The Twenty Four Books of the Holy Scriptures: Carefully Translated ...with short explanatory notes by Isaac Leeser, Philadelphia: Abraham de Sola, 1878. Sold with an engraved and illustrated Ketubbah, Atlanta: 1888

1021 pp. (11 x 8 3/4 in.;280 x 220 mm). pagination: i-viii, 1-1011 (2) +(3) leaves bound in with family notes. Some spotting to title page and at margins. All edges gilt, worn. Original gilt tooled and paneled brown morocco, brass clasps engraved. Rebacked.

Isaac Leeser's literary magnum opus and most lasting contribution to Judaism in America was his English translation of the entire Hebrew Bible, first printed in 1854. The impetus for Leeser was his desire to provide the Jews of America with an English text of the Bible that was produced by one of their own and was not tainted by conversionist motivations.  In his preface, included in the present volume, Leeser characterizes this culmination of his long years of endeavor as having finally provided for his fellow Jews "a version of the Bible which has not been made by the authority of churches in which they have no confidence." Leeser's endeavors were rewarded by the knowledge that his translation was reprinted several times, including in this luxuriously bound edition that was treasured by the descendants of Herman and Sophia Cronheim, forebears of one of Atlanta's most prominent Jewish families. The pages added to the Cronheim family bible records births, deaths and marriages for over a century.