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1522 Complutensian Polyglot Bible

John Jeffcoat — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 13:16:54 +0000

1522 Complutensian Polyglot Bible
Facsimile Reproduction

The six-volume Complutensian Polyglot Bible was printed between 1514 and 1522 but not bound and published until 1522. It is one of the three most important books ever printed in human history. Its 1514 printing of the New Testament in the original Greek predates the Erasmus 1516 edition by two years, making it the very first printing of a Greek New Testament, as well as the first printing of a complete Bible in the original languages. Most importantly, it gave the Protestant Reformers an accurate source text from which to translate and to make God’s Word available in many European languages throughout the 1500s.

NOTE: This 1522 Complutensian Polyglot 6 Volume facsimile set is no longer available, however… full color high resolution digital editions of many ancient Bibles of the 1300’s through the 1800’s are available for free online access at BIBLES-ONLINE.NET

Each of the six volumes is bound in a very high grade of synthetic leather, individually slipcased, and stands 15.25 inches tall and 11.25 inches wide. The complete set of all six slipcased volumes together takes up 12.75 inches of bookshelf length, as the average thickness of each slipcased volume is around 2 inches. The paper is acid-free, archival-grade, thick, opaque, cream-colored stock.

You could be one of only around 200 people in the world who own a copy of the very first printing of God’s Word in the original Biblical languages. That’s an elite club consisting of around 100 extant original 1522 printings valued at up to $350,000 each (plus a few incomplete fragments), plus the fewer than 70 facsimile sets we printed, plus a few dozen copies that were printed as a small project several decades ago. That’s all the copies that exist… original or facsimile… on this planet. Yes, it’s really that rare.

Are you familiar with the very first printing of God’s Word in the original Biblical languages? It is one of the Top Three most important books ever printed, (the other two being the 1455 Gutenberg Bible, and the 1611 King James Bible), yet few have heard of it. I am speaking of the 1514-1522 Complutensian Polyglot Bible, which was issued as a six-volume set containing the complete Bible in the original Biblical languages of ancient Hebrew (& Aramaic) for the Old Testament and ancient Greek for the New Testament, as well as including the Latin because it was the standard academic reference language of that time.Our facsimile reproduction set of this milestone of printing history and Christian history is the only one published in modern times. We originally offered it to Seminaries and Christian University Libraries, and to the public on our website, in 2016 for $7,495. Years later, we began to liquidate the remaining sets at a lower price point. Because we have only ever printed fewer than 70 copies of this set, and only around a hundred of the complete originals (worth $350,000 each) are extant today… this is the only example I know of where our facsimile is actually rarer than the original!

It is also curious to consider: if you don’t own a copy of the Bible in the original ancient Greek and ancient Hebrew… you don’t really own a copy of the Bible as God delivered it unto Man… you just own a “translation” of the Bible into a modern European language like English or German … languages that did not exist in any recognizable form 1,000 years ago.

Our founder, Dr. Craig Lampe, once said:
“Of all the Biblical facsimile editions we have published over the past 25 years, I am more proud to have a copy of the Complutensian Polyglot in my home than anything else we have done.”

To further that thought, Dr. Lampe has only ever published two books (other than our Biblical facsimiles), and they are: “The Forbidden Book” – A History of The English Bible, and “How The Spanish Saved Christianity” – A History of The Complutensian Polyglot Bible. You will also receive a free copy of Dr. Lampe’s book on the history of the Complutensian Polyglot Bible.

More details on… the 1522 Complutensian Polyglot Bible:

The First Printing of God’s Word in the Original Biblical Languages

God’s Word is the ancient Hebrew Old Testament Era scriptures and the ancient Greek New Testament Era scriptures. For about a thousand years (circa 400 AD to 1,400 AD), the scriptures were primarily kept in Latin, which was originally a very accurate Latin translation, but it became corrupted over the centuries by the Church of Rome. The Protestant Reformation was all about replacing that corrupted Latin with accurate translations of God’s Word into languages people could read, such as English, German, Spanish, etc. The goal was to set people free from the heresies, deceptions, and financial extortion scams (selling admission to heaven, selling forgiveness ) which were being perpetrated on them by those seeking to prevent the public from reading God’s Word on their own, to see what it really said.

But before Gods’ Word could be translated into the commonly spoken European languages like English (by Tyndale) and German (by Luther), and Spanish (by De Renia)… an accurate source text of the original Biblical languages was needed. In one of the greatest ironies of history, it was actually a Spanish Cardinal of the Church of Rome that spearheaded the effort to collect and preserve God’s Word accurately in the original tongues. Cardinal Francisco Jimenez (or Ximenes) may have been associated with the Roman Catholic Church, but he was certainly acting like a Protestant as he spent the equivalent of $12.5 million in gold to acquire and typeset the very first printed Bible in the original languages of Hebrew (and Aramaic) and Greek, and as it was the standard reference of its day, he also included the Latin… all in side-by-side columns.

