The Modern Hieroglyphical Bible ca. 1809 - 1821. This book is titled “The Modern Hieroglyphical Bible Designed To Promote The Amusement And Instruction Of Youth. Being A Selection Of The Most Remarkable Events And The Important Practical Truths Of The Old And New Testament: Arranged According To The Order Of The Sacred Scriptures. To Which Is Added The Lives Of The Four Evangelists.” It was printed and published in London by R. Harrild and is undated, but it was published between 1809 and 1821, according to WorldCat. The book is 3/4 bound, with horizontal gilt bands on the spine, marbled boards, blank endpapers, the owner’s name inscribed on the front flyleaf, an illustrated frontispiece that depicts an angel with Christ on the cross in the background and two small children in the foreground, then the title page, a two-page Preface, sixty pages of text and pictures, and four more unnumbered pages showing St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. John. Hieroglyphic bibles were a type of illustrated children’s bible which was particularly popular during the eighteenth century. They came into vogue in late 18th century England as a means of teaching Bible stories to a new audience: children from poor and working-class families. The bibles came on the heels of changes being made to the education of children during the Industrial Revolution and to improve the quality of life and bring down crime rates among the children of factory and farm workers, and the Sunday School movement picked up steam with teaching books like this that caught the eye of young children. The first hieroglyphic Bible printed in England was a 1780 edition by Thomas Hodgson, and there are no surviving copies of that work. This was followed by Hodgson’s 1783 edition, of which only one copy survives, but it was reprinted at least ten times over a span of eight years in London and Dublin, so a very popular teaching tool indeed. The first competition to Hodgson’s edition was “A New Hieroglyphical Bible, for the Amusement & Instruction of Children”, printed in London by George Thompson, and it was reprinted at least three times in 1794. Each hieroglyphic passage usually featured four or five engravings, with a key or explanation at the foot of each page; the explanations told where the biblical passages came from - from what part of the bible - and the woodcuts drew a reader in and made reading the bible a fun puzzle to work out, and at the end of some of the texts were a series of questions and some pages featuring selected saints to learn more about. The small Bible could nearly fit in your hands and was useful in teaching reading and writing to kids of the Industrial Revolution; the engravings inspired a new generation to learn how to read and write and communicate, a new generation which would benefit from the reform of England’s educational system. The book measures 6 1/2 x 4 1/4 in. wide and is in very good condition, The binding is tight and the pages and illustrations are pretty clean, with just light brown spots and light toning here and there, light rubbing and wear on the spine, light rubbing along the edges of the boards and at the tips, and a modest gutter crack in front. This particular title is rare: there are only five copies in Special Collections around the world, according to WorldCat - at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, at UCLA, Oxford, the University of Reading, and at Cambridge - the last three are all in the UK - and one copy is listed at the University of Miami, but it is not in their holdings anymore, and we found only one copy with this title offered for sale on the rare book website we use, that one has rubbed boards, detached covers, and browning and goes for $322 even in that condition, and the copy we offer here is in much better condition than that. #222 #4992