

Above: The supple Long Primer cover inspired some new Bible yoga positions. Here, the cover is curled into the gutter between the pages, showing off the goatskin's flexibility and grain, and providing a glimpse of the elegant typography within.

The official description has this to say: "Highland goatskin with overlapping (full yapp) covers, leather lined inside in dark blue, with dictionary of proper names, subject index and concordance." The list price is £90, which works out to $177 in today's US dollars. That's expensive, but then, this is a once-in-a-lifetime purchase for all but the inveterate collectors. And I have to say, the Long Primer has that once-in-a-lifetime feel.

First Look: Deluxe Compact ESV (Sienna / Crossroads Design)

Thanks to the intrepid Scott Kay, we can take our first look at the Deluxe Compact ESV from Crossway in its TruTone Sienna (Crossroads) incarnation. This is the successor to the original Compact Thinline, with a new layout, slightly enlarged proportions and a sewn binding. If you ask me, it's a big improvement. Let's take a look:

Above: Each of the four editions currently available has a novelty cover, but the Sienna (Crossroads Design) option is the subtlest. I like the simulated grain and the variation in the brown color. And I can live with the design.

My Interview in Volume 90 of the Mars Hill Audio Journal

This isn't a commercial interruption so much as it is a giddy outburst. Some of you know that, after the release of my book Rethinking Worldview, I was interviewed by Ken Myers for the Mars Hill Audio Journal. Well today Volume 90 was released to subscribers, and my interview is right at the beginning. I'm pleased. No, make that thrilled. When people ask me to recommend resources for "thinking Christians," Mars Hill Audio Journal is always the first thing I suggest (followed by a subscription to Books & Culture), so it's surreal -- in the good way, not the clock melting on a branch way) to find myself included. I've listened to the interview, but I still have a hard time believing it really happened.

Anyway, I wanted to share my joy with the rest of you, and encourage you to subscribe to Mars Hill Audio Journal. It is the intellectual equivalent of a goatskin binding.

Why Paragraphs? Why Single Column?

It never hurts to restate one's first principles, especially when new readers come along who don't know what all the fuss is about. Why is it better for the text of Scripture to be set in paragraphs instead of the traditional verse-per-line format? Why is a single column setting preferable to the much-more-common double-column arrangement? Does any of this really make a difference? For most of us, the meaty, controversial topic where Scripture is concerned is translation. How the words end up on the page is a matter of indifference. It seems trivial to lock horns over mere formatting when we could be grappling over Hebrew and Greek, or sparring about which English words in which combination are comprehensible to which English speakers. I understand. I find all that stuff fascinating, too. But there's something to be said for matters usually dismissed as superficial.

If you don't mind, I'll begin with a story. As a writer, I've been known to frequent what's called a "workshop." This is a regular get-together at a coffee shop or some other plausible venue, in which a group of authors trade photocopies of their work for purposes of critique. These manuscripts have never been eyeballed by an editor, so their formatting depends entirely on the author -- and these days, technology being what it is, a lot of manuscripts are passed back and forth electronically, losing formatting as they go. At one meeting, a writer passed out a stack of pages for discussion at the next meeting. I took them home and read them a few days later. To me, it looked like a rather long prose poem. Lines ended randomly but often in interesting ways, some paragraphs had extra space in between, while others were jammed up against each other. I wrestled with some of the stranger line endings, and giving the author the benefit of the doubt, assumed he'd undertaken something extremely subtle, something I couldn't quite figure out. But I tried, and eventually came up with a few pages of notes.

When we met, the first thing he did was apologize for the formatting. His short story (!) had been e-mailed back and forth, breaking the lines in odd places and adding lots of mysterious spacing he couldn't account for. Most of my commentary was based on the assumption that I was reading poetry. By re-formatting the lines, things became clear. The piece wasn't as difficult as I'd thought, but it wasn't as clever, either. I read it, yes, but I read into it, too. All because of a glitch in formatting.

R. L. Allan's Oxford Brevier Clarendon Reference Edition

Earlier this year, I reviewed the R. L. Allan's edition of the Oxford Brevier Blackface KJV, concluding that the cover is magnificent and the blackface interior is one of those love-it-or-hate-it propositions, a little too dark for my taste. So it was only natural that I'd take an interest in the less emphatic Brevier Clarendon. Reviewing the list of editions at Bibles-Direct.com, I noticed that the Brevier Clarendon was available in a "brown, buffalo grain calfskin, leather lined in tan." Given my predilection for brown these days, I figured that was perfect.

Above: The Brevier Clarendon in Brown Calfskin (Allan 6C) on top, compared to the Brevier Blackface in Black Highland Goatskin (Allan 20).

