viz.

Two weeks ago I posted on the title page of the 1611 edition of the King James Bible. This week, I thought it’d be fun to consider the first page of the New Testament in that same edition. [Click here for a large-sized image of the page.] This first page of the New Testament contains as much imagery as the edition’s actual title page, which is surprising given that it comes nearly 4/5’s of the way through the book. And though I am no expert in seventeenth-century bibliography, it does seem a little bit odd that such a detailed woodcut would come in the middle of a book, but perhaps this was commonplace for bibles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In any event, there’s a lot going on in this image, and I thought you might find it enjoyable to take a moment this week and consider the page.