Zweymal zwey und fünfzig auserlesene Biblische Historien aus dem Alten und Neuen Testamente, der Jugend zum Besten abgefasset …

Sion : auf Kosten christlicher Eltern für die Jugend, 1786. Duodecimo, contemporary full red calf, upper and lower boards with ornate gilt borders (rubbed), spine in compartments with gilt ornament and contrasting leather title label lettered in gilt (somewhat faded), front hinge cracked, gold endpapers, first blank with original owner’s inscription in red ink ‘Johannes Gamb 1789’, advertisement for Nürnberg bookseller Georg Peter Monath’s copperplates to accompany Hübner’s Bible stories, title leaf in red and black, pp [14], frontispiece plate of the Creation, 1-412, [6 index]; profusely illustrated with copper engraved plates; very occasional spotting, else internally clean and sound. Text in German, in Gothic script.

First published in 1714, Hübner’s beautifully illustrated and immensely popular Bible stories from the Old and New Testaments appeared in many editions throughout the German-speaking regions of Western Europe in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This attractively bound and well preserved copy belonging to one Johannes Gamb was printed in Sion, Switzerland “at the expense of Christian parents for youth”, at a time when the town still had a substantial German population. Hübner’s work was translated into no fewer than 15 languages in a total of at least 270 editions, making it the most popular and best-selling children’s Bible of the eighteenth century.