Welcome to St John's College, Cambridge University
  St John's    Library Home Page    Special Collections    Early Printed Books index

The Bible in Icelandic (Holar: Jon Jonsson, 1584).

The first complete printed Bible in Icelandic. These Bibles were more popularly known as Gudbrands Biblia after their translator and editor Gudbrandur Thorlaksson, Bishop of Holar (1571-1627). King Frederick II of Denmark, who helped pay the costs of publication, ordered that every church in Iceland should purchase a copy, and some were given away to the very poor. This copy has a fine blind-stamped binding, possibly of Danish origin.

Title page to the Icelandic Bible printed in red and black, with an ornate
woodcut border Opening to Genesis
  St John's    Library Home Page    Special Collections    Early Printed Books index

©2008 St Johns College