First American Edition, with fifty illustrations. “The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments: with the Apocrypha. Translated Out of the Original Tongues, and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised, by the Special Command of King James I, of England. With an Index”, also known as the Illustrated Bible, was published by Isaiah Thomas in 1791 in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was the first illustrated Bible printed in America and was based on the King James Version.

Thomas consulted over thirty editions of the Bible to create a text that was as accurate as possible and commissioned several American engravers to create illustrations. The illustrations nearly doubled the cost of the Bible and many opted to purchase text only copies. Thomas offered to accept butter, wheat, rye, corn, and pork to cover up to half of the cost of the Bible to help assist his customers.

Printings of Thomas’ Bible are rare, and the illustrated version is exceptionally rare.