Within the various collections in Rare Books and Special Collection we hold 13 copies of A New Hieroglyphical Bible for the Amusement & Instruction of Children published from 1794 to 1849. This doesn’t make it any less exciting to receive another.

The recent donation had condition issues and so, Mick LeTourneaux, Rare Books Conservator in our Preservation Office worked on it. Here is a look at the before and after.

Since there is no title page, it is difficult to know which edition we have. The newspaper waste used in the back cover gives an account of congressional funding for cannons, dated March 3, 1809, so that is helpful in dating the binding.

Each page has a key at the bottom in case you can’t figure out the sentence. Here is the right side:

Bound in with the Hieroglyphical bible is: The Life of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and His Apostles by Thomas Stackhouse (ca. 1680-1752). It is the first copy at Princeton that includes individual woodcuts and descriptions of all the apostles.