# The Holy Bible, conteyning the Old Testament, and the New > Robert Barker, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty - 1611 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/robert-barker-kings-printer/king-james-bible-1611-upenn/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-29 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Robert Barker, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty - **Date:** 1611 - **Medium:** Letterpress printing in black letter (gothic) type on paper, text in two columns, folio format, with engraved architectural title page - **Dimensions:** Folio, approximately 41 cm in height. Width, page count and full collation of this specific copy are not given in the catalogue record consulted. - **Object type:** Printed book - **Period:** English, Jacobean, early seventeenth century - **Current location:** Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Philadelphia - **Attribution:** accepted ## Summary The University of Pennsylvania's copy of the first edition of the King James Bible, printed in London by Robert Barker in 1611. Penn's own catalogue record identifies it explicitly as a copy of the 'Great HE edition', meaning it carries the uncorrected reading at Ruth 3:15, 'and he went into the citie', that distinguishes the first state of the first printing from the corrected 'she' reading found in the later, separately reset edition usually called the She Bible.The book has been in Pennsylvania's keeping since 1946, when the accountant and collector T. Edward Ross gave his Bible collection to the university library in memory of Lucien Bonaparte Carpenter. Where the book was for the roughly three and a third centuries before that gift is not recorded in any source consulted for this record.The He Bible and She Bible are not simply two printings of one edition corrected on the press. Herbert's standard bibliography treats the She Bible as a distinct second edition, dated 1613 on its general title page even though it carries a reused 1611 New Testament title page, and scholars including A.W. Pollard and David Norton have argued that calling them a matched 'pair' misstates the relationship: the She Bible derives from the He Bible, not the reverse. A minority view, associated with F.H.A. Scrivener, has argued the opposite order. Penn's own catalogue record settles only which state its own copy is: this is a He Bible. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **1611** Printed by Robert Barker, King's Printer, London `[documented]` (origin) Printed in 1611 as stated on the book's own title page. This exemplar carries the uncorrected Ruth 3:15 reading 'he went into the citie', identifying it in Penn's own catalogue record as a copy of the 'Great HE edition', the first state of the first printing. - **1611-1946** Unknown `[unknown]` (gap) No owner is documented for this specific copy across roughly three and a third centuries between its printing and its appearance in T. Edward Ross's Bible collection. Nothing in the sources consulted names an intermediate owner, a sale, or a place of custody during this period. - **-1946** T. Edward Ross (1868-1963) `[documented]` (collection formation) Ownership is documented by Ross's bookplate, recorded in Penn's catalogue metadata for this copy. Ross, an Irish-born accountant and co-founder of the firm that became Coopers & Lybrand, assembled a collection of medieval manuscripts and printed Bibles that included this book. How and when Ross himself acquired this particular copy is not documented in the sources consulted. - **1946-present** University of Pennsylvania Library (Kislak Center for Special Collections, formerly the Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library) `[documented]` (gift) Given to the University of Pennsylvania Library in 1946 by T. Edward Ross, in memory of Lucien Bonaparte Carpenter, as part of the Ross Bible Collection. A catalogue of the collection was published by the library in 1947. The book has remained in Pennsylvania's custody since, held under the same call number, Folio BS185 1611 .L65, in both an earlier Penn digitization record and its current Colenda Digital Repository catalogue record. ## Open questions - How and when did T. Edward Ross acquire this specific copy? No source consulted documents an owner between the 1611 printing and its appearance in the Ross Collection with Ross's bookplate. - What is the full collation of this copy: is it complete, and if not, which leaves are missing? Penn's catalogue record as consulted does not give a leaf-by-leaf collation. - Is the current binding original, a later period binding, or a modern rebinding? Not stated in the source consulted. - Does