Barack Obama has decided to take the oath of office on the same Bible used by Abraham Lincoln at his first inauguration in 1861.

It is a highly symbolic gesture from the the man who will become America's first black president to the man who proclaimed the end of slavery.

But the links go deeper than that: Mr Obama has often cited Lincoln - the first Illinois congressman to end up in the White House - as his role model and has looked to him taken inspiration from him as he prepares for inauguration day on January 20.

The Bible in question is one of two Lincoln Bibles held in the Library of Congress. The other is the Lincoln family Bible, which was unavailable because it was packed away with the First Family's luggage, which was still making its way from Springfield, Illinois when Lincoln's inauguration came around on March 4, 1861.

Archive, 1861: Inauguration of President Lincoln

In a firm but modest voice the President took the oath, while the people tossed their hats, wiped their eyes and hurrahed themselves hoarse

• Eve of President Lincoln's inauguration

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Instead, another Bible was bought by William Thomas Carroll, the Supreme Court Clerk, who later wrote at the back of the book certifying that it was indeed the Bible on which the 16th president had been sworn in. It has not been used since.

The 1,280-page Bible, published in 1853 by the Oxford University Press, is bound in burgundy velvet with a gold-washed metal rim, its edges heavily gilded.

"President-elect Obama is deeply honored that the Library of Congress has made the Lincoln Bible available for use during his swearing-in," Emmett Beliveau, who heads Mr Obama's inaugural commmittee, told Time magazine.

"The President-elect is committed to holding an inauguration that celebrates America's unity, and the use of this historic Bible will provide a powerful connection to our common past and common heritage."

Lincoln is invariably considered among the very top rank of US presidents. Indeed he was ranked as the greatest of all by a panel of Times experts this year.

Asked in January which book, apart from the Bible, he would take to the White House should he win November's election, Mr Obama said it would be "Team of Rivals", the 2005 bestseller from Doris Kearns Goodwin which describes how Lincoln surrounded himself with his former antagonists as he built a team that helped steer the Union through the darkest days of the Civil War.

It was one lesson that Mr Obama clearly took on board, most notably with his nomination of Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State but also with his appointment of Joe Biden, another former rival for the Democratic nomiation, as Vice-President as well as other Cabinet picks.

Not just did Mr Obama borrow a famous line from Lincoln's first inaguration speech - "We are not enemies but friends..." - during his victory speech at Chicago's Grant Park, but he has borrowed a line from the Gettysburg Address - "the new birth of freedom" - as the theme for his inauguration.

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