The result was the six-volume Complutensian Polyglot Bible, which was printed between 1514 and 1522, but not bound and published until 1522. It is one of the three most important books ever printed in human history. Its 1514 printing of the New Testament in the original Greek predates the Erasmus 1516 edition by two years, making it the very first printing of a Greek New Testament, as well as the first printing of a complete Bible in the original languages. Most importantly, it gave the Protestant Reformers an accurate source text from which to translate and to make God’s Word available in many European languages throughout the 1500’s.

The typesetting, with its several different blocks of languages grouped across the pages, makes the Complutensian Polyglot Bible one of the most beautiful printed books ever produced. In spite of how extremely important this book is, fewer than 200 people today personally own a copy of it (either original or facsimile), as so very few originals and so very few facsimile copies have ever been produced. It is indeed an elite club to be among those very few people in the world who possess a copy of the first printing of the Bible in the original languages.

NOTE: This 1522 Complutensian Polyglot 6 Volume facsimile set is no longer available, however… full color high resolution digital editions of many ancient Bibles of the 1300’s through the 1800’s are available for free online access at BIBLES-ONLINE.NET

A Brief History of the Complutensian Polyglot (C-P)

Printed in 1514 to 1517 and published in 1522, The C-P was the first of the three great polyglots. Later in the 16c, 1568-72, the Antwerp Polyglot would be printed, and in 1653-57 Brian Walton would print his Magnus opus in seven giant volumes, the Walton Polyglot.

The oversight behind the C-P project was granted to Cardinal Jimenez. To accomplish the project’s magnitude, one would compare the insurmountable difficulties of such an undertaking to the construction in the 20th century of the Panama Canal.

The project would require a series of undesigned coincidences to overcome the mental and religious prejudices we associate with the Middle Ages. Technology and science would be in their infancy. Galileo and Copernicus would make discoveries, and men like DaVinci would challenge man’s minds with fantastical concepts that brought great accomplishments.

Concurrent with an emerging brave new world that was in process, men were casting off the yoke of bondage that was stifling the very spirit of mankind. The God of creation was going to be made known to the European minds by virtue of His Word going free in the uncorrupted language of the Bible.

It was in Alcala, Spain, that Cardinal Jimenez undertook to challenge the corrupted text of the Latin Vulgate by assembling extremely learned men of trilingual learning in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. These peculiar men who were proficient in the languages of the ancient Scriptures were Jewish by birth but converted to Christianity when their race was expelled from Spain in 1492 during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. They were called “conversos.”

While Columbus was discovering America, the Jews of Spain sought asylum in Italy and Greece from the Spanish Inquisition. During the expulsion, many learned Spanish Jews converted to Christianity, which gave them license to remain in Spain. They were skilled in Hebrew, Aramaic, and other middle eastern languages, which permitted Cardinal Jimenez to have a reservoir of learning at his disposal that would be essential to the C-P.

The C-P Bible would be produced in an environment made possible by extremely high academic standards and freedom of thought that Alcala, with its 7000 students, would afford. Cardinal Jimenez was an integral and essential person to the atmosphere created by such academic freedom. The ingredients for such a recipe to complete such an ambitious project were great financial resources, brilliant Greek and Hebrew scholars who were uncorrupted by High Church influence and wholly committed and devoted to God.

Cardinal Jimenez was that person chosen by God to lead, assemble, encourage and energize his team of devoted men who would by the end product, a six-volume work, that would become the foundation for the Renaissance throughout Europe and England. The minds of men were being set free from man’s bondage to serve Jesus Christ through His faith.

The resistance to correcting the Vulgate was overwhelming. Ignorant men refused to even think of the Vulgate as a corrupted text. Their resistance to correction was the impetus to create an Inquisition that rained terror on anyone who challenged the “sacred Vulgate”; nevertheless, Jimenez stood with great faith against the ignorant and corrupt.

Opponents of the C-P were unrelenting in their desires to defeat the project. Their religious fervor determined to crush Jimenez’s efforts. Despite the enormous quantity of errors, the Vulgate was defended by its ignorant adherents with unrelenting passion. In a desperate attempt to end the project, the Inquisition was called to stop the printing. Using intimidation and threatening the editors’ lives, Jimenez protected his committed scholars. The Inquisition threat was forever neutralized in 1507 when Jimenez became the Inquisitor General. God works in mysterious ways!

The “conversos” (converted Jews) labored tirelessly to bring the project to completion. The “conversos” of Alcala contributed to the establishment of the text of the Hebrew Old Testament since the Polyglot of Antwerp followed mainly their version, and since that of London, in turn, followed mainly the Antwerp Polyglot.

The C-P Polyglot resulted in the first Greek translation of the Old Testament in print that we commonly refer to as the Septuagint.

