The Holman CSB Adorned Bible was designed for those who enjoy classic illustrations in their Bible. It includes darkened and cropped illustrations by Gustave Doré and was designed and typeset by 2K/Denmark. It is available in several cover options. I’m reviewing the hardcover edition, ISBN: 9781087762104, printed in China.

Holman 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.

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This Bible is available at (includes some affiliate links)

Amazon

Christianbook

and many local Bible bookstores

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Video Review

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Binding

This is a cloth-over-board hardcover edition. The cover is charcoal cloth with a gold sticker on the front from an engraving by Gustave Doré. Unfortunately, the cloth is a lint magnet, but that’s normal for this type of material. The spine includes a fancy flourish design with gold text. The liner is gold paper. It’s sewn and has no trouble staying open on any page. The overall size is 6.125 x 9.25 x 1.875″. It includes two .25″ ribbons. Dark yellow for the OT and light yellow for the NT.

It comes in a matching slipcase. The slipcase has a gold trim around the border of the front and back and has the same design on the spine.

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Paper

I’d guess the gsm to be around 36. The paper is white in color and it’s highly opaque. The paper seems to be wavy in the corners. It feels like it has a coating. This makes the pages stick together. Unfortunately, I find the pages difficult to separate in one hand to turn. I think this will get better over time. It’s similar to new money. It’s sticky at first but then it’s easier to handle after it’s gotten enough use. The page edges are squared and gold.

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Typography and Layout

The CSB text is presented in a single-column, paragraph format. Poetry is indented and set in poetic lines and personal letters and lists are indented and are only left-justified. The outer margin is 1.25″. Footnotes are placed in the margins at the bottom of the page. The header doesn’t have any text. The footer shows the book name and chapter number printed in gold in the outer margin and the page number in black in the inner margin. Section headings are large and bold. The first letter of a page is a drop cap in gold. All other chapters show the number in gold. OT quotes are in bold.

The typeface is a 10-point Bible Serif designed by 2K/Denmark. It has between 14-16 words per line. The words associated with the illustrations are in gold. The black letter is dark and highly consistent. The gold does have some variation. I find the gold text a little difficult to read in certain lighting.

It’s printed with line matching. This means the text is printed in the same location on both sides of the page. This greatly improves readability because the show-through is clean between the lines of text. The poetic setting looks perfect at this word count. Personal letters also look good with this word count.

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Footnotes

The CSB footnotes are placed at the bottom of the page in the outer margin and they’re aligned with the text. They’re keyed to the text with letters and include the letter and reference. The references are printed in gold. There aren’t a lot of notes, so the space is mostly empty. This makes the margins excellent for recording personal notes.

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Illustrations

The Adorned Bible includes over 200 illustrations by Gustave Doré. They’re darkened high-quality line-art illustrations that are placed throughout the Bible near the passages they illustrate. Each are cropped to focus on specific elements of the illustrations. They include a title and the references they correspond to. Most take a full page. There are several vignettes that are inset within the text. The illustrations are dark and easy to see. They do show through to the other side of the page, which can be a little distracting when reading. I didn’t find it to be too distracting, though.

In the front is an index to the illustrations, It includes the title, reference, and page number for each illustration. They’re listed in order of the page numbers which also places them in order of their references unless a reference has more than one. It has a separate list of vignettes, which shows the reference and the page number.

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Concordance

The concordance is 44 pages with 3 columns per page. It includes biographical information with lots of good character studies. It’s a small concordance that’s good for basic study and sermon prep. You’ll need external tools for serious study. Here are a few example entries with their number of references to help you compare:

  • Christ (see also Messiah) – 10
  • Christian – 2
  • Faith – 9
  • Faithful – 7
  • Faithfulness – 2
  • Faithless – 1
  • God – 12
  • Godliness – 1
  • Praise (n) – 4
  • Praise (v) – 5
  • Pray – 8
  • Prayer – 4

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Comparisons

Here’s how The Adorned Bible compares to a few other editions with Gustave Doré.

Humble Lamb NKJV

The Humble Lamb NKJV Shepherd is in a higher pricing category with a goatskin cover. Its illustrations are nowhere near as dark, but they use the entire illustration rather than a cropped version.

Barnes and Nobile KJV

The Barnes and Noble KJV Bible has a lot thicker paper, making it a lot thicker and heavier. Its illustrations are about the same darkness. They include the entire illustration.

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Conclusion

The CSB Adorned Bible is ideal for those that want something visual in their Bibles. The illustrations are cropped to focus on the main elements and they’re dark, making them easier to see. The black letter text is dark and easy to read. The gold text for the illustrations can be difficult to read without good lighting. It includes wide margins for notes. I find the paper a touch difficult to turn, but it looks great and is highly readable. The Adorned Bible has one of the best presentations of Gustave Doré’s work in a Bible, making it a great choice for any Gustave Doré fan.

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_________________________________________________________

This Bible is available at (includes some affiliate links)

Amazon

Christianbook

and many local Bible bookstores

_________________________________________________________

 

Holman 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.