BIBLICAL AND RELIGIOUS SIGNS. THE earlier signs were frequently representations of the most important article sold in the shops before which they hung. The stocking denoted the hosier, the gridiron the ironmonger, and so on. The early booksellers, whose trade lay chiefly in religious books, delighted in signs of saints, but at the Reformation the BIBLE amongst those classes, to whom till then it had been a sealed book, became in great request, and was sold in large numbers. Then the booksellers set it up for their sign; it became the popular symbol of the trade, and at the present moment instances of its use still linger with us. There was one day in the year, St Bartholomew's, the 24th of August, when their shops displayed nothing but Bibles and Prayer-books. It is not impossible that this may have been originally intended for a manifestation against Popery, since it was the anniversary of the dreadful Protestant massacre in Paris in 1572. The following, however, is the only allusion we have met with relating to this custom :-" Like a bookseller's shop on Bartholomew day at London, the stalls of which are so adorned with Bibles and Prayer-books, that almost nothing is left within but heathen knowledge."* One of the last BIBLE signs was about twenty years ago, at a public-house in Shire Lane, Temple Bar. It was an old established house of call for printers. The Bible being such a common sign, booksellers had to " wear their rue with a difference," as Ophelia says, and adopt different colours, amongst which the BLUE BIBLE was one of the most common. Prynne's Histrio-Mastrix" was "printed for Michael Sparke, and sold at the Blue Bible, in Green Arbour Court, Little Old Bailey, 1632." This blue colour, so common on the signboard, was not chosen without meaning, but on account of its symbolic virtue. Blue, from its permanency, being an emblem of truth, hence Lydgate, speaking of Delilah, Samson's mistress, in his translation from Boccacio, (MS. Harl. 2251,) says— "Insteade of blew, which steadfaste is and clene, She weraed colours of many a diverse grene." " * New Essays and Characters, by John Stephens the younger, of Lincoln's Inn, Gent London, 1631, p. 221. It also signified piety and sincerity. Randle Holme* says"This colour, blew, doth represent the sky on a clear, sun-shining_day, when all clouds are exiled. Job, speaking to the busy searchers of God's mysteries, saith (Job xi. 17,) That then shall the residue of their lives be as clear as the noonday.' Which to the judgment of men (through the pureness of the air) is of azure colour or light blew, and signifieth piety and sincerity." Other booksellers chose the THREE BIBLES, which was a very common sign of the trade on London Bridge in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: of one of them, Charles Tyne, trades tokens are extant, great curiosities to the numismatist, as booksellers were not in the habit of issuing them. The sign of the Three Bibles seems to have originated from the stationers' arms, which are arg. on a chevron between three bibles, or. a falcon volant between two roses, the Holy Ghost in chief. One bookseller, on account of his selling stationery, also added three inkbottles to the favourite three Bibles, as we see from an advertisement, giving the price of playing cards in 1711 "SOLD by Henry Parson, Stationer at the THREE BIBLES AND THREE INK BOTTLES, near St Magnus' Church, on London Bridge, the best principal superfine Picket Cards, at 2s. 6d. a dozen; the best principal Ombro Cards, at 2s. 9d. a dozen; the best principal superfine Basset Cards, at 3s. 6d. a dozen; with all other Cards and Stationery Wares at Reasonable Rates." + Combinations of the Bible with other objects were very common, some of them symbolic, as the BIBLE AND CROWN, which sign originated during the political troubles in the reign of Charles I. It was at this time when the clergy and the court party constantly tried to convince the people of the divine prerogative of the Crown, that the "Bible and Crown" became the standing toast of the Cavaliers and those opposed to the Parliament leaders. As a sign it has been used for a century and a half by the firm of Rivington the publishers. The old wood carving, painted and gilt in the style of the early signs, was taken down from over the shop in Paternoster Row in 1853, when this firm removed westward. It is still in their possession. Cobbett, the political agitator and publisher, in the beginning of this century chose the sign of the BIBLE, CROWN, AND CONSTITUTION; but the general tenor of his life was such, that his enemies said he put them up merely that he might afterwards be able to say he had pulled * Randle Holme, "Academy of Armour and B'azon," p. 52. them down. A BIBLE, SCEPTRE, AND CROWN, carved in wood, may still be seen on the top of an