A usually paraphrased or abridged version of the Bible, it is a devotional volume whose name refers to its size.
In 1614, John Taylor published his Verbum Sempiternum, which also summarised the Bible in verse form.
The first Thumb Bible in prose was published in London in 1727, under the title Biblia or a Practical Summary of ye Old & New Testaments.
In 1780 Elizabeth Newbery who specialised in books for children printed a thumb bible.
[1] The term 'Thumb Bible' was first coined by Longman and Co. of London in the mid-nineteenth century, when they used it on the title page of an edition in 1849.