Photo by Mark Ferguson

Although the title page of this edition of the King James Bible is missing, the date of publication is likely to be 1611.

“We think this is a first edition,” said David Bindle, special collections librarian. “A lot of these editions would be dated at the bottom of the title page.”

According to Bindle, facsimiles of pages from another first editions match the book belonging to the U of S Special Collections perfectly, meaning that in all likelihood, this bible is indeed a first edition. Unfortunately, there appears to be no record of how it came to be at the University of Saskatchewan.
The bible is currently on display in the Murray Library’s Link Gallery, part of a display of religious texts and artifacts. The King James version of the bible has been reprinted more times and sold more copies than any other book in the world.

Part of the exhibit is text from the book’s missing title page, taken from a first-edition bible belonging to the Newberry Library in Chicago: “A book, which, if everything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power. At once the most majestic thing in all literature and by all odds the most spiritually living thing we inherit…”

Photo by Mark Ferguson