Tomes I-IV contains the Old Testament and Hebrew text in the outer columns. The Greek of the Septuagint in the inner column and the Latin Vulgate in the center. There are no verse divisions. There are chapter divisions with subdivisions marked by capitals A, B, C, and D.

Tome V contains the New Testament in Greek and Latin in two columns. The Acts of the Apostles are positioned after the Epistle to the Hebrews following the Pauline Epistles.

Tome VI contains aids for students of the Hebrew and Greek texts; furthermore, the editors provided a dictionary of Hebrew and Aramaic words with Latin equivalents. Of essential assistance to the students, who were only learned in Latin, were explanations of the meaning of the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek names in the Bible.

In 1453 Constantinople fell to the Turks. In 1455 John Gutenberg invented the printing press with a moveable type. The first book printed was the Vulgate Bible, with all of its errors and corruptions of New Testament doctrine. As the Greek-speaking immigrants fled into Europe in the wake of the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the proliferation of 1200 years of Greek studies and history with God’s Word at its heart was poised to destroy the Latin-speaking world’s monopoly on education.

The Renaissance was being birthed by this series of undesigned coincidences. The stranglehold on religion and knowledge by power brokers in the Catholic Church was going to be broken. But, what price is freedom?

Six hundred copies were authorized by Pope Leo X. A large number (450) of that quantity were destroyed when the ship transporting them to Italy sank to the bottom of the sea. Perhaps, 150 sets survive in complete sets of fragments. In U. S. dollars, the cost of the project was more than $12,000,000!

Some important and interesting facts about the Complutensian Polyglot:

The Polyglot marks a significant period in the history of the Church as well as new developments in the European mind that helped the Reformation era immensely.
Converted Jewish scholars made the task an intellectual masterpiece.
The Polyglot was historically important because it exposed the Vulgate errors, which were regarded as the fundamental text of the Bible.
The “academics” of that day were challenged without exception because of the Polyglot – including Erasmus.
Volume 6 contains several aids for students of Hebrew and Greek texts. The largest contribution is a dictionary of Hebrew and Aramaic words with Latin equivalents, described by the editors as “most useful and correct.”
The Polyglot set a bold standard in that there were very few printing errors.
The original Prologue in Volume One offers this explanation: “We are impelled by many reasons to print the original text of Holy Scripture, since no version can translate all the force and naturalness of the original faithfully, especially when it treats the language in which God Himself has spoken, which words were, to speak thus taken from the senses and fountains of mysteries which only can be glimpsed of known from the original in which the Holy Scriptures were written.”

1611 King James (KJV) Bible: Deluxe Synthetic Leather Puilpit Folio Size Edition

John Jeffcoat — Fri, 12 Nov 2021 02:08:55 +0000

The Full-Size “Deluxe” Edition
Italian Fiscagomma Leatherette Binding

Of the three 1611 King James Bible Facsimiles Editions we offer… this one is far and away the most popular and best seller. Just like the more expensive “Super Deluxe” edition, this much more affordable “Deluxe” edition also measures the exact size of the original 1611 printing: an enormous 17 ½ inches tall by 12 inches wide by 5 ½ inches thick (including its slipcase), and weighing a whopping 30 pounds. We even faithfully reproduced the small quantity of decorative red ink in the prefatory section.

Constructed of the highest grade of beautifully grained burgundy-brown Italian “Fiscagomma Leatherette” (the best imitation leather in the world – actually stronger than real leather), it has a thick, soft, supple texture and a look so much like real leather; everyone who examines it in our showroom is shocked when we tell them its not real leather. Many people insist that we must be mistaken because after handling it they remain convinced that it is an excellent grade of genuine leather. We challenge you to see if you can tell the difference between Fiscagomma Leatherette and real full-grain leather… honestly, not one in a hundred people would question whether or not it was real leather. You’ve got to see it and touch it to believe it. In fact, simply substituting this beautiful “leather-alternative” binding material, enables us to reduce the price dramatically… from $895… down to just $325… for what is essentially the same book in size and content!”

If you want a huge full-size exact replica of the original 1611 King James Pulpit Folio First Edition, in a beautiful binding, and a price so low you could even buy extra copies as gifts … this is the one.

Bonus: ships with a genuine original 1611 King James Pulpit Bible Leaf of a regular “non-premium” passage, (a $295 value if purchased separately).

NOTE: This 1611 King James Bible facsimile is no longer available, however… a full color high resolution digital edition of the 1611 King James Bible is available for free online access at BIBLES-ONLINE.NET

About the 1611 King James Bible

The King James Bible is the most printed book in the history of the world, and it is our most popular facsimile reproduction. To commemorate the 400th Anniversary of this masterpiece, we offer these exact page-for-page photographic duplicates of the original 1611 King James Bible in 3 different bound editions, as detailed below.

