2-756-271 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Title Page of the Geneva Bible', 1614, (1943). The "Geneva" version of the Bible is significant because it was the first mechanically printed, mass-produced Bible in English which was available directly to the general public in Britain. In Scotland, a law was passed in 1579 requiring every household of sufficient means to buy a copy. This was a complete change from the previous position of the state which made printing or publishing the Bible in anything other than Latin a crime punishable by death. Published by Robert Barker, printer to King James I, (London, 1614). From "The English Bible", by Sir Herbert Grierson. [Collins, London, 1943]