508 leaves plus inserted Genealogies & map. A4, B4. C6, D4, A-Mmmm6, Nnnn4. With general title & separate title for New Testament, each with elaborate historiated woodcut borders. 72 lines of text in two columns. Woodcut initials. [2], 34 pp. of Genealogies with woodcut illustrative vignettes, inserted after the Kalendar. Double-page copper-engraved map of the Holy Land by John Speed, dated 1611, inserted after the Genealogies. (folio) 42x28 cm. (16½x11"), period calf, rebacked & recornered with calf, later endpapers.
An exceptional copy of the 1613 folio edition of the King James Bible, following on the 1611 first edition, complete with all text pages, the two title-pages, the genealogies, and the Speed map, which is often not present. Very rare in this complete form. "The true 1613 folio edition of King James' Bible; easily distinguishable from the other large folio editions by its smaller type" (Herbert 322). The double-page map, dated 1611, has an inset of Jerusalem, engravings of relics, a description "To the Christian Reader," and a key to 50 locations. The King James Bible, commonly known as the Authorized Version, is undoubtedly the most influential of all English language versions of the Bible. Printing and the Mind of Man relates that "It was the leader of the Puritan party, John Reynolds...who first suggested the idea of a new translation. The King took up the idea enthusiastically and gave it his full support. It has been described as 'the only literary masterpiece ever to have been produced by a committee' and was the work of nearly fifty translators, organized in six groups... They succeeded superbly in their aim, not to create a new translation, 'but to make a good one better', so that the noble prose of Tyndale and Coverdale remained the backbone of what Macaulay described as 'a book, which if everything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power.'" No new English translation was produced until the Revised Version of 1881. Herbert 322; PMM 114. Armorial bookplate of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn.
Condition:
Title-page moderately soiled with light foxmarks, detached along with front free endpaper; lower corner of Q3 missing not affecting any text, a few pages with lower corners bent or nicked; some modest foxing or aging, but quite clean, a nearly fine, complete copy, very rare thus.