According to the measurements given on the site, the Blackface is slightly thinner and taller than the Clarendon, but when I stack them next to each other, the proportions look pretty much identical. Inside, the Clarendon offers a couple of advantages. In addition to the type not being quite so black (though it's by no means light), the self-pronouncing feature -- which in the Blackface goes so far as to break the name "Jesus" into two accented syllables every time it appears -- is absent, and brief chapter summaries are added. The cyclopedic concordance, which does double duty (as the name suggests) as both concordance and succinct encyclopedia, is present in both. The pagination is the same, so I assume they're identical.

Contacting Abba Bibles

In case some of you missed this in the comments, I wanted to call your attention to this information left by Lorena Villeda de Barrón from Abba Bibles. She thanks Cristian Franco -- as do we all! -- for sharing his rebound Bibles with us, and the provides information for those of you wishing to contact Abba Bibles. Here's the full message:

"Cristian, We really appreciated all your effort to show the people our work. Abba Bibles is ministry that hire mainly single mothers and special people also. It’s a blessing of our God ´to serve all of you. Our website is under construction, but you can be in touch with us by e-mail as Cristian Franco informs you.

God bless you,
Lorena Villeda de Barrón
Abba bibles
International Projects
Phone 5255-5672-9679 / Fax 5255- 5243-8418.
lorena@abbabibles.com
Joshua 1:8"

Needless to say, if any of you do have a Bible rebound by Abba Bibles, I expect some photos!

Compact Thinline ESV from LeatherBibles.com

According to the ESV site, the new Deluxe Compact edition will be available tomorrow. My Amazon pre-order says it will ship Friday. I mentioned this edition back in February when it was announced, mainly because it will feature a sewn binding, making it a great candidate for rebinding. Given my affection for "itsy bitsy Bibles," it's no surprise that I plan to get a lot of use out of this one. In honor of its coming, though, I thought I might share some photos of the edition I've been using in the meantime.

You've seen photos of it here and there, but I don't think I've ever written about this compact ESV at much length. It's an edition that used to be offered by LeatherBibles.com, a compact thinline ESV rebound in supple tan calfskin. (Based on all the talk recently about Abba Bibles, I suspect that's who's responsible for the excellent cover.) This little Bible is truly a thing of beauty -- the graceful semi-yapp edges, the soft leather, two ribbons. Until you open it up, that is. You see, this edition breaks Rebinding Rule #1: "Start with a sewn binding." Because the compact thinlines are, of course, glued.

Mark Strobel Updates His Stack

Mark Strobel started the "stack photo" craze back in November when he shared a photo of Bibles he'd acquired "under the Bertrand influence." Now he's updated the stack, and thrown in some photos of an interesting (and tiny) Book of Common Prayer, and a hard-to-find Cambridge calfskin edition of the NRSV. Let's take a look.

Among the pictures you'll find attached are a revised and better quality picture of the "Bertrand Influence" stack. From bottom to top:

--Cambridge Wide Margin with Renaissance Faire Leather Cover
--Cambridge Calfskin NRSV
--ESV Cordovan Calfskin Classic Thinline
--Two ESV Portfolio Thinlines, including the brown one which survived a car accident that the car itself did not survive!
--Two editions of the Cambridge NRSV New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs

That's all your influence.

Opening a New Bible

Phil Auxier asked a question recently, and I'd be interested in hearing what other readers think.

Q. "Is there a way to open [a new Bible], bend it, etc, that will give it a longer use? I had always heard that you should open it in the middle, then alternate gradually towards the back from the left and right of center."

A. I've heard the same thing, but I'm skeptical. I doubt the way you first open a Bible has much impact on its longevity -- assuming you don't do anything crazy. When I receive a new Bible, the first thing I do is pull the pages apart, since modern gilding tends to result in sticky edges. Until they're separated, the text block won't "flow" properly. Aside from that, though, I don't do anything special, or observe any rules about careful handling. So far, I have never experienced any problems as a result of this negligence. (Knock on wood.)

Having said that, there's probably some truth in the idea that, until a Bible has been used a bit, you should be careful how you treat the cover. Some loosen (in a good way) and grow more limp with use, so perhaps you might observe a "breaking-in" period. I don't, but that doesn't mean it isn't prudent.

I'm interested in what other people think. Does anyone have a special ritual when opening or breaking in a new Bible? Any care instructions to pass along?

Custom Bible Covers from Renaissance Art

You don't have to rebind your Bible to add a nice cover. As Robert Jimenez reports at Weird Thinkers, you can look up the fine folks at Renaissance Art and order a custom leather book cover. Robert's, which set him back just under $40, fits quite nicely and arrived in a matter of days. Follow the link to his site for photos.