Sir Walter Raleigh's notes
First English dictionary
Letter about Guy Fawkes
The Gunpowder Plot
The head of Guy Fawkes
Shakespeare's King Lear
King James Bible
The Globe Theatre
Surgeons' tools
Chinese globe
Shakespeare's First Folio
Lotus Sutra
English Civil War scenes
Witch hunting
Execution of Charles I
Agreement of the People
Charles I's executioner
Early A - Z of London
Advert for a quack doctor
Oliver Cromwell as the Devil
A cure for the Plague
Robert Hooke, Micrographia
Great Fire of London map
Great Fire of London
Wren's plans after the fire
Theatrical figures
Dictionary of criminal slang
Games and pastimes
Habeas Corpus Act
Map of the moon
A London Rhinoceros
Henry Purcell
Locke's Two Treatises
East India Company
Account of a shipwreck
Map of South America
The King James Bible remains the most widely published text in the English language. The official language of the medieval Church was Latin - the language of the Roman Empire. In England, since the early 1400s, it was strictly forbidden to translate the Bible into English. Tyndale’s translation of the bible in 1525 had led to his execution. But by Shakespeare's time, England had split with Rome, and the political scenery had changed. Bibles in English were now available, such as Henry VIII's authorised 'Great Bible'. King James I abolished the death penalty attached to English Bible translation, and commissioned a new version that would use the best available translations and sources, and importantly, be free of biased footnotes and commentaries.
Shelfmark: C.35.l.11, signature 2I31