RARE First Edition Old King James 1611 Loose Leaf Micah 5:7

Description: This lot contains one loose leaf First Edition original page from the Old King James Bible - among the first pages of the Old King James Bible ever printed. This loose leaf, double-sided, ranges from Micah 5:7 through the end of the chapter and includes the title name of the following book, Nahum. The loose leaf is in remarkable condition, having been excellently preserved. The leaf was professionally framed decades ago by The Big Picture in Colorado Springs (no longer in business). This leaf includes such famous verses as Micah 6:8, "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (NASB). Furthermore, the loose leaf has been confirmed by very credible sources (without COA) to be authentic. Further explanation below. The leaf & frame will be professionally packed (UPS) and insured for safety. Shipping is a little more expensive on this item as we want to ensure its safety by splurging on professional packers. The frame measures approx. 19 inches x 23 inches. Below is an explanation of authenticity, given by multiple credible sources. First, according to Antiquebible.com, a 17th-century paper can be determined by holding the picture to light (see last picture), which will reveal lines characteristic of the time. Second, it can be confirmed as a genuine, first-edition leaf by the following excerpt, according to the experts at www.greatsite.com, the world's largest antique Bible sellers, and further confirmed by The Bible Museum itself: (The loose leaf is roughly 17 inches behind frame, pulpit folio size; and it has exactly 59 lines, confirmed that it is first edition). Please view all photos before bidding as they are an integral part of the description. I do not accept returns unless the item was misrepresented in any way. The leaf & frame will be professionally packed and insured for safety. If you have any questions, please feel free to message me! The Complex Printing Of The First Edition 1611 King James BibleAll of the First Edition King James Bibles that were printed in the year 1611 were printed under the license of King James, in London, supervised by Robert Barker. All were huge pulpit folio size (around 17 inches tall), with no smaller size printings done in 1611. All had 59 lines of text to their two-column pages. All had the exact same layout of verse-to-page parameters: for example, in every 1611 printing, the fourth leaf (the fourth two-sided page) of Romans contains precisely Romans 6: 1 through Romans 8: 8.However, the 1611 King James Bible was printed on an estimated 25 different printing presses in London in 1611. Some were royal presses, but most were independently owned presses used under exercise of royal imminent domain by decree of the King, in order to get the printing done as soon as possible. No one press printed more than just a few Books of the Bible, as assigned by the supervisors (such as Barker and his staff). It is extremely important to also understand that no one press had an exclusive on the Books they were assigned, so multiple print shops were tasking with printing Genesis, for example. You may have had 5 or more different printing shops all assigned to do only Genesis through Deuteronomy, and the next 5 different printing shops may have been assigned to do Matthew through Acts, etc. (Note: these are hypothetical examples of assignment for illustration purposes… we do not know exactly which presses printed which Books of the Bible, because those records were all lost in the Great Fire that nearly destroyed London in 1666).When all the pieced-out assignments were gathered back at the Royal Print Shop, they were assembled in almost countless variations of provenance… so the different types of printing errors were extremely numerous, and more importantly they were dissimilar. Dr. Francis Fry, the greatest Bible collector of the 1800’s, notes in his 1865 Book on the history of the 1611 KJV Bible printing, “I have personally examined more than 100 copies of the 1611 first printing of the King James Bible, and I have not been able to find any two copies that are exactly identical in their wording.” This is because the estimated two dozen different print shops, doing only assigned portions for subsequent collation, (no one of them having an exclusive on their assigned portions), results mathematically in several hundred different possible variations of textual idiosyncrasies and variations… different combinations and permutations of collations of complete Bible text blocks to bind.It is perhaps easiest to visualize the complexity this way… let’s assign each of the approximately two dozen London print shops contracted in 1611 to print assigned portions of the King James Bible with a letter of the alphabet to identify their shop: A to Z. Now, let’s imagine all those various portions printed and gathered back at the royal warehouse for collation (ordering and assembling of the pages) and binding in complete 1611 King James Bibles. One of the finished and bound Bibles might be a gathering of page portions in the following order, Genesis to Revelation, from the following print shops responsible for that particular example’s pages: C-M-L-A-R-H-M-Z-P-F-C-T And the next one might be identified as: A-R-Z-A-Q-J-E-O-W-X-G-Y. It is easier to understand now why, when Dr. Fry examined over 100 copies of the 1611 KJV First Edition, all printed in exactly 1611, he could not find any two that were identical.Each complete Bible had different collections of typographical discrepancies with very minor errors and deviations. Little word alterations like “He” vs. “She” or “of” vs “if” or “heals” vs. “healeth”. None of those errors were substantive wording issues that appreciably changed the meaning of anything theologically. Printing a 750-page Bible in 1611, with dozens of contracted printers, made it practically impossible to produce complete Bibles with zero minor typographical errors.For reasons that seem to be wrapped up in tradition more than logic or reason, many collectors focus on whether a given copy of the 1611 King James Bible says “he went into the citie”, or “she went into the citie” at Ruth 3: 15, going as far as to label such Bibles “He Variant” or “She Variant”. Ultimately, this is a meaningless distinction, and one among countless distinctions anyway. However, because it has been noted that the so-called “He Variants” tend to have two dated “1611” title pages, and the “She Variants” tend to have one dated 1611 Title Page, (more details about this are below), the “He Variants” are more highly prized among collectors. Some even think, in error, that the “He Variants” were printed earlier, as “He” is an error, and “She” is correct, so they reason that the error must precede the correction. That is