16. The " Holy " Bible, [Two lines] ¶ Newly tran?lated out of " the Originall Tongues: and with " the former Tran?lations diligently " compared and reui?ed by his " Maie?ties ?peciall Com- " mandement. " ¶ Appointed to be read in Churches. " ¶ Imprinted " at London by Robert " Barker, Printer to the " Kings mo?t excellent " Maie?tie. " Anno Dom. 1611.

Few books present greater difficulties to the bibliographer than this, the first "Authorized" or King James Version of the Bible. Many copies bearing the same date, and seemingly alike, have distinct differences in the text, in the ornamental head- and tail-pieces, and in the initial letters. But the most striking difference lies in two forms of the title-page. One of these, a copper-plate engraving, signed C. Boel fecit in Richmont, represents an architectural framework having large figures of Moses and Aaron in niches on either side of the border and seated figures of St. Luke and St. John, with their emblems, at the bottom: above are seated figures of St. Matthew and St. Mark, and St. Peter and St. Paul holding the Agnus Dei, while behind them are various saints and martyrs. The title reads:

The " Holy Bible, " Conteyning the Old Te?tament, " And The New. " Newly Tran?lated out of the Originall " tongues: & with the former Tran?lations diligently compared and reui?ed by his " Maiesties ?peciall CÕmandement. " Appointed to be read in Churches " Imprinted at London by Robert " Barker, Printer to the Kings mo?t Excellent Maiestie. Anno Dom. 1611.

The style of Boel's work is quite like that of the Sadelers, to whose school he belonged, and it resembles in its general effect some of the title-pages made by those artists for Plantin's famous Antwerp press.

The other title-page is seen in the facsimile. It is printed with a woodcut border which represents above, the Evangelists Matthew and Mark, the Adonai, Lamb, and Dove in cartouches, while below are found St. Luke and St. John, the Lamb on the altar, and the cherub's head, Barker's ornament. The tents and shields of the Twelve Tribes are represented in twelve round panels on the left side, and the Twelve Apostles, similarly framed, on the right. The signatures RL and CS over semicircle are seen at the bottom of the title panel. This border, like the great primer black letter of the text, had been previously used by Christopher Barker, in an edition of the "Bishops Bible," published in 1585, and by Robert in 1602; afterward, in an edition of the New Testament (Royal Version) published in 1617, and also in other works. While more finished in execution, the design is similar in idea to one often used by Barker, notably in a Bible printed in 1593, and bears some resemblance to a border found in Plantin's "Great Bible."

The copper-plate title is sometimes found with what is called the first issue of the work, sometimes with the second, and sometimes with the editions of 1613 and 1617. It has been suggested that it was intended to be used with the woodcut border always found with the New Testament in both issues, and usually ascribed to the second, although "there is no ground for supposing that it was always issued with it." That Boel took the motive of the tents and shields of the Tribes for a minor detail in his border, is a point worthy of notice because this fact might, with some reason, be used to prove that inasmuch as his engraving was made some time after the unknown wood-engraver's border, it could hardly have appeared with the first issue.

We quote the following from W. I. Loftie's A Century of Bibles:

"Mr. Fry has compared together 70 copies of the Bible of 1611. By observing how many of them were exactly alike he was able to determine their order of publication. Twenty-three copies were found to present the same peculiarities. Two only varied from the 25 and from each other, in 8 leaves, 2 in one and 6 in the other. Of the remaining 45, 40 were mixed with leaves from other editions, but 38 contained leaves of the same edition. Mr. Fry's conclusions were as follows:—One issue is unmixed except 2 copies in 25: the other is made up (1) with reprints, (2) with parts of the first issue, (3) with preliminary leaves from 3 other editions: he therefore infers that the two issues were distinct and that the issue which presented the fewest instances of admixture was the first. His conclusions seem unassailable; it is therefore assumed to be proved in this list, that the issue of which he examined 25 copies so nearly alike, is the first, and is entitled to the honour of being called the Editio Princeps of the version."

