Conteyning the Old Testament and the New. Newly Translated out of the Originall Tongues: and with the former Translations diligently compared and revised by his Maiesties Special Commandement. Appointed to be read in Churches.

London: Robert Barker. 1611.

Editio princeps of the King James Bible. Folio. 425 x 270mm. The Great "He" Bible, with the erroneous reading "and he went into the citie" in Ruth 3:15, corrected to "...she went..." in all subsequent printings of the Bible. General title page supplied in high quality facsimile on contemporary paper. Map and alphabetical table of the Land of Canaan supplied from another copy from slightly smaller paper stock. Expert recent restoration to some of the early leaves and a few earlier repairs to the edges of some leaves. Unpaginated. A6, B2, C6, D4; Genealogies and map, A-C6 (recto of A1 blank); A-Z6, As-Zz6, Aaa-Zzz6, Aaaa-Zzzz6, Aaaaa-Ccccc6; A-Z6, Aa2-4. Lacking only Aa1, Aa5 and Aa6 of New Testament (three leaves of the Book of Revelation). Contemporary panelled calf recently and expertly repaired to corners and head and foot of spine. Housed in a drop-backed box of brick red quarter morocco and brown cloth.
Small closed tears to foot of F4, Cc6 of OT and B1, G4 and N5, P5. Q2 and T6 of NT. Tears to bottom right corners of P3 of OT and F3, Q2 and Q4 with slight loss of text. Occasional fraying to edges of a few leaves at the beginning and the end. Some light staining, foxing and marking in places. Front pastedown has the ownership inscription "John Rayner. Attorney. Leeds 1809". On the front free endpaper is a note recording John Rayner marriage to Ann Handley in 1815 and the birth of a son the following year who died within half an hour, and the birth of another son in 1818. It is rare to find a "He Bible" in a contemporary binding, almost complete and in such good condition. Apart from the minor flaws noted, this is a beautifully fresh, clean copy, as nice as any we have seen. 1611 Bibles are scarce, of course: it is thought that perhaps about 180 survive, the vast majority of which are second printing "She" Bibles.
When James VI of Scotland ascended to the English throne in 1603, he found the country a place of religious discord symbolised by the Church's use of two distinct translations of the Bible. The Bishops' Bible was the official voice of the Church while the more Calvinist Geneva Bible was preferred by the general populace and the more radical Puritans. James was keen to heal these divisions and to wean his people off the Geneva which, he felt, encouraged sedition and republicanism. In 1604, the Hampton Court Conference was convened at the request of the Puritan faction who wanted, among other things, a new Bible. Their request was met favourably by the King who also wanted a new Bible and if he did not entirely get the episcopal and monarchist translation he was looking for, the new Bible did provide his Church with a single voice and a degree of theological uniformity.
The King James Bible was not, initially, a success: its language was thought too lofty, learned and old fashioned. But this sense of timelessness was deliberate. The King James Bible was intended to convey authority both in its language and its doctrine. As Adam Nicolson says, the King James has "the great imperturbability, the air of irreproachable authority, which is the essence of sacred ritual". By the end of the seventeenth century, the King James was established as the English Bible, helped in large part by Milton whose Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained has over two thousand allusions to the King James Bible. The Bible's majestic language, recognised by Milton, Melville, McCarthy and countless others was thanks to the book's birth at a moment when English poetry and prose were of unsurpassed, polished brilliance. But perhaps this brilliance of language was due to something else. As T.S.Eliot, the twentieth century's greatest champion of Jacobean literary style, observed, "the Bible has had a literary influence upon English literature not because it has been considered as literature, but because it has been considered as the report of the Word of God", God, being, as Eliot well knew, a seventeenth Englishman with immaculate prose.