The Edward de Vere Geneva Bible is now available online in free facsimile from the Folger Shakespeare Library. This blog post contains a direct link to the volume, which contains over a thousand annotated or underlined passages, many of them with direct and startling connections to the Bible allusions of “Shakespeare.”
The provocative examples below illustrate the variety and intriguing character of these annotations. First, Revelations 3.5 records the promise that the prophet’s name will not be “put out” from the book of life. This is followed by Romans 7.19-20, where the annotator inserts an omitted first person pronoun “I” found only in the earlier editions of the 1568 Geneva New Testament. Next, the doubly underlined Micah 7.9 records the promise that after a long penance for his sin, God will “bring me forth to the light.” And finally, in I Sam. 16.23, David plays his harp to soothe Saul’s madness.
The Edward de Vere Geneva Bible at the Folger Shakespeare library was the subject of my 2002 University of Massachusetts PhD dissertation. It is available in electronic format on the Folger’s Luna data base of early modern documents.
Click on the image below to go to the book.
December 23, 2022 at 8:36 am
How do you turn the pages of the Geneva Bible (after you click and go to it)?
January 1, 2023 at 5:39 am
Hi Richard,
If you click on the book, it will take you directly to the Folger Luna reproduction of the Bible. Then you will use the navigation on that site to scroll through the book. You can enlarge any page by clicking on it and use the navigation links in the upper right-hand corner of the page to move back and forth in the book.