Personalized bibles

The first edition of the States Bible was published by a woman. The Widow Machteld van Leuningen bought the monopoly for printing the Bible for the first ten years. After that, more printers got the rights, including the Dordrecht brothers Keur. Their name – meaning ‘checking’ or ‘testing’ – worked in their favour, as if their Bibles were authorised versions. They specialised in custom-made Bibles. The customer chose the size of the print run and the types of prints and maps, binding and locks themselves.

Pieces of the collection:

BIBLIA, THE ENTIRE HOLY SCRIPTURES, 1637, Machteld van Leuningen (1580-1662) (publisher), Paulus Aertsz. van Ravesteyn (1586/’87-1655) (printer), paper, Dordrecht Regional Archives collection

BIBLIA, THE ENTIRE HOLY SCRIPTURE, 1763, JACOB KEUR (1713-1748) & PIETER KEUR (CA. 1680-CA. 1737), paper, Dordrecht Regional Archives collection