Photos: Hidden Text Discovered in England’s Oldest Bible

News
By published

Title Page

Title Page

(Image credit: Copyright Lambeth Palace Library)

Marginalia visible through the title page of the 1535 Latin Bible.

In the margins

In the margins

(Image credit: Copyright Lambeth Palace Library)

Marginal notes in the Latin Bible, copied from the "Great Bible" — the first authorized English-language Bible in England. These notes represent tables of lessons, which provide a schedule of texts to be read on certain days, such as Easter. The owner of this Bible was clinging to Latin prayer, but transitioning to English lessons, highlighting the gradual on-the-ground change during the English Reformation.

Stephanie Pappas
Stephanie Pappas
Live Science Contributor

Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. 

Robots: Facts about machines that can walk, talk or do tasks that humans can't (or won't)

Diagnostic dilemma: A rash 'migrated' across a man's body from his anus

What is xeroderma pigmentosum? The rare genetic disorder that forces people to avoid sunlight
See more latest
Most Popular
Person holding a processor in gloved hands.
China's '2D' chip could soon be used to make silicon-free chips
A cat sleeping on a ship
Catquistadors: Oldest known domestic cats in the US died off Florida coast in a 1559 Spanish shipwreck
a diagram showing the Perseus galaxy cluster
Astronomers discover giant 'bridge' in space that could finally solve a violent galactic mystery
A lot of galaxies are seen as bright spots on a dark background. Toward the left, the JWST is shown in an illustration.
James Webb Space Telescope finds a wild black hole growth spurt in galaxies at 'cosmic noon'
A top down view of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's 1960s molten salt reactor experiment, an early precursor to the Chinese reactor.
'Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That's when the tortoise seizes its chance': Chinese scientists make nuclear power breakthrough using abandoned US research
A crowd of people in Sants train station in Barcelona, Spain.
What is 'induced atmospheric vibration' and did it really cause power outages across Spain and Portugal?
Grand Prismatic Spring, Midway Geyser, Yellowstone.
Yellowstone holds potentially untapped cache of 'carbon-free' helium for rockets, reactors and superconductors
Rig shark on a black background
Do sharks make noises? An accidental discovery might just answer that question
an illustration of a satellite
China uses 'gravitational slingshots' to save 2 satellites that were stuck in the wrong orbit for 123 days
An image of the Circinus West molecular cloud
Scientists spot a 'dark nebula' being torn apart by rowdy infant stars — offering clues about our own solar system's past