_Bowyer Bible_ (Vol. vii., _passim_).--Relative to the history and various
possessors of this curious Bible, I find the following notice in _The
Times_, Oct. 14, 1840:
"There is at present, in the possession of Mrs. Parker of Golden
Square, a copy of Macklin's Bible in forty-five large volumes,
illustrated with nearly 7000 engravings from the age of Michael Angelo
to that of Reynolds and West. The work also contains about 200 original
drawings or vignettes by Loutherbourg.
"The prints and etchings include the works of Raffaelle, Marc Antonio,
Albert Durer, Callot, Rembrandt, and other masters, consisting of
representations of nearly every fact, circumstance, and object
mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. There are, moreover, designs of
trees, plants, flowers, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, and insects; such
as, besides fossils, have been adduced in proof of the universal
Deluge. The most authentic Scripture atlasses are bound up with the
volumes. The Bible was the property of the late Mr. Bowyer the
publisher, who collected and arranged the engravings, etchings, and
drawings at great expense and labour; and he is said to have been
engaged for upwards of thirty years in rendering it perfect. It was
insured at the Albion Insurance Office for 3000l."
In the British Museum are several large works, particularly British
topography, illustrated in a similar manner, and which thus contain
materials of the rarest and most valuable description. Of these I would
only at present mention Salmon's _Hertfordshire_ illustrated by
Baskerville, and Lysons's _Environs_, in the King's Library. A long list of
such valuable works might be furnished from the Museum catalogues.
One of the most laborious collectors of curious prints of every kind was
John Bagford, whose voluminous collections are amongst the Harleian MSS. in
many folio volumes, in which will be found illustrations of topography to
be met with nowhere else.