Discontent with earlier versions of the Bible in English had resulted in a conference at Hampton Court in 1604, at which the Puritan party, led by John Reynolds, convinced King James that a new Protestant translation was required. But, emblematic of the inclusiveness of approach that characterized the production of the "King James," the committee found that despite their avowedly Protestant mission, certain phrases and wordings even in the first Catholic New Testament in English (Rheims, 1585) were worthy of inclusion—as well as borrowings from the Tyndale, Wycliffite, Matthew's, Great, Geneva, and Bishops' Bibles (etc.).

•  Printing and the Mind of Man 114; Herbert, Historical Catalogue of Printed Editions of the English Bible, 309; STC (rev.) 2216; Rumball-Petre, Rare Bibles, 122; Loftie, Century of Bibles, 1. Bound in 18th-century brown calf, rebacked and a piece of leather missing from the front cover replaced with leather of a different texture. Title-page probably from a different copy laid in. Lacking the four leaves of the preliminary matter (Dedication and part of the Translators' preface) and the final six leaves (end of Revelations).

Early and late leaves crudely remargined, lower corners of some other leaves torn off and repaired in a heavy-handed way. Title-page of N.T. torn with loss of perhaps 50%. A few short clean tears in some text leaves. Stains record the mishap of a reader who spilled some ink on six leaves and quickly wiped it away as much as possible, so that no words are illegible. Despite losses noted, no tattering and no general foxing or staining. Far from a perfect copy but a pleasing one, priced in accordance with its faults.