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1613 King James Bible Quarto - (First Black Letter Edition) | (Herbert 323.)
The 1613 King James Bible (First Black Letter Quarto Edition), cataloged bibliographically as Herbert 323, is one of the earliest, rarest, and most historically significant small-format printings of the Authorized Version. Printed in London by Robert Barker, the King's printer, this edition translated the massive 1611 folio pulpit Bible into a compact, portable "quarto" size intended for personal study, home use, and daily reading. This 1613 printing is highly prized by antiquarians because it is a "close reprint" of the original 1611 Folio "He" Bible. Crucially, it retains the famous typographical error in Ruth 3:15, which reads: "And he went into the citie." Herbert 323 | ESTC S121317 | STC 2227 | 4to in eights (9 1/4 × 7 inches | 23.5 x 17.78 cm).
 
This specific printing represents a pivotal evolutionary step in the democratization of scripture, transforming the massive, restricted church pulpit Bible into an accessible format designed for private home study. Historically significant as a direct, uncorrected link to the earliest textual tradition of the 1611 translation, it serves as the absolute final issue to retain the famous typographical anomaly in Ruth 3:15, which mistakenly uses the masculine pronoun "he" instead of "she" when describing entry into the city. Because this iconic error was permanently corrected immediately following this print run, surviving copies of this Gothic black-letter volume are exceptionally rare, highly prized by antiquarians, and stand as a remarkable testament to the human hand behind early printing history.
 
The Exterior: This Bible features a period-style, full dark calf leather binding over heavy wooden boards. The exterior presents a deeply patinated and textured look, adorned with 17th-century style brass hardware, including protective corner plates, a raised central diamond boss, and ornamental clasp catches. In the early colonial era, these defensive metal embellishments served a vital dual purpose: protecting the valuable leather from abrasive surfaces and keeping the text block tightly compressed against humidity and dust. To ensure long-term preservation, the Bible has undergone a professional conservation reback repair; the spine has been masterfully rebacked with color-matched leather and five traditional raised bands, seamlessly tucked beneath the original front and back cover boards to restore total structural integrity while fully preserving its historical aesthetic. Enclosed in this majestic armor of brass and leather, the Bible retains a captivating, timeless aura that honors both its sacred contents and its long journey through history.
 
The Interior: A^8 Preliminaries, A-Z^8, Aa-Zz^8, Aaa-Sss^8 The Bible, (A-K^8 L^2) Complete: This volume consists of three distinct parts across a total of 1,186 leaves. It opens with an unnumbered eight-leaf preliminary section signed A⁸. The main body of the work is a comprehensive Bible text, which spans three complete alphabetical signature sequences: a single-letter sequence from A–Z⁸, a double-letter sequence from Aa–Zz⁸, and a triple-letter sequence concluding at Aaa–Sss⁸. Each of these gatherings contains exactly eight leaves. Following the biblical text, the volume concludes with a separate concordance section. This final portion runs from A–K⁸ with eight leaves per gathering, and terminates with a shortened gathering L² containing only two leaves. 
 
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Condition: (One Leaf Supplied in expert facsimile.)
 
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