Ahead of UK's King Charles III's coronation ceremony, which will take place at Westminster Abbey on 6th May this year, news is that Oxford University Press (OUP) has been commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury to produce The Coronation Bible. As per reports, the Coronation Bible will play an important role in the coronation ceremony, as the King Charles III will place his hand to take his Coronation Oath.
“On this momentous occasion, the Bible will be the first, and most important, gift offered to The King. The Scriptures offer a guide and light to all – and I pray these living words will offer strength and encouragement to His Majesty,” The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said in a statement about the development.
'The Bible produced for Charles III’s Coronation will feature typesetting based on the Quatercentenary Edition of the King James Authorized Version, published by OUP to mark the 400th anniversary in 2011. The Quatercentenary Edition was chosen for the coronation to celebrate “the significance of the translation”, as well as to highlight its “pivotal role” in the histories both of the English language and of the United Kingdom,' reported The Bookseller.
The new coronation bible will be hand-bound in leather, and it will be decorated in gold leaf by Shepherds, Sangorski & Sutcliffe-- a bookbinding company. The design on the Bible is inspired by King Charles' love for nature and from other coronation bibles made historically.
OUP has published several bibles, over the decades. 'In 1675 it was granted the right to print the King James Authorized Version of the Bible which, in 1611, was commissioned by King James VI and I to be translated from the original Greek and Hebrew by some of the country’s leading biblical scholars. The first recorded use of an Oxford Bible was at the Coronation of George III in 1761,' reads a report by The Bookseller.
Apart from the the Coronation Bible which will be used in the ceremony, three other copies will also be made by OUP. The bible which will be used in the service will be kept by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Meanwhile, one copy of it will be gifted to the King, and the other two will be kept in Westminster Abbey archive and OUP’s head office in Oxford, England.
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