Any so-called “1611” King James Version you buy today at the local Christian Bookstore is absolutely NOT the 1611. It is Blaney’s 1769 Revised Oxford Edition, even though it admits that nowhere, and may even say “1611” in the front… it’s just not true. Prepare to be shocked! In fact, 20,000 spelling and punctuation changes and over 400 wording changes were made to the original 1611 to 1768 King James Bible, when compared to King James Bibles published between 1769 and today, and fourteen entire books plus extra prefatory features have been removed from almost every printing done since 1885!

We can easily prove these claims; just compare our photographic 1611 facsimiles to your modern-day reprinting of the so-called “1611” by any major Bible publisher of the past century, and you will immediately see a huge difference. It’s true! “The camera does not lie.” A huge deception has been perpetrated on the public by the major Bible publishers for over a century now. If you really love the King James version, the only way to own a true, unaltered, unedited, unabridged, original 1611 version as authorized by King James, is to buy a genuine original from our Ancient Rare Bibles & Books section for prices well into six figures OR buy one of our three exact photographic (not re-typeset) facsimile editions here. We are the only company producing faithful, complete, photographic facsimiles of the original 1611 King James Bible.

The King James Bible is the only book in the world that can claim one billion copies in print. For many people, the English language Bible as we know it today IS the King James Bible. Original First Editions have sold for over $400,000 at recent auctions. Our affordable facsimiles make it possible for everyone to have a First Edition.

A Quick Overview of Your Three Options

A Huge Full-Size “Super Deluxe” Genuine Leather Heirloom Edition ($895) Click Here
A Huge Full-Size “Deluxe” Leatherette Edition ($325) Shown On This Page
A Reduced-Size “Regular” Reference Edition ($95) Click Here

Only two other exact full-size reproductions of the 1611 have ever been done: One was the 350th Anniversary Edition, done in 1961 by World Publishing, and those now sell for over $3,000 from collectors. The other one was sold by us, right here on this page, from 2003 through 2008, for $1,995. The ones offered here today are the 400th Anniversary Edition (1611 – 2011) of the full-size King James Bible, and due to modern printing technology, we are able to offer them at much lower pricing: as little as $325 for the economy binding, and $895 for the fine leather binding.

Both of the two huge full-size editions are slip-cased, printed on rag cotton sheet, stand 17 inches tall, spread nearly 30 inches when opened, and weigh a whopping 30 pounds! They are the actual size of the original 1611 giant pulpit folio first edition printing. The only difference is in the bindings: the “Super Deluxe” is bound in the finest grade of full-grain, glove-soft, hand-tooled, exquisite leather with extra-large spine hub-bands… while the standard “Deluxe” is bound in high-quality beautifully-grained imitation leather. In contrast to those two huge 30-pound Super-Deluxe & Deluxe editions; we also have a much smaller (though still big at 10 pounds, and 11 inches tall) reduced-size “Regular” edition, printed on standard paper, and bound in a durable library-grade binding, for those merely seeking a space-saving bookshelf reference copy, rather than a huge beautiful display-grade edition.

Regardless of which edition you select, the textual content and imaging of the pages are the same. All of our 1611 King James Bible Facsimile Editions contain the full prefatory content: The Dedication to King James, the translator’s To The Reader Preface, the Calendar, the Holy Land Map, the Genealogy, and of course the entire Old Testament, Inter-Testamental Books (as specifically mandated by King James), and New Testament … exactly as it was published in 1611, without omission, addition, or alteration in any way.

1611-1639/40 – All Five of the First Edition Pulpit Folio King James Bibles

John Jeffcoat — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 13:30:19 +0000

All Five of the First Edition Pulpit Folio King James Bibles

Note: This set is, to our knowledge, the only matched binding set of all five first folio editions of the 1611 King James Bible extant today, making this set a unique world-class acquisition. Beyond that, it is also the most deeply discounted and value-priced item we have ever offered in our 27+ year history in this business. In May of 2006, the top antique Bible appraiser in the world (not affiliated with our company) independently appraised this set, at the request of the owner. His appraisal estimate was “$850,000”. A copy of this appraisal is available upon request.

If you adjust that “$850,000” appraisal in 2006 dollars into 2023 dollars using the U.S. Government’s own current hyper-conservative “CPI” to inflation-adjust the figure, that comes to an appraisal value of over $1.25 million in 2023 dollars. If you use the “Shadowstats” CPI Online Calculator Tool (the method of inflation adjusting prices used by the U.S. Government to determine the CPI prior to recent decades), it comes to well over $3 million in 2023 dollars. The current asking price is less than one tenth of that amount: a liquidation price level of only $299,500. While these inflation adjustments of the original 2006 Appraisal Value are valid and interesting observations; we recognize that a “multi-million-dollar” valuation is not warranted. That notwithstanding, even if we pretended that the dollar has lost no value since 2006 (which would require not just a vivid imagination, but a good bit of denial), the original “$850,000” appraisal of 2006 stands is stark contrast to the current “fire sale” price of $299,500.

