Cambridge is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Cameo with the Centenary edition. It has a golden brown aniline calfskin cover, with a full yapp, a red leather liner, and three ribbon markers. It includes a luxurious box, wrapping, and a commemorative booklet.

Cambridge provided this Bible in exchange for an honest review.

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This Bible is available at (includes some affiliate links)

Cambridge

Amazon

Christianbook

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Table of Contents

  1. Binding
  2. Paper
  3. Typography and Layout
  4. References and Footnotes
  5. Concordance
  6. Bible Atlas
  7. Booklet
  8. Video Review
  9. Conclusion

Binding

The cover is a golden brown Aniline calfskin. It’s mostly smooth, with some visual texture. This is a full-yapp edition with perimeter stitching and a darkened line stamped around the text block. The spine includes five hub indications and text, all stamped and darkened. I love this look. It looks rugged and elegant at the same time.

The liner is edge-lined with a dark red Shakira calf split leather. At first, I wasn’t sure I’d like this color combination, but after seeing it in person, I like it a lot. The dark red complements the golden brown well. It has the right amount of stiffness to stay open in one hand. It’s not too stiff and stays open in Genesis. It will take some wear to lie completely flat, but it doesn’t close and seems like it will lie flat. The block is sewn. It has three ribbons in dark brown, light brown, and gold. The overall size, not counting the yapp, is 5 x 7.25 x 1.375″ at the spine. It weighs 1 lb, 7.4 oz. This is the perfect size for carrying and traveling.

Paper

The paper is the 28 GSM premium Bible paper from France. It’s slightly cream and looks great for reading. There is no glare under direct light. A titanium pigment adds opacity, so showthrough is minimal. The paper is silky smooth. This paper is elegant. The page edges are art-gilt with red under gold.

Typography and Layout

The Cameo uses the 1769 KJV. The text is presented in a double-column, verse-by-verse format with center-column references near the verses they correspond to. Each verse is slightly indented, and it includes pilcrows to mark paragraphs. These stop after Acts 20. The header has the book name and chapter number in the outer margin and a summary for each column in the inner margin. The footer shows the page number in the center. All highlights are in black. Supplied words are in italics. It has a full self-pronouncing text.

The typeface is an 8-point Petit Medieval Clarendon. The print is bold and thick. Both the red and the black are dark. This is my favorite red. The red only has the words of Christ while on Earth, so it doesn’t include Revelation. It has around 5-7 words per line on average. This is a facsimile of the original hot metal press edition that was typeset by hand 100 years ago, before line-matching was needed. Some lines throughout the text have words that are close, and a few have extra space to get them to fit onto the page. A few letters fill in more than others. This is normal and doesn’t affect readability. The inner margin is wide enough to bring the text out of the gutter.

References and Footnotes

The cross-references and footnotes are placed in the center column near the verses they correspond to. References are keyed with letters, and footnotes are keyed with numbers. They’re labeled from left to right across both columns. Since the Cameo was originally available with the Apocrypha, there are a couple of references to the Apocryphal books. It has a lot of references, but fewer than the Clarion and Concord. They’re good for study and sermon prep. The translator’s footnotes include information on the original languages and alternate renderings. They are helpful for study and sermon prep.

Here are a few example references to help you compare:

  • Genesis 1:1 – Ps 136:5, Jn 1:1-3, Col 1:16-17, Heb 1:8-10, 11:3, Jer 4:23
  • Deuteronomy 6:4 – Mk 12:29, Isa 42:8, Jn 17:3, 1 Co 8:4, 6
  • Isaiah 9:6 – Lk 2:11, ch 7:14, Judg 13:18, Eph 2:14
  • Matthew 28:19 – Mk 16:15, 16; Is 52:10; Lk 24:47; Ac 2:39; ch 18:20
  • Mark 12:29 – Deu 6:4-5
  • John 1:1 – Gen 1:1, ch 17:5, Col 1:17, 1 Jn 1:1, ver 14, Rev 19:13, 1 Jn 1:2, Phil 2:6
  • John 3:16 – Rom 5:8; ch 1:18
  • Acts 2:38 – Lk 24:47, ch 3:19, 20:21, ch 8:15-16, 22:16, Mt 26:28, ch 10:45
  • Romans 10:9 – Mt 10:32; Lk 12:8
  • 1 John 1:1 – Jn 1:1, ch 2:13-14, Rev 1:2, Jn 1:14, Lk 24:39, Jn 1:4

Concordance

The concordance is 137 pages (they’re numbered up to 139, but the first two pages don’t have entries) with 2 columns per page. This is a large concordance, and it’s the same one used in the Turquoise and Concord. The references are printed in a paragraph format. This can be difficult to follow, but it allows for more entries without using a lot of space. Some words have more than one part of speech. These include an abbreviation for the part of speech with a different entry.

Here are a few examples with their number of entries:

  • Christ – 36
  • Christian – 3
  • Faith – 54
  • Faithful – 27
  • Faithfully – 3
  • Faithfulness – 6
  • Faithless – 4
  • God – 76
  • Goddess – 3
  • Godhead – 3
  • Godliness – 4
  • Godly – 2
  • God-ward – 3
  • Praise (n) – 11
  • Praise (v) – 14
  • Pray – 45
  • Prayer – 22

Bible Atlas

In the back are 15 pages of detailed and colorful maps. They’re printed on thick non-glossy paper. They include borders, import commodities, dates, routes, passes, settlements, distance, topography, mountains, cities of refuge, cities, tribes, vegetation, kingdoms, battle sites, satrapy, city walls, city gates, older city walls, seven Churches of Asia, and lots more.

It also includes an 8-page color-coded map index printed on the same thick paper. They show the settlements, political (nations, provinces, and regions), physical land, physical water, travel, and Jerusalem. This is one of the best indices I’ve seen. I’m glad to see it included because it makes the maps much easier to use.

Maps include:

  1. The Ancient Near East in the Late Bronze Age
  2. Regions of Palestine and Surrounding Areas
  3. Sinai and Canaan at the Time of the Exodus
  4. Israel within Canaan
  5. The United Monarchy of David and Solomon
  6. Israel and Judah: The Divided Monarchy
  7. The Assyrian Empire
  8. The Babylonian Empire
  9. The Persian Empire
  10. The Hellenistic World after Alexander
  11. Jerusalem in Old Testament Times
  12. Jerusalem in New Testament Times
  13. Palestine in New Testament Times
  14. The Roman Empire
  15. The Eastern Mediterranean in the First Century AD

Booklet

The centenary Edition of the Cameo comes with a commemorative booklet that tells the story of the Cameo. It discusses the different types of Cameos and includes photos of the bindings that have been produced. It’s a small booklet, but I did enjoy and appreciate the information provided. I’d love to see a detailed book on all of the Cambridge editions. I’d buy that.

Video Review

Conclusion

The Centenary Edition is an excellent edition of the popular KJV Cameo Bible. I’ve always liked the Cameo. With its size and readability, it’s easy to see why it’s Cambridge’s most popular Bible. The golden brown Aniline calfskin with full yapp, dark red Shakira calf split liner, and three ribbons stand out, making this a beautiful Bible to celebrate the Cameo’s 100th anniversary.

_________________________________________________________

This Bible is available at (includes some affiliate links)

Cambridge

Amazon

Christianbook

_________________________________________________________

 

Cambridge provided this Bible in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to give a positive review, only an honest one. All opinions are my own.