King James and His Bible
Thomas Trevelyon. Miscellany. Manuscript, 1608. Shelfmark V.b.232. Folger Shakespeare Library.
King James I, the royal sponsor of the Bible that bears his name, grew up as a king. After Queen Elizabeth I executed his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, when he was just one year old, he became King of Scotland and the heir to the English throne after Elizabeth’s death. He was raised by a team of Scottish Presbyterian ministers under the control of his regent, but upon his ascension to the English crown in 1603, he seemed more attuned to English religious politics.
Less than a year after his arrival in England, James officially launched the translation project that would become the King James Bible at a conference in Hampton Court Palace. The complex’s status as a favorite dwelling of King Henry the VIII, the founder of the English church, would not have been lost on the attendees.
The new translation was intended to be a unifying factor, not between Scotland and England, but between the warring factions of the Church of England. In the oversight of the project, James favored the establishment bishops, but a third or more of the 48 “Translators” (as they were known) had Puritan beliefs. Most were connected with Cambridge University, a hot-bed of Puritan theology.
The most popular Bible among English Christians at the time was the Geneva Bible, which Puritan scholars had composed in Geneva during their exile from the persecution of Queen Mary (“Bloody Mary”) in the 1550s. Its popularity had soared at the end of the sixteenth century because the Bishops Bible of 1568, the Church’s official Bible, had met with derision, As Adam Nicholson observes, it was “pompous, obscure and often laughable.” Instead of the well-known phrase “Caste thy bread upon the waters,” for instance, it gave “Lay thy bread upon wet faces.”
But James could not simply follow the people’s choice, for the Geneva Bible contained extensive interpretive footnotes, many of which were anti-monarchical, denying that kings and queens had the right to rule. Given that in 1598 James had written a ringing defense of the “divine right of kings” to govern in his “True Law of Free Monarchies,” this was an anathema.
The new Bible translation would draw upon the best of these two works, while going back to the best Hebrew and Greek manuscripts then available. It would undergo several stages of review to ensure both accuracy and understandability. It would be both a pulpit Bible and a people’s Bible: pleasant to read aloud and to oneself.
The new translation did not immediately gain acceptance when it was published in 1611. Like the Greek Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate and many modern translations, people preferred the versions with which they were familiar. But within a few decades it had replaced the Bishops Bible and surpassed the Geneva Bible. It was brought across the Atlantic and became America’s Bible, both for English churches that came here and the churches that originated here, such as the Mormons.
The King James Version was the dominant English-language Bible for 350 years and had no significant rivals until the Revised Standard Version appeared in the 1950s. Since then, many new translations have been published, but the KJV remains the most popular book in the English language.
In celebration of the 400th anniversary of the KJV, the University of Wyoming is hosting an exhibit and series of six lectures during October. It will open on Sunday afternoon, October 7th, with a talk by Dr. Philip Stine, a former translator and executive of the United Bible Societies, who will discuss the origins and impact of the KJV.
The exhibit is called “Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible,” and is located in Coe Library. It was created by the Folger Shakespeare Library , in partnership with the University of Oxford and the Harry Ransom Center, and with support from the National Endowment of the Humanities and the American Library Association.
To accompany this, the Toppan Library of the American Heritage Center is exhibiting Bibles from its rare books collection, and the Albany Country Public Library is hosting a display of Bible translations through the ages. For more information, go to https://uwlibblogs.uwyo.edu/dustyshelves/manifold-greatness-the-creation-and-afterlife-of-the-king-james-bible/.
Note: This post drew from Adam Nicolson, God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible, and Philip C. Stine, Four Hundred Years on the Best Seller List.
Paul V.M. Flesher, Ph.D. is the Director of the Religious Studies Program at the University of Wyoming. The Manifold Greatness traveling exhibition is on view at UW from October 7-31, 2012.
A royal copy of the King James Bible
Prince Henry Bible. Washington National Cathedral. Photo: Julie Ainsworth.
When planning an exhibition a curator expects to find a few discoveries and surprises. In earlier posts I’ve written about discoveries such as the Isham Bible and the surprise of finding a “Judas Bible” in the Folger collection. But there is one artifact in the Manifold Greatness exhibition that we would never have imagined: a copy of the 1611 “He” Bible that was bound for King James’s son Henry Frederick, prince of Wales. This treasure is undoubtedly one of the most exciting surviving editions of the King James Bible and, as good luck would have it, it was residing just a few miles from the Folger Shakespeare Library at the Washington National Cathedral.
As you can see from the photograph, this book is bound beautifully in red Morocco leather with intricate ornamental gilt tooling that provides clues identifying both the owner and binder. Prince Henry’s arms are stamped onto the front and back boards, along with royal symbols such as the crowned thistles on the corners of the binding and Tudor roses sprinkled around the border.
