The Fore-Edge
The fore-edge is the outer edge of a closed book — the one thumb tabs are cut into, and the one that carries a fore-edge painting: a picture laid on the fanned pages, invisible while the book sits shut and there the moment you open it.
Every book of the Bible has a colour here, and every chapter of that book wears it. Land on Judges 4 from a cross-reference and the page arrives already the colour Judges has always been. Hue says which division you are standing in; shade says how far into it you are.
The colour describes the edition in your hands, which is why the two lists below differ. It is not a claim about dates — only about where a book sits in the order it is printed in.
In Christian order
Law, History, Poetry and Wisdom, the Prophets — then the Gospels through Revelation. What twenty-one of the library's twenty-two Bibles print.
- Genesis
- Exodus
- Leviticus
- Numbers
- Deuteronomy
- Joshua
- Judges
- Ruth
- I Samuel
- II Samuel
- I Kings
- II Kings
- I Chronicles
- II Chronicles
- Ezra
- Nehemiah
- Esther
- Job
- Psalms
- Proverbs
- Ecclesiastes
- Song of Solomon
- Isaiah
- Jeremiah
- Lamentations
- Ezekiel
- Daniel
- Hosea
- Joel
- Amos
- Obadiah
- Jonah
- Micah
- Nahum
- Habakkuk
- Zephaniah
- Haggai
- Zechariah
- Malachi
- I Esdras
- II Esdras
- Tobit
- Judith
- Additions to Esther
- Wisdom of Solomon
- Sirach
- I Baruch
- Prayer of Azariah
- Susanna
- Bel and the Dragon
- Prayer of Manasseh
- I Maccabees
- II Maccabees
- Matthew
- Mark
- Luke
- John
- Acts
- Romans
- I Corinthians
- II Corinthians
- Galatians
- Ephesians
- Philippians
- Colossians
- I Thessalonians
- II Thessalonians
- I Timothy
- II Timothy
- Titus
- Philemon
- Hebrews
- James
- I Peter
- II Peter
- I John
- II John
- III John
- Jude
- Revelation of John
In Tanakh order
Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim. Daniel stands among the Writings, Ruth and Lamentations with the Megillot, and Chronicles closes the collection instead of Malachi.
- Genesis
- Exodus
- Leviticus
- Numbers
- Deuteronomy
- Joshua
- Judges
- I Samuel
- II Samuel
- I Kings
- II Kings
- Isaiah
- Jeremiah
- Ezekiel
- Hosea
- Joel
- Amos
- Obadiah
- Jonah
- Micah
- Nahum
- Habakkuk
- Zephaniah
- Haggai
- Zechariah
- Malachi
- Psalms
- Proverbs
- Job
- Song of Solomon
- Ruth
- Lamentations
- Ecclesiastes
- Esther
- Daniel
- Ezra
- Nehemiah
- I Chronicles
- II Chronicles
- I Esdras
- II Esdras
- Tobit
- Judith
- Additions to Esther
- Wisdom of Solomon
- Sirach
- I Baruch
- Prayer of Azariah
- Susanna
- Bel and the Dragon
- Prayer of Manasseh
- I Maccabees
- II Maccabees
- Matthew
- Mark
- Luke
- John
- Acts
- Romans
- I Corinthians
- II Corinthians
- Galatians
- Ephesians
- Philippians
- Colossians
- I Thessalonians
- II Thessalonians
- I Timothy
- II Timothy
- Titus
- Philemon
- Hebrews
- James
- I Peter
- II Peter
- I John
- II John
- III John
- Jude
- Revelation of John
Colour is never the only signal. Every tab in the reader sits beside the book’s name, and the division it stands for is written out in words on the row. Nothing here is only findable by seeing it.
Books outside these editions — the Fathers, the Talmud, the philosophers, most of a library of 291 works — carry no colour rather than an invented one. A thumb index that lies about where you are is worse than no thumb index.