Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- PART 1 THE HISTORY
- 1 Making the text
- 2 Pre-1611 evidence for the text
- 3 The first edition
- 4 The King's Printer at work, 1612 to 1617
- 5 Correcting and corrupting the text, 1629 to 1760
- 6 Setting the standard, 1762 and 1769
- 7 The current text
- PART 2 THE NEW CAMBRIDGE PARAGRAPH BIBLE
- PART 3 APPENDICES
- Bibliography
- General index
- Word index
- Index of biblical references
3 - The first edition
from PART 1 - THE HISTORY
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- PART 1 THE HISTORY
- 1 Making the text
- 2 Pre-1611 evidence for the text
- 3 The first edition
- 4 The King's Printer at work, 1612 to 1617
- 5 Correcting and corrupting the text, 1629 to 1760
- 6 Setting the standard, 1762 and 1769
- 7 The current text
- PART 2 THE NEW CAMBRIDGE PARAGRAPH BIBLE
- PART 3 APPENDICES
- Bibliography
- General index
- Word index
- Index of biblical references
Summary
A ‘Bible of the largest and greatest volume’
The printing history of the KJB is plagued throughout by inadequate publishing records. Presumably because it was considered a revision rather than a new book, the first edition was not entered on the Stationers' Registers, so we do not know when in 1611 it appeared.
Though commonly known as the Authorised Version (AV), it appears not to have been officially authorised. A royal proclamation of 1541 had ordered a ‘Byble of the largest and greatest volume, to be had in euery churche’. First the Great Bibles then the Bishops' Bibles had supplied this need. The first edition of the KJB was also a Bible ‘of the largest and greatest volume’, and so replenished the supply of church Bibles. The finely engraved title page, by Cornelis Boel, reads:
The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the new: Newly Translated out of the Originall tongues: & with the former Translations diligently compared and reuised: by his Maiesties speciall Coandement. Appointed to be read in Churches. Imprinted at London by Robert Barker. Printer to the Kings most excellent Maiestie.
Anno Dom. 1611.The use of ‘appointed’ and the absence of ‘authorised’ are striking — the more striking in that the Bishops' Bible after 1585 had been ‘authorised and appointed to be read in Churches’ (H188). Moreover, there is no official record of authorisation (for these reasons I prefer to call this Bible the King James Bible).
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- Information
- A Textual History of the King James Bible , pp. 46 - 61Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005
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