If you look closely at the detail below, you’ll see two little squirrels perched on each side of the crown found on Henry’s arms. There was only one binder during this period who decorated his bindings with such squirrels. We do not know the binder’s name, but modern scholars have taken to calling him the “Squirrel Binder.” Active from c.1610 to 1635, the “Squirrel Binder” appears to have worked for many English nobles and several members of the royal court, including James I, Charles I, and Prince Henry.
Detail, Prince Henry Bible. Washington National Cathedral. Photo: Julie Ainsworth.
The book’s engraved title page held another surprise. The signature of the engraver, Cornelis Boel, usually appears engraved at the bottom left center “C. Boel fecit [he made it]” On the title page to Prince Henry’s copy, Boel’s name is not engraved, but signed!
This extraordinary copy of the “He” Bible is the greatest treasure of the Washington National Cathedral’s impressive rare book library. I know that I speak for Hannibal and the rest of the Manifold Greatness team when I say how grateful we are to our friends at the Cathedral for loaning us this remarkable book.
Steven Galbraith, Curator of the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at Rochester Institute of Technology, is co-curator of the Manifold Greatness exhibition at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Sing unto him a new song
Cathedra, the chamber vocal ensemble of Washington National Cathedral
The Folger Shakespeare Library’s resident early music ensemble, the Folger Consort, presents A New Song: Music Inspired by the King James Bible this week from Friday, September 30, through Sunday, October 2, with period strings, organ, and Washington National Cathedral’s chamber vocal ensemble Cathedra, Michael McCarthy, director.
An early music seminar will be held this evening, September 28, to discuss the program, and there is an audience discussion period prior to the Friday concert.
The following text is excerpted from notes by one of the Folger Consort’s artistic directors, Robert Eisenstein.
“Sing unto him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise.”
Psalms 33:3, King James Bible
The Folger Consort’s A New Song is part of a worldwide—and, with the current exhibition, Folger-wide—celebration of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. We have decided to center our musical offering on settings of biblical texts from the reigns of King James I and King James II. In the case of the former, we will mostly be presenting anthems based on English translations that preceded the King James Version, many of which were important sources for the committees of scholars who translated the King James Bible.
It is difficult to find 17th-century musical settings of the King James Bible version of the Psalms because Coverdale’s beautiful prose from his 1535 Bible made its way into the Book of Common Prayer, which was still in use throughout our chosen period. By the time of the Restoration, however, most English settings of biblical texts other than the Psalms were taken, sometimes with a bit of variation for musical reasons, from the King James Version, and this will be apparent in our selections of anthems by Henry Purcell, Pelham Humfrey, and John Blow. All of this music will be performed with the forces most commonly used for anthems in the 17th century—a small choir supported by organ and often by strings that accompany the verses and provide an opening symphony and instrumental interludes. We have also included some wonderful representative instrumental music from the time.
(L-R) Folger Consort artistic directors Robert Eisenstein and Christopher Kendall. Credit: Mig Dooley
We begin with an anthem by Thomas Tomkins written for the coronation of James I. Other composers represented in the program include Giovanni Coprario (tradition has it that he taught music to James I’s children); Orlando Gibbons, who was, with Coprario, a member of the household of James I’s son, Prince Charles; Henry Purcell, one of the greatest composers of the Baroque and certainly one of the greatest English composers of any era; and two other wonderful English Restoration composers, Pelham Humfrey and John Blow.
We conclude with an anthem for the next rulers of England after James II. Purcell’s Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem was composed for the coronation festivities for William and Mary at Westminster Abbey in 1689.
Robert Eisenstein is, with Christopher Kendall, one of two artistic directors of the Folger Consort, the resident early music ensemble of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Why “Manifold Greatness”?
Bible. English. Authorized. 1611. Folger.
If you visit the King James Bible Trust website, as we often do, you may notice that the words “manifest,” “great,” and “greatness” come up fairly often in its events list. At the University of Toronto, “Great and Manifold: A Celebration of the Bible in English,” is on display through June. At Cambridge, “Great and Manifold Blessings: The Making of the King James Bible” wraps up that month as well.
And then, of course, there’s our own Manifold Greatness project, a major, two-continent endeavor that includes a new book from Bodleian Library Publishing, a Bodleian Library exhibition opening at Oxford on April 22, and, funded by the NEH, an exhibition this fall at the Folger Shakespeare Library, an early 2012 exhibition at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, a major website that’s now launching within weeks, and a traveling exhibition produced in partnership with the American Library Association.
But why “manifold” and why “greatness”? The answer lies in the King James Bible’s dedication to King James I, not always printed in modern editions, which begins, “great and manifold were the blessings” when James became king. (“Manifold” here means both “varied” and “abundant.”) Today, the same words describe the King James Bible itself.
