Five parts in one volume, folio (355 x 254 mm). Black letter, double column, general title (a facsimile) and New Testament title printed in red and black within woodcut border, titles to Parts 2-4 composed of 16 small woodcuts, each part with separate foliation and register, 50 woodcut text illustrations (some repeats), elaborate 12-line calligraphic woodcut initials, numerous floral, historiated, and cribé woodcut initials. General title, two leaves containing the calendar at the beginning and final two leaves containing end of text, table and colophon in facsimile, Fore-margin [Maltese cross]1 renewed touching shoulder note, [Maltese cross]3 restored with facsimile penwork, [Maltese cross]4 with margins restored affecting headline, long tear crossing text on a5 repaired, lacks blank O4, outer margins of DD3 and DD6 restored with some shoulder notes in pen facsimile, long tear to bottom margin of RR6 repaired not affecting text, lower corner of woodcut border of Aaa1 in facsimile, lower margin of Kk1 restored with some text in facsimile, fore-margin of Mm2 repaired with shoulder notes and a few letters in facsimile, margins of several leaves at the end renewed with some letters in facsimile, some other leaves with minor marginal repairs occasionally touching shoulder notes or catchwords, several headlines shaved or cropped, residual staining and soiling. 19th century blank morocco paneled gilt, elaborate gilt dentelles, vellum linings, spine lettered and decorated gilt, edges gilt; joints rubbed.

Loosely laid in is a note from Francis Fry, pertaining to this copy, which reads: "This Bible is Cranmer's version the edition of July 1540. I have examined every leaf & certify that it all true July, not mixed with any other edition & therefore a standard copy. See my work on the Cranmer folios. The facs are correct July. The Title is by the celebrated Harris has on it JH | 1848. The ?12 [a long tail is connected to the beginning of the Arabic numeral two] & the two last are facs. This is one of the rarest of the Editions. I do not know of a perfect & correct copy in any library but mine. This is perfect with the facs elegantly bound in Morocco vellum flys & linings. Francis Fry, Cotham, Bristol. I have seen every copy known."

Historical context:

The Great Bible of 1539 was the first authorized edition of the Bible in English, authorized by King Henry VIII of England to be read aloud in the church services of the Church of England. The Great Bible was prepared by Myles Coverdale, working under commission of Thomas, Lord Cromwell, Secretary to Henry VIII and Vicar General.

The Great Bible includes much from the Tyndale Bible, with the objectionable features revised. As the Tyndale Bible was incomplete, Coverdale translated the remaining books of the Old Testament and Apocrypha from the Latin Vulgate and German translations, rather than working from the original Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic texts. Although called the Great Bible because of its large size, it is known by several other names as well: the Cromwell Bible, since Thomas Cromwell directed its publication; Whitchurch's Bible after its first English printer; the Chained Bible, since it was chained to prevent removal from the church. It has less accurately been termed Cranmer's Bible, since although Thomas Cranmer was not responsible for the translation, a preface by him appeared in the second edition.

The Tyndale New Testament had been published in 1525, followed by his English version of the Pentateuch in 1530; but both employed vocabulary, and appended notes, that were unacceptable to English churchmen, and to the King. Tyndale's books were banned by royal proclamation in 1530, and Henry then held out the promise of an officially authorised English Bible being prepared by learned and catholic scholars. In 1534, Thomas Cranmer sought to advance the King's project by press-ganging ten diocesan bishops to collaborate on an English New Testament, but most delivered their draft portions late, inadequately, or not at all. By 1537 Cranmer was saying that the proposed Bishops' Bible would not be completed until the day after Doomsday.

The King was becoming impatient with the slow progress, especially in view of his conviction that the Pilgrimage of Grace had been substantially exacerbated due to the rebels' exploitation of popular religious ignorance. With the bishops showing no signs of completing their task, Cromwell obtained official approval for the Matthew Bible as an interim measure in 1537, the year of its publication under the pseudonym "Thomas Matthew", actually John Rogers. Cromwell had helped to fund the printing of this version. The Matthew Bible combined the New Testament of William Tyndale, and as much of the Old Testament as Tyndale had been able to translate before being put to death the prior year for "heresy." By 1538, it was compulsory for all churches to own a Bible in accordance with Thomas Cromwell’s Injunctions.

Coverdale based the Great Bible on Tyndale's work, but removed the features objectionable to the bishops. He translated the remaining books of the Old Testament using mostly the Latin Vulgate and German translations.

Coverdale's failure to translate from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts gave impetus to the Bishops' Bible. The Great Bible's New Testament revision is chiefly distinguished from Tyndale's source version by the interpolation of numerous phrases and sentences found only in the Vulgate. For example, here is the Great Bible's version of Acts 23:24–25 (as given in The New Testament Octapla): 24 And delyver them beastes, that they maye sett Paul on, and brynge hym safe unto Felix the hye debyte (For he dyd feare lest happlye the Jewes shulde take hym awaye and kyll hym, and he hym selfe shulde be afterwarde blamed, as though he wolde take money) 25 and he wrote a letter after thys maner.

The non-italicized portions are taken over from Tyndale without change, but the italicized words, which are not found in the Greek text translated by Tyndale, have been added from the Latin. (The added sentence can also be found, with minor verbal differences, in the Douai-Rheims New Testament.) These inclusions appear to have been done to make the Great Bible more palatable to conservative English churchmen, many of whom considered the Vulgate to be the only legitimate Bible.