of course a fallacy of logic, as both were printed simultaneously in different print shops. In fact, this is not even true 100% of the time, as there are known examples of “She Variants” with two dated “1611” title pages, including one of the 1611 King James Bibles in the Gene Scott Rare Bible Collection in Los Angeles, California.It should also be noted that the beginning of each chapter of each Book of the Bible had its own decorative “drop-letter” (a larger letter, typically with a floral or otherwise ornate design). These were random, left up to the individual print shop director to select whatever design they wished (mostly within a large set of pre-approved designs). So one copy of the First Edition 1611 King James Bible might have a rose growing out of the first letter of Chapter 24 of Matthew, while another might have a tulip growing out of that letter, and another might have a bird sitting by the letter, and another might just have some fancy scrolling lines accenting the letter. Sometimes a printer even went a bit rouge and selected ornamented drop letters that were not approved. For example, some original 1611 First Edition King James Bibles show on the first page of Ephesians, which starts at Ephesians 1: 1 with a large “P” for Paul… a bare-breasted woman swinging from the top of the large “P”!Any 1600’s Era printing of the King James Version Bible that is about 17 inches tall, with 59 lines of two-column text, is one that was printed in exactly 1611. Period. Whatever textual distinctions it may have do not effect this in any way. However, not all the copies that were printed in 1611, were bound and issued in 1611, and so not all the copies printed in 1611 bear “1611” dated title pages… much to the chagrin and irritation of rare book dealers and collectors for the past four centuries.The Confusing Issuance of The 1611 King James BibleIn the end it was realized that all these printers had in fact printed far more copies of the 1611 King James Bible than were needed to fulfill the King’s decree that one be placed on every church pulpit and every college or seminary lectern in England with several extras to present as royal gifts. There were actually thousands of extra copies printed… way more than were needed in 1611. So, they took the number of text blocks (unbound complete Bibles) they needed… which as we have already established were not exactly identical to each other… and bound them and issued them out the door of the Royal Warehouse in 1611.However, many of the text blocks remained unbound for several years, and were later bound with subsequently dated title pages indicating their actual year of BINDING and ISSUANCE … and NOT their year of printing, which was of course “1611” in all cases. Oh, the confusion this has caused among dealers and collectors over the proceeding centuries! This happened in five recognized stages of issuance, (as additional copies were requested over the coming decades), which we will now list.The First Edition, First Issue, of the 1611 King James BibleWas printed in 1611Was bound and issued out the door in 1611The Old Testament Title Page is dated 1611The New Testament Title Page is dated 1611The First Edition, Second Issue, of the 1611 King James BibleWas printed in 1611Was bound and issued out the door in 1613The Old Testament Title Page is dated 1613The New Testament Title Page is dated 1611Note: they attempted to confirm the 1611 printing date by dating one Title Page 1611, while acknowledging the 1613 binding date by dating the other Title Page 1613.Note also: there was a separate unrelated printing of the King James Pulpit Folio Bible done in 1613, but that printing, often called the “True Second Edition Folio”, has 72 lines of text to the page, not 59 lines as all 1611 printings show, so they are easy to tell apart.The First Edition, Third Issue, of the 1611 King James BibleWas printed in 1611Was bound and issued out the door in 1617The Old Testament Title Page is dated 1617The New Testament Title Page is dated 1617Note: from the third issue forward, they just gave up trying to communicate the 1611 printing date on either Title Page. The idea that this would cause confusion among antique Bible collectors centuries latter was surely not among their concerns.The First Edition, Fourth Issue, of the 1611 King James BibleWas printed in 1611Was bound and issued out the door in 1634The Old Testament Title Page is dated 1634The New Testament Title Page is dated 1634The First Edition, Fourth Issue, of the 1611 King James BibleWas printed in 1611Was bound and issued out the door in 1639-1640The Old Testament Title Page is dated 1640The New Testament Title Page is dated 1639Note: the odd dating of the later year first, just as the Second Issue of 1613-1611The Burden of Proof & The Great FireThe explanation provided here is the one accepted by the vast majority of King James Bible collectors today. It is logical, and despite its complexity, it is far more reasonable than the seemingly absurd counter-theory that the royal printers re-set the printing presses five times from 1611 to 1640, bizarrely holding themselves to the excruciatingly exacting standard of maintaining identical verse-to-page layout parameters, for no apparent reason, (and did so flawlessly every time), and with no historical documentation of such a decree to do such a thing, … again executing all this repeatedly on five separate occasions across three decades of printing.In 2021, The Bible Museum confirmed this commonly accepted belief that all five issues were printed in 1611, with the more than 3,500 antique Bible collectors and enthusiasts on their email list. Not one person responded indicating they believed otherwise. Many responded confirming their acceptance of this common sense understanding of the 1611 printing of all five issues.Ultimately, definitive proof of any ancient printing protocols may be impossible because the detailed records documenting exactly how all books were printed in London were mostly lost in the Great Fire which swept through London in 1666. The fire was so widespread, history records that it destroyed 13,200 homes, (the majority of all residences in London), and 87 churches, including Saint Paul’s Cathedral, which had stood since the Middle Ages. Some historians have observed that the fire may have been a blessing in disguise, as relatively few people actually died despite the fire’s massive devastation, and the fire consumed all of the rat-infested slum areas which were thought to have caused the Great Bubonic Plague of London which killed close to 100,000 people, just a year earlier in 1665. It was, perhaps, a cleansing fire.

Price: 199.95 USD

Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado

End Time: 2024-11-23T19:46:25.000Z

Shipping Cost: 79.95 USD