An authentic Elizabethan printing of the Geneva New Testament, printed in London in 1583 by Christopher Barker, Royal Printer to Queen Elizabeth I. This edition represents one of the most influential English translations of the Scriptures produced during the English Reformation and predates the King James Bible by twenty-eight years.

Issued as a New Testament only, this was a common and intentional format in the sixteenth century. Separate New Testaments were popular among clergy, students, merchants, and travellers because they were less expensive and considerably more portable than complete Bibles.

The volume contains the distinctive features that made the Geneva Bible famous:

• Decorative woodcut title page.
• Extensive Protestant marginal commentary.
• Cross references.
• Chapter summaries.
• Verse numbering.
• Roman type with italicized supplied words.
• Translation based directly upon the Greek text and the best Reformation scholarship available.

The title page reads in part:

The Newe Testament of our Lord Iesus Christ... conferred diligently with the Greeke, and best approved translations in divers languages... Imprinted at London by Christopher Barker, Printer to the Queenes Maiestie.

Physical Description

• London: Christopher Barker, 1583.
• Full leather binding (later, probably twentieth century).
• Original sixteenth-century text block.
• Decorative engraved woodcut title border.
• Complete title page present.
• Marginal annotations throughout.
• Contemporary typography in excellent impression.
• Numerous early printed cross references and commentary.

The present binding is an attractive later rebinding executed to preserve the text block. While not original to the volume, it has protected the book well and allows the sixteenth-century leaves to remain in notably sound condition.

Condition is very good for a book approaching 450 years of age, with expected age toning, light staining, and normal evidence of handling but no obvious major losses visible from examination.

Historical Importance

Few English books have had greater influence than the Geneva Bible.

Produced by English Protestant scholars during the reign of Queen Mary I while living in exile at Geneva, Switzerland, the translation first appeared in 1560 and quickly became the preferred Bible of English Protestants.

Unlike earlier English Bibles, the Geneva Bible introduced:

• numbered verses throughout the text,
• detailed explanatory notes,
• systematic cross references,
• practical study aids for ordinary readers.

It became the household Bible of Elizabethan England.

Among those who almost certainly used the Geneva Bible were:

• William Shakespeare
• John Bunyan
• Oliver Cromwell
• The Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower

King James I strongly disliked many of the Geneva Bible's marginal notes, particularly those discussing kings and civil authority. His dissatisfaction with those annotations became one of the principal reasons for commissioning the King James Version in 1604.

This 1583 edition was printed only five years before the defeat of the Spanish Armada and twenty-eight years before publication of the King James Bible.

Christopher Barker

Christopher Barker served as the official Printer to Queen Elizabeth I and held the royal patent for printing English Bibles.

His press produced many of the finest Elizabethan Bible editions, and Barker's Geneva Bibles are among the most sought-after surviving English Bibles of the sixteenth century.

The Handwritten Inscriptions

Inserted at the front of the volume is a manuscript page containing several paragraphs of handwritten commentary.

Rather than serving as an ownership inscription, it appears to be an antiquarian collector's essay discussing the historical significance of the Geneva Bible.

Subjects addressed include:

• Christopher Barker as Queen Elizabeth's printer.
• The importance of the Geneva translation.
• Comparison with earlier and later English Bibles.
• The Geneva Bible's popularity among English Protestants.
• References to Shakespeare and the influence of the Geneva text.
• Observations concerning the translation from the Greek.
• Remarks on the Protestant annotations.

Although not contemporary with the printing of the book, the manuscript represents an interesting piece of the volume's collecting history and demonstrates that previous owners regarded the work as historically significant long before the modern market for rare Bibles developed.

A full scholarly transcription may be possible with higher-resolution photography or scanning.

Collecting Significance

Examples of sixteenth-century Geneva New Testaments survive in significantly smaller numbers than later seventeenth-century editions.

Particularly desirable features present in this example include:

• Original title page.
• Sharp printing.
• Extensive marginal commentary.
• Good preservation of the text block.
• Attractive protective leather rebinding.
• Historical manuscript notes preserved with the volume.

Dimensions:

• Weight - 455g
• Height - 22cm
• Width - 16.5cm
• Thickness - 2.3cm