The Macklin Bible was an ambitious painting and illustration project orchestrated by the London publisher-printseller Thomas Macklin in the final decade of the eighteenth century.
I was awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2017–2019) to research ‘The Formation and Reception of the Macklin Bible’. This research was also supported by visiting fellowships at the Harry Ransom Center and the Library Company of Philadelphia.
I have published a digital edition of the Macklin Bible and related biblical illustrations, an online exhibition about paintings for the Bible, and a dictionary essay about apocalyptic and millenarian illustrations in the Bible. I also have two forthcoming articles emerging from this research, and am currently working on a book about Macklin’s project.
Articles and chapters
‘Macklin Bible: Apocalyptic and Millenarian Illustrations‘ for the Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements, co-edited by Alastair Lockhart and James Crossley (Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements, 2021).
‘“The Great Bowyer Bible”: Robert Bower and the Macklin Bible’ Journal of Illustration 8.1, special issue ‘The Unique Copy: (Extra-)Illustration, Word and Image, Book History, and Print Culture’, ed. Christina Ionescu (2021), pp. 51–80. DOI: 10.1386/jill_00038_1
‘Collaboration in the Macklin Bible’ for an edited volume Participation, Collaboration, Association, co-edited with co-contributors (Paris: Honoré Champion, forthcoming c.2022).
Digital edition
I edited a digital edition of the Macklin Bible and related works for Manchester Digital Collections (MDC).The MDC Bible Illustrations collection includes the complete first edition of the Macklin Bible, encompassing the Old and New Testaments (6 volumes in 7, 1800) and the Apocrypha (1 volume, 1816); 24 individual plates that were new or adapted for the second edition (1824); and the illustrated Bible published by Macklin’s rival Robert Bowyer (2 volumes, 1795).
Online exhibition
I curated a mini exhibition of paintings from and relating to the Macklin Bible using ArtUK’s Curations tool. This tool enables anyone to curate online exhibitions from ArtUK’s virtual collection of paintings in UK public collections.