The Day after Domesday

Though more than four hundred years have elapsed since the Bishops' Bible was first published in 1568, its story has never been adequately told. No book-length evaluation has been published, and no adequate bibliography is available for guidance in studying this least known of the Tudor-period Bibles. This neglect is surprising in that Shakespeare's earlier plays reflect his use of the Bishops' Bible and that the Bishops' Bible was used by the translators of the King James Version as the basis for their revision. This study depicts the religious, literary, and intellectual atmosphere that produced the Bishops' Bible, describes its place in sixteenth-century translations, re-evaluates its contribution to the study of the English Bible, and investigates the history and qualifications of the men invited to participate in the translation project. Attention is given to the artwork, the most elaborate of any in first editions of early English Bibles, and to the notes designed to correct the objectionable Calvinistic notes of the Geneva Bible. A presumption that the bishops would not prepare a better Bible until "a day after domesday" gives the title to this study--The Day after Domesday.