NOTES: The "i, u, v" have been updated to the modern spelling. The interior is an 8pt Times font.
The Geneva Bible was the Bible of the Puritans and the Pilgrims, who fled to the religious freedom of the New World in the early 17th century. The first edition of the Geneva Bible was published in 1560 in Geneva, Switzerland, after many of the English reformationists fled there because public reading of the Bible had been prohibited in England. Although never officially adopted in England, for three generations the Geneva Bible was the most popular of all English versions, 140 editions being published between 1560 and 1640. This version was read by Shakespeare and Bunyan and was of cardinal importance for its influence on the English language, literature, and thought.