God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James BibleHarper Collins, 2009 M10 13 - 336 pages NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK “This scrupulously elegant account of the creation of what four centuries of history has confirmed is the finest English-language work of all time, is entirely true to its subject: Adam Nicolson’s lapidary prose is masterly, his measured account both as readable as the curious demand and as dignified as the story deserves.” — Simon Winchester, author of Krakatoa In God's Secretaries, Adam Nicolson gives a fascinating and dramatic account of the era of the King James Bible and its translation, immersing us in an age whose greatest monument is not a painting or a building but a book. A network of complex currents flowed across Jacobean England. This was the England of Shakespeare, Jonson, and Bacon; the era of the Gunpowder Plot and the worst outbreak of the plague. Jacobean England was both more godly and less godly than the country had ever been, and the entire culture was drawn taut between these polarities. This was the world that created the King James Bible. It is the greatest work of English prose ever written, and it is no coincidence that the translation was made at the moment "Englishness," specifically the English language itself, had come into its first passionate maturity. The English of Jacobean England has a more encompassing idea of its own scope than any form of the language before or since. It drips with potency and sensitivity. The age, with all its conflicts, explains the book. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more. |
From inside the book
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... and reused by hir Masterpersall Comandément Aspointné sebered in Churcher . Imprinted at London by Robert Barker Printer to the King mofe Cxcellent Mar ANNO DOM 1611 GOD'S 23 SECRETARIES ab The Making of the King James.
... Robert Cecil , 1st Earl of Salisbury , by John de Critz the elder . National Portrait Gallery . Panorama of London and the Thames , 1616 , ( detail ) by Claes van Visscher . © Guildhall Library , Corporation of London / Bridgeman Art ...
... Robert Barker , ' Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majestie ' , in 1611 , remains something of a mystery . The men who did it , who pored over the Greek and Hebrew texts , comparing the accuracy and felicity of previous translations ...
... Robert Carey , who at different times had been a com- mander against the Spanish Armada and a court dandy - just the sort of glamorous and rather sexy man to whom James was instinctively drawn - had ridden night and day on his own ...
... Robert Cecil , and the only sign that Carey had brought from the south was a sapphire ring , which James had once sent to Carey's sister , Philadelphia , Lady Scroope , with the express purpose that she would return it as soon as she ...
Contents
1 | |
2 | |
20 | |
He sate among graue learned and reuerend | 42 |
Faire and softly goeth | 62 |
am for the medium in all things xi I | 84 |
20 | 85 |
The danger never dreamt of that is the danger | 105 |
The grace of the fashion of | 198 |
Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut vp his tender mercies? | 216 |
APPENDICES | 228 |
A The Sixteenthcentury Bible | 247 |
Chronology | 261 |
62 | 274 |
105 | 276 |
ལུ༠ཚŞརྗེནི ཝིཛྫིཥྞཾ 117 137 147 | 277 |
O lett me bosome thee lett me preserve thee next to my heart | 117 |
We have twice and thrice so much scope for oure earthlie peregrination | 137 |
When we do luxuriate and grow riotous in the gallantnesse of this world | 147 |
True Religion is in no way a gargalisme only | 173 |
173 | 278 |
216 | 280 |