This is an absolutely astounding investment opportunity to acquire this one-of-a-kind historically iconic set of all the first edition folios of history’s most printed, most influential, and most loved book… at pennies on the dollar.

The “Great He” Bible
First Edition, first printing, of the King James Bible
1611

[Bible in English.] 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 Comandement./Appointed to be read in Churches./Imprinted/at London by Robert/Barker, Printer to the Kings/ most Excellent/Maiestie./Anno Dom. 1611.

Folio. True First Folio issue of the King James Bible, known as the “Great He” Bible. The main distinguishing point sought by dealers and collectors is at Ruth 3:15 where, in the first issue, Ruth is referred to as “he” (thus, the “Great He” Bible). There are other distinguishing points to be reckoned and in the copy at hand these are as follows:

Genesis 10:16 — Emorite for Amorite; Exodus 14:10 — three lines repeated; Exodus 38:11 — hoopes for hookes; Leviticus 13:56 — plaine for plague; Leaf GGGG2, verso — Joel for Micah; Leaf IIII6, recto — Anocrynha for Apocrypha; Leaf XXXX3, verso — Ecclesiasticus for Baruch; Matthew 26:36 — “Jesus” as called for in this issue.

All points are of first issue, first state.

Collates complete but for general title-page, which is here supplied in expert facsimile. Inserted map, printed and supplied separately and not called for in collation, is here present with minor edge repair. A6 extended at lower margin with some pen facsimile. Other very minor edge repairs at Finis of Revelation. Very little internal soiling, much less than expected. Overall exceptionally clean and crisp. A very tall, nicely margined copy.

Full modern calf to style by Starr Bookworks of Arizona. Red morocco spine lables. Gilt extra. Marbled endpapers.

Herbert, A.S., Historical Catalogue of Printed Editions of The English Bible, 1525-1961 (1968) number 309. Darlow and Moule #240. STC # 2216.

WITH:

The “Great She” Bible
Folio Issue of the King James Bible
1613 and 1611

[Bible in English.] The/Holy/Bible,/Conteyning the Old Testa-/ment, and the New:/ Newly Translated out of/the Originall Tongues: and with/the former Translations diligently/compared and reuised, by his/Maiesties speciall Com-/mandement./Appointed to be read in Churches./Imprinted/at London by Robert/Barker, Printer to the/King’s most Excellent/Maiestie./Anno Dom. 1611.

Folio issue of the King James Bible, known as the “Great She” Bible (vide infra). Fry’s “first edition, second issue, without reprints” of the King James Bible. Herbert: “Others more correctly style it the ‘second folio issue, 1613, 1611,’ inasmuch as it deserves to be reckoned a distinct issue.” The general title is dated 1611 and the New Testament title is dated 1613. Probably the greater part of this issue was, in fact, printed in 1611 though delayed. The main distinguishing point sought by dealers and collectors is at Ruth 3:15 where, in the first issue Ruth is referred to as “he” (the “Great He” Bible) and in the second issue (copy at hand) Ruth is correctly referred to as “she.”

But there are other distinguishing points to be reckoned and in the copy at hand these all match Herbert 319 as called for, with one exception: leaf Xxxx3 in Baruch is headlined Ecclesiasticus, which is a point of the first issue “Great He” Bible of 1611. Matthew 26:36 has the called for misprint “Judas” here corrected in old manuscript to “Jesus.” Bound with the sometimes inserted map.

General title-page in facsimile. Preliminaries repaired. With Genealogies. Some tears/repairs, margin extensions. Some leaves probably supplied from another copy.

Herbert, A.S., Historical Catalogue of Printed Editions of The English Bible, 1525-1961 (1968) number 319. Darlow and Moule #246. STC # 2224.

WITH:

The King James Bible
Third Folio, 1617

[Bible in English.] The/Holy/Bible./Containing/the Old Testa-/ment, and the New:/Newly translated out of the/Original Tongues: and with/the former Translations diligently/compared and reuised by his Ma-/iesties speciall Commande-/ment./Appointed to be read in/Churches./Imprinted at/ London by Robert Barker,/Printer to the Kings most/Excellent Maiestie./Anno 1617.

The third distinct folio issue of the King James Bible.

Genuine title-page. Complete. Collation: A4 B4 C6 D4 A-Z6 etc – Aaaaaa-Dddddd6; [5D1] is NT title. 732 ff. Without inserted map. Genealogies inserted.

Jeremiah 18:3 reads “whelles” as called for in this issue. Woodcut of Saint John at Psalm 122, as called for.

Genuine title-page with lower margin extension. Minor occasional damp. Other minor flaws (e.g. – for ID purposes only: ink droplets at Cc[6]v and Dd[1]r; underlining in II Kings 20:7; lower corner repairs in gathering 4D (Daniel); [4R5] with closed tear; 5A3 foremargin repair; 5D3 and 4 with corner repair; etc. especially toward end with last two leaves extended all around, but affecting only a few letters.