The psalms in the Book of Common Prayer of 1662 continue to be taken from the Great Bible rather than the King James Bible.

In 1568, the Great Bible was superseded as the authorised version of the Anglican Church by the Bishops' Bible. The last of over 30 editions of the Great Bible appeared in 1569.

Printing

Miles Coverdale and Richard Grafton went over to Paris and put the work into the hands of the French printer, Regnault, with the countenance of Bonner, then (Bishop Elect of Hereford and) British Ambassador at Paris. There was constant fear of the Inquisition. Coverdale packed off a large quantity of the finished work through Bonner to Cromwell, and just when this was done, the officers of the Inquisition came on the scene. Coverdale and Grafton made their escape. A large quantity of the printed sheets were sold as waste paper to a haberdasher, who resold them to Cromwell's agents, and they were, in due course, sent over to London. Cromwell bought the type and presses from Regnault and secured the services of his compositors.

The first edition was a run of 2,500 copies that were begun in Paris in 1539. Much of the printing was done at Paris, and after some misadventures where the printed sheets were seized by the French authorities on grounds of heresy (since relations between England and France were somewhat troubled at this time), the publication was completed in London in April 1539.

It went through six subsequent revisions between 1540 and 1541. The second edition of 1540, included a preface by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, recommending the reading of the scriptures. (Cranmer’s preface was also included in the front of the Bishops' Bible.)

Seven editions of the Great Bible were published in quick succession.

1. 1539, April - Printed in Paris and London by Richard Grafton & Edward Whitchurch.
2. 1540, April - Printed in London by Richard Grafton & Edward Whitchurch, includes Archbishop Thomas Cranmer's preface, and the Apocryphal Books were interspersed among the Canonical Books of the Old Testament.
3. 1540, July - Printed in London by Richard Grafton & Edward Whitchurch, includes Archbishop Cranmer's preface with Cromwell's shield defaced on the title page
4. 1540, November — Printed in London by Richard Grafton & Edward Whitchurch, with the title page of 1541, and includes Archbishop Cranmer's preface.
5. 1541, May - Printed in London by Edward Whitchurch, includes Archbishop Cranmer's preface.
6. 1541, November - Printed in London by Edward Whitchurch, includes Archbishop Cranmer's preface.
7. 1541, December - Printed in London by Edward Whitchurch, includes Archbishop Cranmer's preface.

More than 9,000 copies of the Great Bible were printed by 1541.

8. 1549 - Printed in London by Edward Whitchurch.
9. "In 1568, the Great Bible was superseded as the authorised version of the Anglican Church by the Bishops’ Bible. The last of over 30 editions of the Great Bible appeared in 1569.”

A version of Cranmer's Great Bible can be found included in the English Hexapla, produced by Samuel Baxter & Sons in 1841. However copies of this work are fairly rare.

The language of the Great Bible marks the advent of Early Modern English. Moreover, this variant of English is pre-Elizabethan. The text, which was regularly read in the parish churches, helped to standardize and stabilize the language across England. Some of the readings of the First Authorized Version of the Bible differ from the more familiar 1611 edition, the Third Authorized Version. For example, the commandment against adultery in the Great Bible reads, "Thou shalt not breake wedlocke."

Genesis 1:1–3

In the begynnynge God created heauen and earthe. The earth was voyde and emptye: and darcknes was vpon the face of the depe: and the sprete of God moued vpon the face of the waters. And God sayde: let there be made lyght, and there was light made.

John 3:16

For God so loue the worlde, that, he gaue is only begotten sonne, that whosoeuer beleueth in him, shulde not perisshe, but haue euerlastyng lyfe.

Aftermath:
The later years of Henry VIII were marked by serious reaction. In 1542 Convocation with the royal consent made an attempt fortunately thwarted by Cranmer to Latinize the English version and to make it in reality what the Romish version of Rheims subsequently became. In the following year Parliament which then practically meant the King and two or three members of the Privy Council restricted the use of the English Bible to certain social classes that excluded nine tenths of the population and three years later it prohibited the use of everything but the Great Bible. It was probably at this time that there took place the great destruction of all previous work on the English Bible which has rendered examples of that work so scarce. Even Tunstall and Heath were anxious to escape from their responsibility in lending their names to the Great Bible. In the midst of this reaction Henry VIII died January 28 1547.

Provenance: Bartholomew Morris (early ownership inscription on several lower margins and his marginalia); Estelle Doheny (morocco ticket; purchased from Maggs Brothers, 19 June 1942); donated to Saint Mary of the Barrens Seminary, Perryville, MO, 7 July 1942; Doheny sale, Christie's New York, 14 December 2001, lot 172; The Bible Collection of Dr. Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Sotheby’s New York, 5 Dec 2016.

Further with publisher's prospectus for Francis Fry's monograph on the Great Bible of 1539 tipped in, a note about the 1540 edition laid in from Francis Fry, circa 1880, and the fragment of a note from a bookdealer to a Miss P. A. Fry, datelined Boston 4 April 1898 loosely laid in.

STC 2071; Herbert 54 (with collation beginning: *?6; however, the Bible is complete with 7 preliminary leaves).