Welcome to humberbooks.co.uk

Specialising in Antiquarian Theology & Bibles

Humber Books is a leading UK Dealer in Antiquarian Theological Books and Bibles. We have been supplying rare books in these categories for over thirty years. Whilst selling antiquarian theology of every description, we have always specialised in the Protestant Reformation and English Puritanism up to the year 1700. In recent years we have been supplying rare books of later dates as well, although items after the year 1900 are not normally stocked. Early Methodism and later 19th Century Evangelicalism have in more recent years occupied a regular place in goods offered for sale.

The 16th and 17th centuries saw the printing presses produce an amazing quantity of books. Most of these were concerned with divinity. The Reformation of the 16th century had liberated men's minds and energised their hearts. It only remained to put pen to paper, and write and publish what you believed. And it was theology that shaped our nation for centuries that followed. Our best institutions and practises have their roots going way back into the vigorous and manly theology of the Protestant Reformation and the Puritan era. It is remarkable that in our age of spiritual decadence, there has still been a resurgence of interest in the theology of our forbears. This has been matched by a reprinting programme on a scale undreamed of 50 years ago. However, there is no substitute for the original. We have to be glad that the modern reprint has made old books accessible to all. To the connoisseur and lover of books as a real art form, there will never be a substitute for the sight and smell of a 17th century book.

Of course, behind the surge of Puritan Preaching and Polemic lay the seminal book of every generation since the world began, at least in some form. We refer, of course, to the Bible. The translation of the Bible into the English Language did more to educate and illuminate the common people than any other influence. The noble Authorised Version of King James 1st's reign happily bridges nearly 400 years of religious history that preceded. It is a fitting indictment of our age, that in a time when so little value is put on our English bible by priest and people alike, that antiquarian Bibles had never been in greater demand by collectors and readers, and prices have never been higher. Thankfully, the Bible will always be sufficiently widely published as to enable everyone to have a copy of it if they so wish. At the same time, there remains a growing band of men and women who's ambition is to own and cherish a piece of history by obtaining an old bible for themselves. But be warned. Once you own an Antiquarian Bible with it's old leather binding and ownership inscriptions back through the ages, you will likely want to own another! That is true of Theology as well. Buy a Puritan work in the original, and you will lose the appetite for modern paperbacks. Despite the electronic age in which we live, the book remains an art form that we can never part with. And what better piece of art than a genuine old bible or a Puritan treasure? Start your collection of 'real art' today.