Full modern calf by Starr Bookworks of Arizona, gilt, with red calf spine labels and marbled endpapers.
Herbert 353. Darlow & Moule 273. STC 2247. Lea Wilson 112.

WITH:

The King James Bible
Fourth Folio Issue, 1634

[Bible in English.] The/Holy/Bible./Containing/the Old Testa-/ment, and the New:/Newly translated out of the/Originall Tongues: and with/the former Translations diligently/compared and reuised, By his/Maiesties speciall Com-/mandement./Appointed to be read in Churches./Imprinted at/ London by Robert Barker,/Printer to the Kings most Excellent Maiestie: and by the assignes/of Iohn Bill./ Anno 1634.

The fourth distinct folio issue of the King James Bible.

Collation: A4 B4 C6 D4 A-Z6 etc – Aaaaaa-Dddddd6; 732 ff. (collates as 1617 issue). Genealogies inserted. Jeremiah 18:3 corrected from 1617 edition. No inserted map. “CR” in Arms; text as called for on D1v and D1r. Hebrews 12:1 with reading called for.

Title-page repaired. Occasional wormtracks, always marginal, sometimes repaired (e.g. I Kings 7 – end of II Kings, etc.). Some minor occasional damp and other staining and some internal flaws (e.g. – for ID purposes: leaf [Ii5] with closed tear; Yy2 with closed tear; [3K6] with closed tear; 3R[1] supplied from another copy; [3S6] and 3T[1] with closed tear; marginal burn hole in [4L6]; 4Z2 with repair affecting a few letters; 5L2 with short cut; 5S2 mis-signed 4S2, a printer’s error; [6D6], last leaf of Revelation tired and with some repair but much nicer than usually seen.

Overall a near fine copy.

Full modern calf, gilt, by Starr Bookworks of Arizona, with red calf lettering pieces and marbled endpapers.

Herbert 487; Darlow & Moule 376; STC 2312. Lea Wilson 112.

WITH:

The King James Bible
Fifth Folio Issue, 1640/1639

[Bible in English.] The/Holy/Bible./Containing/the Old/Testament/ and/ The New./Newly translated out of/ the originall Tongues:/ And with the former Translations/ diligently compared and revised,/ by His Majesties speciall/ commandment./Appointed to be read in Churches./London:/ Printed by Robert Barker,/Printer to the Kings most Excellent/ Majestie: And by the assignes of/ John Bill. 1640. [NT title dated 1639.]

The fifth and last distinct folio issue of the King James Bible.

Collation: A4 B4 C6 D4 A-Z6 etc – Aaaaaa-Dddddd6; 732 ff. (collates as 1617 edition). Textually complete. Without inserted genealogies or map. General title-page in facsimile. Gathering A and B of preliminaries tired and with repairs. C4 in Calendar trimmed at bottom. Amateur coloring to opening initial woodcut. Occasional corner and margin repairs and closed tears. Some general light soiling. Ownership ink notes on flyleaves front and back. Other minor flaws: e.g., for ID purposes: lower margin chip to [Kk6] in II Kings; pentrial on [Xx5] in Nehemiah (and elsewhere); Iii[1] and [Iii5] repaired in Proverbs; [Mm4] and [Mm5] in Isaiah likely supplied; [Qq4] and [Qq5] in Isaiah with top edge chips; [4B6] in Ezekiel and [4D4] in Daniel with notable margin repair; 4Q[1] with a marginal repair into notes; [5D1] NT title supplied; [5D5] with repaired chip into text; [5T6]v and 5V[1]r with spilled ink stains. Final leaf of Revelation, [6D6] tired and soiled but complete.

Overall a very nice copy in a modern full calf binding by Starr Bookworks of Arizona, gilt, with red spine labels; plain endpapers.

Herbert 543; Darlow & Moule 421; STC 2339.

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1536 Tyndale New Testament: Heavily Illustrated

John Jeffcoat — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 05:56:49 +0000

William Tyndale produced the very first English language New Testament to ever come off a printing press. He was burned at the stake in 1536 for the “crime” of printing these magnificently Illustrated English New Testaments. This 1536 edition was the last and most elaborate one done prior to his death. The woodcut illustrations are simply breathtaking. The calligraphy-like Gothic Blackletter Typeface is also a work of art.

Tyndale’s work paved the way for all subsequent printings of the Bible in English, and 90% of his translation was retained all the way to the 1611 King James Bible. William Tyndale is considered to be the most influential Bible translator in history as well as the “architect of the English Language.” He was said to have been so fluent in eight languages that you would have thought any one of them to be his native tongue!

