Page 6 - 2017 Fall Newsletter

Look What We

Found: A 1611

King James

Bible

We found something magnificent and historical in the stacks!
A King James Bible from the year 1611.

As the first authorized translation of the Bible in England,
the first edition of the King James Bible (known as the
Authorized Version) is coveted by bibliophiles. The beloved
translation continues to hold pride of place in the English
literary canon since for years its phraseology formed part of 1611 King James Bible Cover
the English literary register. As fitting its status as a cultural
monument, it is a typographical masterpiece. Printed in two-
framed columns in glorious Gothic or black letter typeface,
on sturdy hand-made paper, it cannot fail to have an effect.

To make matters more interesting, the first edition survives
in two states or issues. Printing with handset type was
fraught with error, resulting stop-press corrections that
allowed typesetters to replace the offending type. The
earliest copies to come off the press have a number of errors,
some of which were corrected. The most famous of these is
Ruth 3:15 where the earliest copies read “Then he went into
the citie” instead of “Then she went into the citie.” Copies of
the first issue are known as He Bibles.

The acquisition of a “He” Bible is next to impossible
today. For this reason, we were ecstatic to discover that this
magnificent book had already been donated to TCU by Mr.
W.D. Benson! We are working to get it cataloged so that it
can be consulted by researchers. Thank you Mr. Benson!

Ruth 3:15

6 | TCU Library