Reformation: Bibles, Religious Pamphlets, Humanist Commentaries, RBML 2011.

This is a copy of the first edition of the Geneva Bible, the earliest English Bible printed in Roman type with verse divisions. When Mary I took the throne in 1553 C.E., England returned to Catholicism and many British Protestants fled to Geneva, which was a center for Biblical scholarship and vernacular Bible production. This Bible revised the earlier English “Great Bible” (1539 C.E.), the first English-language Bible authorized by the Church of England) in light of a comparison with the original texts in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. This Bible includes features to facilitate its approach by an interested reader, including woodblock illustrations and marginal annotations.

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Columbia University’s commitment to the Core Curriculum extends to the University Libraries' special collections.  Columbia University Libraries preserve and provide access to important editions of, and in some cases autograph manuscripts by, many of the authors taught in the Core Curriculum. Additionally, the collections include subsequent editions, translations, and adaptations, which demonstrate the transmission and reception of these works across centuries and attest to their continuing importance.

These online exhibitions were created as part of an Association of Research Libraries CEP Fellowship Summer 2011 based in Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library.