This Facsimile Reproduction measures approximately 9 inches tall by 6.5 inches wide by just under 2 inches thick, and is bound in hardcover burgundy-brown bonded leather with gold stamping along the spine. We have photographically enlarged this reproduction to approximately 125% the size of the original for ease of reading. While original Tyndale New Testament printings from the 1500’s are available in the Ancient Rare Bibles & Books section of our website, this reproduction is much more affordable, and quite beautiful as it features many large woodcut illustrations. You will definitely want to make this visually magnificent edition a part of your library. Discover what the English language New Testament looked like in its original form.

NOTE: This 1536 Tyndale Illustrated NT facsimile is no longer available, however… a full color high resolution digital edition of the 1552 Illustrated Tyndale NT is available for free online access at BIBLES-ONLINE.NET

1535 Coverdale: First Printed English Bible

John Jeffcoat — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 05:56:49 +0000

The 1535 Coverdale Bible: the first printed English translation of the Bible.

One of William Tyndale’s closest friends, Myles Coverdale, actually printed the very first English language complete Bible…it was a “translation of a translation” making use of source texts such as Hebrew & Greek and “translation texts” such as Latin and German as well.

In 1535, Myles Coverdale secured his place in history forever, by becoming the first person to print an entire Bible in the English language.

In 1537 some of his translations were included in the Matthew-Tyndale Bible, the first true, direct English translation of the complete Bible. In 1538 he was in Paris, superintending the printing of King Henry VIII’s “Great Bible,” of 1539, and the same year, published, both in London and Paris, an English New Testament. He also edited “Cranmer’s Bible “, the 1540 edition of the Great Bible.

This remarkable facsimile stands 14″ tall and is 9″ wide and 3.5″ thick.

NOTE: This 1535 Coverdale Bible facsimile is no longer available, however… a full color high resolution digital edition of the 1535 Coverdale Bible is available for free online access at BIBLES-ONLINE.NET

1611 King James Bible: Synthetic Leather Reference Edition

John Jeffcoat — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 05:56:33 +0000

The video below shows our black 1611 KJV $95 Reduced-Size “Regular” Reference Edition, however, the $325 Full-Size “Deluxe” Edition, and the $895 Full-Size “Super Deluxe” Leather Edition were also published at that same time. Unfortunately, none of these printed Bible facsimiles are available today, as they have all gone out of production. You can however, view a full color high resolution digital edition of the 1611 King James Bible is available for free online access at BIBLES-ONLINE.NET

The Reduced-Size “Regular”
Reference Edition

We realize that many people are not looking for a huge beautiful display Bible, but rather, they simply seek an affordable copy of the original 1611 King James Bible to use as a desk-reference or bookshelf-reference piece (like a dictionary)… or perhaps they just want a copy that is small enough to take to church, and carry around for personal study. Indeed, many of our customers who purchase one of the gorgeous full-size editions detailed above, also purchase one of these affordable reduced-size editions for their personal daily study.

Our Reduced-Size Regular Edition Facsimile Reproduction of the 1611 First Edition King James Bible measures approximately 11 inches tall by 8.75 inches wide by 3.5 inches thick, and weighs about 10 pounds. (So actually… it’s still a fairly large and heavy book). The binding is hardcover black imitation leather with gold stamping along the spine. Each page was computer-scanned from the original, and printed on heavy cream paper. In a much more manageable “medium-folio” size, rather than the original “giant pulpit folio” size, it remains otherwise an exact photographic duplicate of the very first press run of the world’s most beloved book. Most people have never seen what the original King James Bible looks like, and having one in your home will provide you with a great conversation-piece, and an object of great beauty.

Please do not confuse our photographic facsimiles with small, cheap, “reprints” you may have seen. The popular Thomas Nelson or Hendrickson Publishers “1611 Edition” mass-marketed Bible, for example, is NOT a true facsimile (nor do they claim it is). It is a totally new type setting in a strange semi-modern Roman Style Type Face without the original woodcut decorative accents or beautiful Gothic Blackletter Style Typeface found in the original. Such reprints may maintain the ancient spellings, but they do not LOOK anything like an original 1611.

About the 1611 King James Bible

The King James Bible is the most printed book in the history of the world, and it is our most popular facsimile reproduction. To commemorate the 400th Anniversary of this masterpiece, we offer these exact page-for-page photographic duplicates of the original 1611 King James Bible in 3 different bound editions, as detailed below.

We can easily prove these claims; just compare our photographic 1611 facsimiles to your modern-day reprinting of the so-called “1611” by any major Bible publisher of the past century, and you will immediately see a huge difference. It’s true! “The camera does not lie.” A huge deception has been perpetrated on the public by the major Bible publishers for over a century now. If you really love the King James version, the only way to own a true, unaltered, unedited, unabridged, original 1611 version as authorized by King James, is to buy a genuine original from the Platinum Room of our Ancient Rare Bibles & Books section for prices well into six figures OR buy one of our three exact photographic (not re-typeset) facsimile editions here. We are the only company producing faithful, complete, photographic facsimiles of the original 1611 King James Bible.

