A leaf from the 1568 First Edition of the Bishops Bible. These leaves are 436 years old. The Church of England throughout history has authorized three versions of the Bible: The first, was the 1539 Great Bible. As those Bibles were then getting close to 30 years old, the next generation of English Authorized Bibles was the 1568 Bishops Bible. Finally, as those Bibles were then getting to be over 40 years old, the next and final step was the 1611 King James Bible… the only one still actively published today. No collection is complete without a Bishops leaf.

These leaves are from Pulpit folios, quite large, measuring between 15 and 16 inches tall by between 10 and 11 inches wide. They were printed on 100% rag cotton linen sheet, not wood-pulp paper like books today, so they remain in excellent condition… even after over 400 years. Each leaf is a unique piece of ancient artwork, carefully produced by the King’s printers, one-at-a-time using a movable-type press, and later bound together into whole Bibles. These genuine original antiquities are very rare and precious pieces of our history and our Christian heritage. Each leaf comes with a beautiful Certificates of Authenticity. Imagine… having a favorite passage of scripture from the Bible that was later revised to become the famous King James Bible: the Bishops Bible.

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