Note 92 — Chapter V · KNOX AS LEADER OF OUR REFORMATION.
Reading edition
[The first edition of the Genevan version was printed at Geneva by Rouland Hall in 1560. "The changes made in the Geneva Bible were the adoption of Roman type instead of the black letter, in which all English Bibles had previously been printed, and the division of the chapters into verses. These changes were the principal cause of the wonderful popularity of this version, of which about 200 editions are known. From 1560 to 1616 no year passed without one or more editions issuing from the press, in folio, quarto, or octavo. In 1599 no less than ten distinct editions were printed, each of which consisted of a large number of copies. The last quarto printed in England is dated 1615, and the last folio 1616. After this time a great many editions were printed at Amsterdam by Joost Broerss and other Dutch printers; the last folio bears the imprint of Thomas Stafford, and the date 1644.... 150,000 copies were imported from Holland after this version had ceased to be printed in England.... Owing to the vast number of copies in circulation during the three-quarters of a century that this version was the household Bible of England, it is now the most common of all early printed Bibles.... The singular rendering of the 7th verse of the third chapter of Genesis in every edition of the Genevan version has caused it to be commonly known as the 'Breeches' Bible" (Dore's Old Bibles, 1888, pp. 203, 204).]