ale-house of that name in High Holborn. The crown and sceptre in this case are placed on two closed Bibles. The BIBLE AND LAMB, i.e., the Holy Lamb, we find mentioned in an advertisement in the Publick Advertiser, March 1, 1759— O BE HAD at the BIBLE AND LAMB, near Temple Bar, on the Strand "Tide, the skin for Pains in the Limbs, Price 2s." Books also were sold here, for in those days booksellers and toyshops were the usual repositories for quack medicines. The BIBLE AND DOVE, i.e., the Holy Ghost, was the sign of John Penn, bookseller, over against St Bride's Church, Fleet Street, 1718; and the BIBLE AND PEACOCK, the sign of Benjamin Crayle, bookseller, at the west end of St Paul's, in 1688. If not a combination of two signs, the bird may have been added on account of its being the type of the Resurrection, in which quality it is found represented in the Catacombs, a symbolism arising from the supposed incorruptibility of its flesh.* Various other combinations occur, as the BIBLE AND KEY. Rowland Hall, a printer of the sixteenth century, had for his sign the HALF EAGLE AND KEY, (see Heraldic Signs,) of which the Bible and Key may be a free imitation. It was the sign of B. Dod, bookseller, in Ave Maria Lane, 1761; whilst the GOLDEN Key and Bible was that of L. Stoke, a bookseller at Charing Cross, 1711. The "Bible and Key" is also the name of a certain Coscinomanteia, somewhat similar to the Sortes Virgilianæ. This method of divination was performed in two ways, in the first, (stated by Matthew of Paris to have been frequently practised at the election of bishops,) the Bible was opened on the altar, and the prediction taken from the chapter which first caught the eye on opening the book; the other was by placing two written papers, negative, the other affirmative, of the matter in question, under the pall of the altar, which, after solemn prayers, was believed would be decided by divine judgment. Gregory of Tours mentions another method by the Psalms.† one "Notandum quoq. eius (pavonis) carnem quod D. Augustinus quoq., lib. xxi. de civitate Dei, cap. iii., et Isidorus, lib. xii., affirmant non putrescere."-Camerarius, Centur., iii. 20, 1697. How to make this agree with Skelton's idea it is not very easy to explain "Then sayd the Pecocke, All ye well wot, I sing not musycal, For my breast is decay'd."-Skelton's Armony of Birds. † See Fosbrooke's Encyclopædia of Antiquities, vol. ii., p. 673. At the present day "Bible and Key" divinations are often attempted by those who believe in fortune-telling and vaticinations. The method adopted is as follows:-A key is placed, with the bow or handle sticking out, between the leaves of a Bible, on Ruth i. 16: "A ND RUTH said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from fol lowing after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." The Bible is then firmly tied up, most effectually with a garter, and balanced by the bow of the key on the fore-fingers of the right hands of two persons, the one who wishes to consult the oracle, the other any person standing near. The book is then addressed with these words-"Pray, Mr Bible, be good enough to tell me if or not?" If the question be answered in the affirmative the key will swing round, turn off the finger, and the Bible fall down; if in the negative, it will remain steady in its position. Not only upon matrimonial, but upon all sorts of questions, this oracle may be consulted. Further combinations are the BIBLE AND SUN. The SUN was the sign of Wynkyn de Worde, and the printers that succeeded him in his house. It may, however, in this combination have been an emblem of the Sun of Truth, or the Light of the World. It was the sign of J. Newberry, in St Paul's Churchyard, the publisher of Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield;" also of C. Bates, near Pie Corner; and of Richard Reynolds, in the Poultry, both ballad printers in the times of Charles II. and William III. Then there is the BIBLE AND BALL, a sign of a bookseller in Ave Maria Lane in 1761, who probably hung up a Globe to indicate the sale of globes and maps; and the BIBLE AND DIAL, over against St Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street, in 1720, was the sign of the notorious Edmund Curll, who was pilloried at Charing Cross, and pilloried in Pope's verses. The Dial was, in all likelihood, a sun-dial on the front wall of his house. Of the Apocryphal Books there is only one example among the signboards, viz., Bel and the DRAGON, which was at one time not uncommon, more particularly with apothecaries. It was represented by a Bell and a Dragon, as appears from the Spectator, No. 28. "One Apocryphical Heathen God is also represented by this figure [of a Bell], which, in conjunction with the Dragon, makes a very handsome picture in several of our streets." Al |