THE FOLIO SOCIETY

In the 16th and 17th centuries, translating the Bible could literally be a matter of life and death. Any translation into the vernacular was viewed as heretical and several scholars perished on the pyre. Even with the advent of Protestantism the translation of particular words remained highly charged; in 1535 William Tyndale provocatively rendered the Greek presbuteros as ‘elder’ instead of the more usual ‘priest’, while in later Bibles strongly polemical notes were added to the margins. As head of the Church of England, James I laid down the guiding principles, insisting that there should be no marginal notes, that his translators should return to the original languages and that the new version should conform to the doctrine of the Church of England. It would prove the most ambitious translation project of the Reformation era, undertaken by 47 scholars, including fellows at Oxford and Cambridge, country parsons, puritan–leaning clergy and High Churchmen. Their breadth of knowledge combined with an admirable organisation enabled the Bible to be completed in just seven years – a truly impressive achievement given its scale.

David Norton, the world's leading authority on the King James Bible was commissioned by Cambridge University Press to restore the text to its original form. Now, in this new Folio Society edition, the 1611 translation is displayed in a superbly clear and elegant typographical style – an outstanding presentation of one of the most important books in history.

Because the Authorised Version was designed to be read aloud, the translators perfected their prose to make it poetic, dignified and beautiful as well as true to the original texts. This, perhaps, is the edition’s true legacy. Even modern translations retain many phrases from the King James version, and it remains the touchstone by which all other translations are judged. For many, it has never been surpassed.

To this day the King James Bible remains Crown copyright in the UK, and there are only two authorised printers in England. Even so, over the centuries changes were made and the text differs from that originally prepared by the King James translators. To restore the text to its original form, David Norton returned to the manuscripts of the original translators to ascertain their decisions and removed revisions that had been interposed by later editors.

In his excellent introduction included in this Folio Society edition, Norton points out that a single letter can radically alter the entire reading of a verse. Much of his task was ‘like the work of cleaning an old master’. Printer’s errors, obsolete punctuation, inconsistent spelling and a lack of clarity in presentation were ‘specks of dust’ obscuring the work’s true greatness.

Not only does Norton’s text restore the authority of the original 1611 translation, but it is also presented in the clearest, most elegant style. Single column formatting makes the most of the typography, and the text is carefully set into paragraphs to make it easy to read. For this exclusive Folio edition the headings have been picked out in red – a tradition of fine Bible printing for centuries – and a larger than usual format and thicker paper have been used. The result is a superbly clear presentation of the Bible that remains unchallenged for its beauty and power.