Tudor Bibles available to see in ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’

Two Bibles from the 1500s have been brought together for perhaps the first time in almost five hundred years.

The Great Bible, produced in 1538-39, was the first authorised edition to be published in English. Prepared by Miles Coverdale, Henry VIII commissioned the Bibles to be read aloud in every Church of England congregation.

Two copies are now on display in the Treasures exhibition at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, until 22 November.

‘Golden opportunity’

Maredudd ap Huw, curator of manuscripts at the Library, described the exhibition as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”.

“There is a golden opportunity on a historical level to see two milestones in the history of England and Wales during the Tudor period. Without the English Bible, the Welsh language would not be spoken today.”

The Great Bible led to the first Welsh translation of the Bible in 1588, which played a key role in preserving the language.

Welsh language

Last month, a copy of the 1588 Bible became publicly available to see in Wales for the first time.

Bishop William Morgan spent ten years creating a standardised Welsh edition from the Hebrew and Greek texts. Nearly one thousand Bibles were published for churches, but one was gifted to Westminster Abbey.

That copy, which has been used only once for a church service in London, was on display at St Davids Cathedral until 9 July.