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Schuyler Wide Margin Canterbury KJV Bible Review

Randy A Brown

Schuyler’s popular Canterbury KJV is now available in a wide margin edition. It’s set in a 9.5 font that follows the same pagination as the regular size and the personal size Canterbury’s, but without the syllabic pronunciation marks. It has red-letter and wide margins on all four sides of the text. It includes a writable 38gsm paper. It’s available in black calfskin with a paste-down liner, and in leather-lined goatskin in several colors: Black, Antique Marble Brown, Imperial Blue, Slate, Dark Green, Firebrick Red. It’s also available in black calfskin. I’m reviewing Slate, made in the Netherlands by Royal Jongbloed.

This Bible was purchased for review. 

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Table of Contents

  1. Video Review
  2. Cover and Binding
  3. Paper
  4. Typography
  5. Wide Margins
  6. References
  7. Concordance
  8. Maps
  9. Front Matter
  10. Comparisons
  11. Conclusion

Video Review

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Cover and Binding

The cover is a natural grain goatskin. The Slate is an interesting color. It actually has a range of colors that mix to create a lot of visual texture. It has perimeter stitching and a yapp (overhang to protect the page-edges). The Jerusalem Cross is dry stamped onto the front. The spine has HOLY BIBLE, KING JAMES VERSION, and the Schuyler logo printed in silver. It has 6 raised ribs.

The liner is red calf split. It looks like cherry red. I love this color. It’s edge-lined and the inner liner is also red. It has a silver gilt-line that runs around the inside perimeter.

The trim size (size of the text-block) is 6.8″ x 9.4″ x 1.75″. The overall size is 7.4 x 10.4 x 2″. The yapp does bend a little to be smaller. This is the size with it bent in a touch. It weighs 3 lbs, 11.2 oz. This makes it the size of a large study Bible, which is perfect for study, preaching, teaching, group study, etc. It has 3 3/8″ red ribbons. They look great against the red under silver page edges.

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Paper

The paper is 38gsm Thinopaque from Finland. This paper was chosen specifically for writing, marking, and highlighting. It has an eggshell color, or a slight cream, and is a joy to read from and write in. There is no glare under direct light. The paper’s texture is slightly rough (it has a ‘tooth’ that’s made for writing). I find the pages to be extra-easy to grab and turn. The opacity is about the same as the regular Canterbury. The show-though is mostly noticeable when there isn’t something printed on both sides of the page. The art-gilt is red under silver. To my eye the font and paper have the perfect contrast. It’s comfortable to read for long periods of time.

Paper in the Back

There are lots of pages in the back for notes. It has 10 blank pages made with the same 38gsm paper. These pages have no markings of any kind. It also has 32 pages thick ruled notebook paper for even more extensive notes.

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Typography

The text is presented in a double-column verse-by-verse format with a decorative drop-cap for each chapter. Psalms are set in a single column.  The header includes the page numbers in the inner margin, and the book name and chapter numbers in the outer margin. Cross-references are placed in a single column in the footer and are separated from the text with a line. All highlights, including verse numbers and drop-caps, are in red. Section headings are in black.

The font is 9.5-point Milo. It has a good amount of line-spacing, to help with reading and underlining. This is a red-letter edition. The red is dark like I prefer. This is some of the best red-letter I’ve seen. Both the black and the red are consistent throughout.

It’s printed with line-matching so the lines on both sides of the page are printed in the same place on the page. The red verse numbers stand out, making them easy to see when looking for them and easy to ignore when reading. It includes pilcrows for paragraph markers, but the section headings also help break up the text into paragraphs. They’re printed in all-caps and stand out, making them easy to see.

The columns have around 6-8 words. The words are spaced apart comfortably without any words too close together or too much space between them. It has italics for supplied words. The pronunciation marks in the regular size and personal size Canterbury’s have been removed, creating a cleaner text. Books start on a new page, which can be used for notes if you want.

References are keyed to the text with letters. The letters are small enough to be easy to ignore but still readable at the same time. I like that cross-references are placed in the footer because the text doesn’t have to share horizontal space with references, allowing for a larger font and a cleaner design. The ornamental drop-caps are LTC Goudy Initials fonts. They’re printed in red and include designs such as flowers, leaves, and vines. Most take 5 lines. Psalms take 4 lines.

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Wide Margins

Of course, the real purpose of this Bible is the wide margins. Here are the margin measurements:

The inner margin is a little more difficult to use. I’d like to see these measurements reversed to make the inner margin easier to write it. The margins are wide enough for references, definitions, outlines, notes, etc. I haven’t written in it because I haven’t decided how I want to use it yet. I’m leaning toward a legacy Bible or a preaching Bible. I might try a combination of both.