The chief differences in the collation of what is called the second issue with the first are these: "The fifth leaf is Sig. B. in the preliminary matter: Kalendar C, C2, C3, and followers. In the first page of the Dedication OE is printed for OF and in the eighth line CHKIST for CHRIST. In the 'Names and order of the Bookes' there are three lines printed in red: I Chronicles, is misprinted I Corinthians, and II Chronicles, II Corinthians. The chief errors of the first issue are corrected, but the repetition in Ezra iii. 5, remains. Exodus ix. 13, Let my people goe that they may ?erve thee, for serve me. S. Matthew xxvi. 36, Then commeth Judas with them unto a place called Geth?emane, for Then cometh Je?us. The initial P. in Psalm 112, contains a woodcut of Walsingham's crest."

Robert Barker's name calls for more than passing notice, since he it was who, more than any one else after the forty-seven translators, was responsible for the production of the Authorized Version. On January 3, 1599, the court of assistants of the Stationers' Company recognized the letter patent of Queen Elizabeth granting Robert Barker the reversion for life, after his father's death, of the office of Queen's Printer, with the right of printing English Bibles, Books of Common Prayer, statutes and proclamations. Christopher Barker, the father, who was also Queen's Printer, made an interesting report in December, 1582, on the printing patents which had been granted from 1558-1582, and in it he speaks of his own rights. Mr. Edward Arber, in quoting the report, calls it a masterly summary, whose importance and authority as a graphic history of English printing, it would be hardly possible to exaggerate. In "A note of the offices and other speciall licenses for printing, graunted by her maiestie to diuerse persons; with a coniecture of the valuation" he says: "Myne owne office of her Maiesties Printer of the English tongue gyven to Master Wilkes, (and which he had bought) is abbridged of the cheefest comodities belonging to the office, as shall hereafter appeare in the Patentes of Master Seres and Master Daye: but as it is I haue the printing of the olde and newe testament, the statutes of the Realme, Proclamations, and the booke of common prayer by name, and in generall wordes, all matters for the Churche."

If the monopoly of printing the Bible brought its gains it also brought its risks. Christopher Barker in his report goes on to speak of this:

"The whole bible together requireth so great a somme of money to be employed, in the imprinting thereof; as Master Jugge kept the Realme twelve yere withoute, before he Durst adventure to print one impression: but I, considering the great somme I paide to Master Wilkes, Did (as some haue termed it since) gyve a Desperate adventure to imprint fouer sundry impressions for all ages, wherein I employed to the value of three thousande pounde in the term of one yere and a halfe, or thereaboute: in which tyme if I had died, my wife and children had ben vtterlie vndone, and many of my frendes greatlie hindered by disbursing round sommes of money for me, by suertiship and other meanes...."

Robert was not without a like experience. The King, it is claimed, never paid a penny towards the great work. Indeed, William Ball, writing in 1651, says: "I conceive the sole printing of the bible, and testament, with power of restraint in others, to be of right the propriety of one Matthew Barker, citizen and stationer of London, in regard that his father paid for the emended or corrected translation of the bible, 3,500 l.: by reason whereof the translated copy did of right belong to him and his assignes."

Whether the great expense connected with its production ruined him, or whether, as Mr. Plomer suggests, he had been living beyond his means, Barker's last days were involved in financial difficulties, and he died in the King's Bench prison.

Some of the ornament in the book, particularly that used with the coat-of-arms of the King, the genealogical tables, the map, and some few head-bands and initial letters, again recall the work done for Plantin, and lead us to think that that great printer's books had not been without their influence upon the Barkers. The Tudor rose, the thistle, harp and fleur-de-lis are combined in different ways in initials and head-bands; the head-band of the archers, which was afterward used in the folio edition of Shakespeare's works, and is found in many other books, appears; and a large number of unrelated and commonplace initials and type-metal head-bands bring to mind the fact that Barker had come into the possession of material formerly belonging to John Day and Henry Bynneman.

Folio. Black letter. Double columns.

Collation: A, six leaves; B, two leaves; C, one leaf; A2-A6; D, four leaves; A-C, in sixes; two leaves without signatures; A-Ccccc6, in sixes; A-Aa6, in sixes.