The First Printed English Bible(s)

This chapter begins with a short exploration into a century when nearly no Bibles were produced in England. It then moves to explore the first Bible printed in England in 1535, against the background of its more famous contemporary, the Coverdale Bible. The first printed Bible is unusual Latin book, whose preface was authored by Henry VIII. It has attracted nearly no scholarly attention, and this first extensive examination traces its creation and early reception as witnesses to the uncertain course of the English Reformation. Its origins reveal a dependency on Continental models, which were then modified to create a book carefully placed between conservatism and reform. Priests, scholars, children and crooks left their marks on the Bible, and advanced digital technology exposes unique evidence for the merging of Latin and English in late Henrician liturgy.

Conclusion

The conclusion of the book explores the wider history of the Bible in England, revealing a gradual move of Bibles from elite clerical audiences, through nunneries and chapels, and into each parish church and lay hands in the sixteenth century. It also addresses the rate of change, one of the major impacts of the introduction of moveable-type printing.

Into Fast Forward: The Bibles of Edward VI

The last chapter explores the Bibles printed in the short minority reign of Edward VI. It reveals a period of intense creativity, when – free from financial or religious constraints – printers experimented with size, layout, and addenda. Different printers produced pocket or lectern Bibles to suit different audiences and uses. With the introduction of the Book of Common Prayer, Bibles began to make, for the first time, liturgical sense. The last Bible of the period reveals the most experimental book of the reign, and serves as a testimony to its abrupt end.

The Late Medieval Bible: Beyond Innovation

This chapter contextualises the mass-produced Latin Bibles of the thirteenth and fourteenth century, addressing both innovation and conservatism in their layout and use. It explores their simplicity on the background of their predecessor, the highly complex glossed Bibles; it then moves to address the use of these Bibles in exegesis, preaching, and the liturgy, arguing against a simplistic transformative view. It introduces key features, such as the chapter division and the use of Bibles in the liturgy, which are then explored throughout the book.

The Great Bible as a Useless Book

The Great Bible, instigated by Thomas Cromwell, edited by Miles Coverdale, and supported by Henry VIII, has often been seen as a monument of reform and authority. This chapter explores the Bible’s materiality to reveal hesitation and tensions in its creation. Its layout and title page reveal Henry’s ambivalence towards Bible reading. Mandated for each parish church in the realm it was nevertheless incompatible with the liturgy performed there, leading to the curbing of Bible reading four years after its introduction.

Wycliffite Bibles and the Limits of Orthodoxy

The first translation of the entire Bible into Middle English had originated among the followers of John Wyclif, an Oxford theologian whose followers incurred the wrath of Church and state. This chapter explores surviving manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible to unfold a gradual move away from the Bible’s heterodox origins and into the realm of licit Church worship. The materiality of the Wycliffite Bible further leads to nunneries and chapels, with evidence for the cohabitation of Latin and English in the liturgy performed there.