Book - Reference /Bible (King James Version), Dr Benjamin Blayney (Editor), The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments 1871, 1871

Physical description

Hard cover book,The Holy Bible.
Editor. Dr. Benjamin Blayney of Hertford College, Oxford.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Date: 1871
Further Information: Black heaverly embossed pattered hardcover with a brown spine and lettering in gilt. The spine has a Library label with an inscription.

Publication type

non-fiction

Inscriptions & markings

The label on spine cover with typed text RH 220 BIB
Flyleaf has a stamp from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute and Free Library

Summary

This specific 1871 Bible is a fascinating artifact from the height of 19th-century British industrial printing, combining massive theological authority with an effort to make large-scale family Bibles accessible to the general public. This specific edition represents a collaboration between two powerhouse institutions of 19th-century publishing. As one of the privileged "Royal Patent" holders in England, Oxford University Press (OUP) had the legal monopoly—alongside Cambridge University Press and the King's/Queen's Printer—to print the authorised King James Version of the Bible. Founded in 1804, the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) was a massive charitable organisation dedicated to making Bibles affordable and accessible worldwide. Because they were a society and not a printer, they commissioned official presses like OUP to mass-produce Bibles according to strict guidelines.

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