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References

It has 55,000 cross-references placed horizontally across the footer. They taper toward the bottom of the page. This grounds the page and looks elegant. They’re keyed to the text with letters. The pilot chapter and verse numbers are printed in red.

Here are a few verses with their references to help you compare:

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Glossary

It has a 9-page glossary of words that have changed in meaning or are no longer in use. I’m glad to see this included because we don’t always realize that a word has changed meaning and it’s not always easy to know that from the context. I plan to write them on the pages with the words, or at the very least mark the words so I know to check the glossary.

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Concordance

The concordance is 43 pages with 3 columns per page. The entries are in red. It includes biographies of key people with references for key events in their lives.

This is a good concordance for study, but the print will be too small for some. They’ve included the wide margins in the concordance, which reduced the size of the already small font in the regular edition. Anyone that needs large print will have trouble using this concordance. I’d guess the entries at 4-point and the text with references at 3-point, but they could be smaller than that. Even with my bifocals, I have trouble seeing the text. I’d like to see them remove or reduce the wide margins from the concordance and produce it with a larger font in the way Cambridge does with their Pitt Minion-based wide margin Bibles.

Here are a few example entries with the number of references for each one to help you compare:

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Maps

It has 12 maps printed on thick paper. They are colorful and look elegant. These are my all-time favorite colors for maps. They’re annotated well and include borders, cities, distance, topography, Scripture references, places of worship, capitals, water, roads, canals, seaports, ancient inscription sites, events of Jesus’ life, Apostles’ ministries, places of writings, etc.

It also has a 3-page index to maps.

Here’s the list of maps (and one chart):

  1. World of the Patriarchs
  2. Israel’s Twelve Tribe Allotments
  3. Route of the Exodus
  4. Kingdom of Saul, David and Solomon
  5. Divided Kingdom
    1. Kings and Prophets of Israel and Judah (Chart)
  6. Assyrian and Babylonian Empires
  7. Persian and Greek Empires
  8. Ministry of Jesus
  9. Jerusalem and the Passion of the Christ
  10. Apostles’ Early Ministry
  11. Missionary Journeys of Paul
  12. Roman Empire and Early Christianity

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Front Matter

In the front, we find the presentation/family pages the, Epistle Dedicatory, and the Translators to the Reader.

The presentation and family pages include the presentation page, marriages, births, and deaths. They’re printed with a floral graphic in dark red that frames the page.

The Translators to the Reader is an important document and I’m glad to see it’s included.

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Comparisons

Here’s how the Wide Margin Canterbury compares with the regular edition, personal size, and the Cambridge Wide Margin Concord.

Canterbury

The full-size Canterbury is a larger print Bible in 11-point. It’s black-letter and includes pronunciation marks. It has 36gsm paper. It’s a great choice for reading, study, and preaching.

Personal Size Canterbury

The Personal Size Canterbury is a carry sized edition that’s great for travel and visitations. It has 28gsm paper, pronunciation marks, and is red-letter. It doesn’t include the concordance.

Concord Wide Margin

The Wide Margin Concord is slightly smaller. It has a smaller font, but the font is darker. Both have the same paper (but I’ve heard the newer Concords have 40gsm). Both have a glossary, concordance, maps, and note pages. The Concord has the translator’s footnotes, while the Canterbury has section headings.

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Conclusion

The Wide Margin Canterbury is a well-made Bible. The print is larger than most wide margin reference editions and it’s the only wide margin KJV designed with line-matching. A few others do match here and there, but they weren’t purposely designed with it. The 2K/Denmark design is elegant and draws me in. I find the font size to be easy to read and preach from.

I love almost everything about the Wide Margin Canterbury. My one complaint is the size of the font in the concordance. If I could change one thing, I’d remove the wide margins in the concordance and make it the same font size as the regular edition. It is a large Bible, but being a wide margin reference edition on 38gsm paper that’s to be expected.

The Slate goatskin looks interesting. I’d buy it again. I love the red liner (even more than I expected to). Construction and materials are the highest quality available, which is no surprise considering it was built by Royal Jongboed in the Netherlands. The paper was made for writing, making this an ideal Bible for personal study, teaching, preaching, and creating a legacy Bible. If you’re interested in a high quality and well-designed wide margin KJV, the Wide Margin Canterbury is a great choice.

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Buy from Evangelical Bible

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This Bible was purchased for review. 

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