this copy show any physical relationship, such as shared paper stock or binder's practice, to Penn's own copy of the 1613 She Bible in the same Ross Collection? Not addressed in any source consulted. - Which state of the 1611 print run, He or She, actually came first? The near-consensus view (Pollard, Norton) holds the He Bible is prior and the She Bible a derivative second edition; a minority view associated with F.H.A. Scrivener has argued the reverse. The dispute concerns the edition generally, not this specific copy, whose own identity as a He Bible is independently established by Penn's catalogue record. ## Sources - [1] University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Colenda Digital Repository, catalogue record for 'The Holy Bible, conteyning the Old Testament, and the New', London: Robert Barker, 1611 (call number Folio BS185 1611 .L65, Ross Bible Collection, T. Edward Ross provenance, identified as the 'Great HE edition'). - [2] University of Pennsylvania Libraries, 'Ross Bible Collection', notable collections page, for T. Edward Ross's biography and the 1946 gift in memory of Lucien Bonaparte Carpenter. - [3] Internet Archive Wayback Machine capture (7 June 2007) of the University of Pennsylvania Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image (SCETI) digitization record for 'kjbible', citing the Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library and call number BS185 1611 .L65 for the same imprint. - [4] Wikimedia Commons, image metadata (API) for File:King-James-Version-Bible-first-edition-title-page-1611.png, whose Credit field links to the University of Pennsylvania SCETI digitization page for this book. - [5] Wikimedia Commons, image metadata (API) for File:King James Bible (1611) page A2r.xcf and File:King James Bible (1611) page D4v.xcf, whose Credit fields link to the University of Pennsylvania SCETI digitization of this same volume. - [6] Bonhams, '1611 King James Bible: The Great "He" Bible' (lot description for a different, comparable exemplar; cited here only for edition-level bibliographic identifiers Herbert 309, ESTC S122347, Pforzheimer 61 and Printing and the Mind of Man 114, and for David Norton's characterization of the edition). - [7] The Bible at Beinecke (Yale University), 'The Leaf's Gender: The King James Bible and the "She/He Misprint"', for the scholarly debate involving Gordon Campbell, David Norton, A.W. Pollard and F.H.A. Scrivener on the He Bible/She Bible relationship and naming. - [8] Hall's Fine Art, lot description for a 'Great She Bible' (1613/1611), citing Herbert 319 and quoting Herbert's Historical Catalogue on the She Bible's status as a distinct second folio edition. - [9] Museum of the Bible, 'The "She" Bible' (Book Minute), for an alternative account of the Ruth 3:15 variant's possible origin in Hebrew ambiguity and earlier English translation choices rather than a simple compositor's error. - [10] Wikipedia, 'Robert Barker (printer)'. Tertiary source, flagged for replacement with a scholarly biography of Barker; used for his patent, self-financing of the 1611 edition, the 1631 Wicked Bible fine, and his death in debtors' prison. - [11] Wikipedia, 'King James Version'. Tertiary source, flagged for replacement with primary translation-committee records; used for the six companies of translators, the Hampton Court Conference, and general 1611 printing history. - [12] Harry Ransom Center Magazine (University of Texas at Austin), 'In the Galleries: Anatomy of the King James Bible title page', for the engraver Cornelis Boel and the title page's iconographic programme. - [13] Harry Ransom Center Magazine (University of Texas at Austin), 'In the Galleries: John Speed's Postdeluvian Genealogy from the First Edition of the King James Bible', for Speed's genealogical work bound into 1611 King James Bibles, his collaboration with Hugh Broughton, and the later misuse of the Ham narrative by pro-slavery writers. - [14] Wikisource, 'Bible (King James Version, 1611)/Translators to the Reader', primary text of the 1611 preface, for direct quotation of the translators' own stated purpose and method. - [15] HathiTrust catalog record for 'A catalogue of the T. Edward Ross collection of Bibles, presented to the University of Pennsylvania Library in memory of Lucien Bonaparte Carpenter' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Library, 1947), for the existence and authorship of the published 1947 collection catalogue. - [16] Wikimedia Commons, category listing for File:King-James-Version-Bible-first-edition-title-page-1611.png, confirming the 'Cornelis Boel' category attribution for the title-page engraving. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.