Approved:

 

Thesaurus: Genre Terms

Term: Thumb Bibles

Hierarchy: [Special shapes, sizes and kinds of books] : Printing & Publishing Evidence

                [Literary forms] : Genre Terms

                [Content of work] : Genre Terms 

Scope Note: Use for miniature volumes containing summaries or abridgments of biblical texts in verse or prose; typically illustrated and produced chiefly for use by children.

Broad Term:  Miniature books

                    Juvenile literature

                    [Religious works]

History Note: New term proposed from the [Pierpont] Morgan Library. Approved, January 2009

Comments: The term Thumb Bibles falls into three hierarchies from two separate RBMS thesauri. These thesauri have been included in this term record for clarification purposes only.

 

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Proposed Term: Thumb Bibles

 

Thesaurus: Genre Terms

 

Submitted by:  Sandra F. Carpenter, Pierpont Morgan Library & Museum

 

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Term record as found in AAT (mandatory):  not found

 

Term record as found in LCSH (mandatory): Bible Ç‚v Thumb Bibles ("Here are entered works which consist of abridged texts of the Bible in miniature size written for children.")

 

Term record as found in GMGPC (mandatory):  not found

               

Term record as found in GSAFD (mandatory):  not found

               

Term record as found in MeSH (mandatory):  not found

                  

Term record as found in MIGFG (mandatory):  not found

    

Term record as found in the Oxford English Dictionary, 2^nd edition (mandatory):  not found (including full text proximity searching)

 

Term record as found in Webster’s 3rd New International Dictionary of the English Language (mandatory):  not found

   

Term as found in Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2^nd edition (optional):  not found

     

Term as found in source/hierarchical displays/definitions, other sources, &c.:   

• Adomeit, Ruth. Three centuries of thumb bibles: a checklist. New York : Garland Pub., 1980. (See esp.: p. xiii-xv)
  • "The term 'Thumb Bible' is of unknown origin. ... The first use of this term seems to have been in 1849 by Longman and Company of London for the title of their first reprint of an early Verbum Sempiternum. It is probable that the term was coined because of the excitement in England in 1844 over the visit of Charles Stratton, the famous midget, better known as General Tom Thumb." (p. xiii)
• Stone, Wilbur S. The thumb Bible of John Taylor. Brookline, Mass. : LXIMOS, 1928.
• Thumb Bibles section of Miniature Books exhibition at the Lilly Library, "miniature Bibles contain all or selections from one of the standard versions of the Bible. [...] Thumb Bibles, on the other hand, are paraphrases prepared chiefly for children."

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Hierarchy: 

Special shapes, sizes and kinds of books (Gathering term; do not assign)

Miniature books (Printing and publishing terms)

 

Literary forms (Gathering term; do not assign)

Juvenile literature (Genre terms)

 

Content of work (Gathering term; do not assign)

Religious works (Genre terms)

 

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Proposed SN:  Use for miniature volumes containing summaries or abridgments of biblical texts in verse or prose; typically illustrated and produced chiefly for the use of children.

 

Warrant (if necessary): per EB's cursory reasearch, secondary sources agree on the scope. "Typically illustrated" was verified against Adomeit's checklist where 219 contained two or more illustrations, 58 were unillustrated, and 11 had only a frontispiece.  

 

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UF:  Verbum

 

Warrant (if necessary): "...one of the best-known miniature Bibles is the Verbum Sempiternum and Salvator Mundi, so well-known in fact that the word "Verbum" alone is commonly used to mean a Thumb Bible." (Adomeit, Three centuries of Thumb Bibles, p. xv)

 

Question from EB: do we need this UF? It wasn't in the original proposal, and although Adomeit said it's "commonly used" I can't find it anywhere else with this meaning. If I hadn't actually read the preface to Adomeit's Checklist, I would never have known.

 

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BT: 

Miniature books (Printing and publishing terms)

Juvenile literature (Genre terms)

Religious works (Genre terms)

 

Warrant (if necessary): 

 

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NT:

 

Warrant (if necessary):

 

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RT:  Bible stories (Genre terms)

 

Warrant (if necessary): scope note for Bible stories, "Use for paraphrases in story form of Biblical texts."

 

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HN:

 

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Comments:

Morgan catalog records with this term:

• The Bible in miniature, or, a concise history of the Old & New Testaments. London : Printed for W. Harris, No. 70, St. Pauls-Church Yard, 1775.
• A short history of the Bible and Testament : with 48 neat engravings.New York : Published by Wm. B. Gilley ..., 1815.
• Verbum sempiternum. London : Printed by F. Collins for T. Ilive, at the Nags-Head in Jewen-Street, 1693.

 

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AAT [Getty’s Art & Architecture Thesaurus]

GMGPC [Library of Congress’s Thesaurus for Graphic Materials]

GSAFD [Guidelines on Subject Access to Individual Works of Fiction, Drama, etc. (2nd ed.)]

LCSH [Library of Congress’s Subject Headings]

MeSH [National Library of Medicine’s Medical Subject Headings]

MIGFG [Library of Congress’s The Moving Image Genre-form Guide]