THE TEXT
The Bible is indeed the Bookof Books. Beyond its role as sacred
text, its stories of ordinary and extraordinary men and women
have inspired
some of the worldÕs greatest literature, poetry, painting,
sculpture, music,and
architecure. To this day it holds a mirror to the travails of
the humanspirit
and condition. ·Of all its many translations, no Bible
has made a greater
impacon the histories, cultures, and literatures of the English-speaking
world
than the King James, or ÒAuthorizedÓversion. The
power and beauty of its lan-
guage raises the BibleÕs history, adventure, romance, law,
parable, prophecy,
and poetry to their highest forms. ·The PennyroyalCaxton
Bible follows
Frederick H. A. ScrivenerÕs 1873critical edition of the
Cambridge Paragraph
Bible of the Authorized English Version. ScrivenerÕs edition
accounted for
the entire history of the KJVtext starting with Robert BarkerÕs
·rst printing
in 1611, including the many vicissitudes that subsequent printers
visited
upon it. ·ScrivenerÕs editing eliminated verse numbers
and much of the
italic which had come to be used to indicate words not found in
the origi-
nal tongues. This was the text used by Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson
for
his Doves Press Bible which maintained traditional chapter breaks
and indi-
cated paragraphs with the pilcrow (·).In this and in its
understated typo-
graphic simplicity, The Pennyroyal Caxton Bible closely follows
and owes much
to the Doves model.
THE ILLUSTRATIONS
The illustrated Christian Biblesof the twentieth century have
tended to follow safe, well-travelled paths: missionary bibles
illustrated in a
travelogue mode; sweetly limned childrenÕs bibles; bibles
with picures stuck
into them that were never meant to be illustrations; and a few
illustrated
with work from other eras. The single grand example of this century
is Marc
ChagallÕs Jewish Bible which commenced in 1930and which
was published
in 1957. ·The Pennyroyal Caxton Bible is the only twentieth-cFROM
RECENT ARTICLES
ÒMoser has created engravings wth the brooding power of
magic realism
...[his] images arenÕt the usual biblical clich"s...some
of his indelibly beautiful
engravings are downright disturbing. Ó
ÑMalcom Jones Jr., Newsweek, October 12, 1998
ÒThe Pennyroyal Caxton Bible project seems at once anachronistic,
megalo-
maniacal and inspirational. Interpreting out most cherished and
profound
convictions in art is a project of uncertain success. Doing so
at a time and
place when those convictions are no longer universal and interpretations
are
easy targets of sectarian politics and secular disdain is even
more daunting a
project. ª This single image [of Jonah cast into the sea]
makes me certain
there are visions in [the Bible] which only a modern artist can
embody.Ó
ÑEllen B. Cutler, Cultural Dimensions, Hartford, Ct, March
1998
ÒI for one cannot look upon the images that make up the
crucifixion without
feeling the agony of that sacrifice. And something else. Call
it the price godÕs
own son paid to buy back the human race, includingÑit would
seemÑthe
man who wrote these words and etched line by line these sacred
images.Ó
ÑPaul Mariani, Image: A Journal of the Arts & Religion,
January 1999entury bible
with illustrations for every book of both the Old and New Testaments.
The
