A leaf from the 1568 First Edition of the Bishops Bible. These leaves are 436 years old. The Church of England throughout history has authorized three versions of the Bible: The first, was the 1539 Great Bible. As those Bibles were then getting close to 30 years old, the next generation of English Authorized Bibles was the 1568 Bishops Bible. Finally, as those Bibles were then getting to be over 40 years old, the next and final step was the 1611 King James Bible… the only one still actively published today. No collection is complete without a Bishops leaf.