The first edition of the King James Version was printed in 1611 by Robert Barker in London. The first two printings were large folio Bibles for use in churches, but smaller editions were soon produced for personal use, starting in 1612. With the proliferation of printings, early printer errors crept into the editions. As well, if some printed sheets were left over from one printing, they were incorporated into another. Almost no two existing “original 1611" King James Bibles are exactly the same. Eventually there were various calls for the need to correct and revise the King James Version because of printer errors over the years and the changes in spelling and word usage. Corrected editions were published by the Cambridge University Press, the first being in 1629. Several of the revisers were part of the original group of translators of the KJV. In 1762, the most significant corrections were completed in an edition overseen by Dr. Thomas Paris of Trinity College in Cambridge. The work was refined in 1769; this edition then became the standard King James Bible in use up to today. Almost 1000 editions were printed from 1611 to 1769, all with minor corrections. No comprehensive revision of the King James Version was undertaken again until the middle of the 19th century. Item 1: King James Bible, 1629 This copy of the King James Version, a large quarto edition, is the first Cambridge (England) printing of the KJV. It was the first printing since the first edition in 1611 in which editors included a number of revisions, chiefly incorporating more literal readings originally presented in marginal notes. As well, the editors attempted to restore the proper text which had been affected by many misprints in previous printings. Two who participated in the Cambridge printing, Dr. Samuel Ward and John Bois, worked on the original translation of the King James Version in 1611. Item 2: King James Bible, 1762 This copy of the King James Version, a large quarto edition printed in Cambridge in 1762, is considered to be the “standard” edition of the King James Version, becoming, along with the Blayney Oxford edition of 1769, the foundation of the modern King James Bible. Led by Dr. Thomas Paris as editor, this was the first edition of the KJV with standardized spelling, based on Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755. As well, the language was modernized, marginal references were expanded, and previous printing errors were removed.
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