A Quick Overview of Your Three Options

A Huge Full-Size “Super Deluxe” Genuine Leather Heirloom Edition ($895) Click Here
A Huge Full-Size “Deluxe” Leatherette Edition ($325) Click Here
A Reduced-Size “Regular” Reference Edition ($95) Shown On This Page

Regardless of which edition you select, the textual content and imaging of the pages is the same. All of our 1611 King James Bible Facsimile Editions contain the full prefatory content: The Dedication to King James, the translator’s To The Reader Preface, the Calendar, the Holy Land Map, the Genealogy, and of course the entire Old Testament, Inter-Testamental Books (as specifically mandated by King James), and New Testament … exactly as it was published in 1611, without omission, addition, or alteration in any way.

1611 King James Pulpit Bible: First Printing of the Most Printed Book in the World

John Jeffcoat — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 03:56:32 +0000

A leaf from the very first press run of the original King James Bible: literally printed in the year 1611 in London, England… these leaves are well over four centuries old. For many people, the English language Bible as we know it today IS the King James Bible, and there is no printing of the King James Bible even ONE year older than these 1611 leaves. They come with a beautiful Certificate of Authenticity printed on marbleized cardstock. The King James Bible remains the greatest book in the English language, and the best-selling book of all time. Whether framed and displayed in your home, or given as a wonderfully unique gift: these ancient original treasures are so large and beautifully typeset as to command the attention they deserve. They really cause people to stop and stare in awe… and sometimes in disbelief that it could possibly be the real thing. It is!

These HUGE “Pulpit Folio” size leaves measure approximately 15 to 16 inches tall by 10 to 11 inches wide… you can read them from half-way across the room. They are our largest, most beautiful, and most popular Bible leaves. Printed on 100% rag cotton linen sheet, not wood-pulp paper like books today; they remain in excellent condition… even after 400 years. Each leaf is a unique piece of ancient artwork, carefully produced one-at-a-time by the King’s printers using a movable-type press, and later bound together into whole Bibles, and chained to every church pulpit in England. These genuine original antiquities are among the most rare and precious pieces of our history and our Christian heritage.

We offer these 1611 King James Pulpit Folio First Edition Bible Leaves for considerably less than the “$5,000 each” that both Pat Robertson’s 700 Club and John Hagee Ministries have been selling them for on National Television for many years! We offer those SAME leaves at under $200, and the extremely elaborate Title Pages (first chapter of a book) start at under $500.

This is simply one of the most impressive things you could possibly have hanging on the wall in your home. People often call us back to tell us how the gift of one of these 1611 King James Bible Leaves brought the recipient of the gift to tears. Imagine… having a favorite passage of scripture from the first printing of the most printed book in the world: The King James Bible of 1611. Call today to see if your favorite passage of scripture is available.

NOTE: We no longer sell Bible Leaves. The description and images here are provided only for reference and education. To view our current offerings, please visit our Ancient Rare Bibles & Books page.

ITEM # KJF-1: $195 – A Regular Selection from the Old Testament
ITEM # KJF-2: $295 – A Regular Selection from the New Testament
ITEM # KJF-2-P: $295 – A Regular Selection from the Psalms
ITEM # KJF-3: $495 – Most Title Pages (very ornate)
PREMIUM PASSAGES: $1,500 – $2,950+ Inquire for pricing on “premium” selections such as Psalm 23, John 3:16, etc. Note:

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1522 Complutensian Polyglot Bible

1522 Complutensian Polyglot Bible Facsimile Reproduction

NOTE: This 1522 Complutensian Polyglot 6 Volume facsimile set is no longer available, however… full color high resolution digital editions of many ancient Bibles of the 1300’s through the 1800’s are available for free online access at BIBLES-ONLINE.NET

1611 King James (KJV) Bible: Deluxe Synthetic Leather Puilpit Folio Size Edition

The Full-Size “Deluxe” Edition Italian Fiscagomma Leatherette Binding

About the 1611 King James Bible

1611-1639/40 – All Five of the First Edition Pulpit Folio King James Bibles

All Five of the First Edition Pulpit Folio King James Bibles

1536 Tyndale New Testament: Heavily Illustrated

1535 Coverdale: First Printed English Bible

The 1535 Coverdale Bible: the first printed English translation of the Bible.

1611 King James Bible: Synthetic Leather Reference Edition

The Reduced-Size “Regular” Reference Edition

About the 1611 King James Bible

1611 King James Pulpit Bible: First Printing of the Most Printed Book in the World

1522 Complutensian Polyglot Bible
Facsimile Reproduction

The Full-Size “Deluxe” Edition
Italian Fiscagomma Leatherette Binding

The Reduced-Size “Regular”
Reference Edition