Glimpse: 1599 Geneva Bible Facsimile in "Rembrandt" Leather
This has to be one of the oddest volumes on my shelf: a massive facsimile of the 1599 Geneva Bible bound in thick, unlined brown leather with a heavy-duty buckled strap to keep it cinched tight. It looks like the sort of thing a modern-day Friar Tuck might carry to the Renaissance Festival. At the time, I thought it would be cool. I planned to carry it with me everywhere. But the size and weight of the thing, combined with my wife's good judgment, modified that plan. Still, I like to take it down every so often and flip through the pages. The modern edition of the Geneva Bible from Tolle Lege is much easier to read, but I appreciate the look and feel of the facsimile. (Even if the unlined cover has a tendency to shed all over the place!)
You can still buy one of these bad boys online -- at DiscountBible.com, they're going for $239. According to their description, the "Rembrandt" leather is actually cowhide. They give the dimensions as 7 3/4" x 9 3/4" x 2 3/4", and the shipping weight as 6.1 pounds, which sounds about right.
J. Mark Bertrand is a novelist and pastor whose writing on Bible design has helped spark a publishing revolution. Mark is the author of Rethinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World (Crossway, 2007), as well as the novels Back on Murder, Pattern of Wounds, and Nothing to Hide—described as a “series worth getting attached to” (Christianity Today) by “a major crime fiction talent” (Weekly Standard) in the vein of Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin, and Henning Mankell.
Mark has a BA in English Literature from Union University, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston, and an M.Div. from Heidelberg Theological Seminary. Through his influential Bible Design Blog, Mark has championed a new generation of readable Bibles. He is a founding member of the steering committee of the Society of Bible Craftsmanship, and chairs the Society’s Award Committee. His work was featured in the November 2021 issue of FaithLife’s Bible Study Magazine.
Mark also serves on the board of Worldview Academy, where he has been a member of the faculty of theology since 2003. Since 2017, he has been an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. He and his wife Laurie life in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.