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Her Majesty The Queen with Sir Peter Williams and Christine Fyfe (far right) as she is shown some of the highlights of the University's Special Collections in December 2008.

Resting place of the 'wicked'

University’s collection of rare bibles, courtesy of a Leicester bibliophile

Fans of Dan Brown will have had their fill this year thanks to the publication of his latest novel, and the Hollywood adaptation of Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, released on DVD a few weeks ago, in which ‘symbologist’ Robert Langdon’s efforts to unravel a modern-day conspiracy with help from the Vatican Secret Archives.

But if Dan Brown has piqued your interest in Christian history, you don’t have to travel to the Vatican to find valuable Christian rarities - it may be a surprise to hear that Leicester itself is home to many rare religious texts.

Deep in the basement of the David Wilson Library are the Special Collections of the University of Leicester. Of these, the Robjohns Collection would be of particular interest to any Harvard Professors searching for clues for their latest religious conundrum. It includes 500 early printed Bibles, including a 1535 Coverdale, the Chronicum Mundi, printed in Nuremberg in 1493, and a first edition of John Milton's Paradise Regained.

Most infamous of these rarities is possibly the ‘Wicked Bible’, believed to be one of only eleven copies of this bible still in existence. Its original publication was the cause of a great controversy in Britain – all thanks to a typographical error that effectively encouraged adultery!

Its story was enough to bring a smile to the face of Her Majesty the Queen when she opened the Library in December 2008. Christine Fyfe, University Librarian, explained: “Her Majesty was amused to see the 'Wicked Bible' of 1631 - so called because the printers omitted the word 'not' in the Seventh Commandment so that it reads 'Thou shalt commit adultery'. The printers were heavily fined and all 1000 copies were ordered to be destroyed. It is thought that only eleven remain in existence, one of which is in the University of Leicester Special Collections.”

The book was co-published by Robert Barker, who was the printer of the first edition of the King James Bible. As one of the royal printers, the mistake drew the attention and the scorn of King Charles I and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

This infamous bible is but one of the many rare books and medieval manuscripts donated by Caleb Robjohns, a Leicester hosiery manufacturer and keen book collector. He bequeathed his substantial collection to the University College Leicester library in 1930, at a time when the University College relied heavily on such donations of books to provide for its growing population of students. The University owes much of its success to the generosity of local businessmen and dignitaries in those early years.

And while no hints as to centuries-old religious conspiracies have been uncovered in the University’s library to date, who knows what the curious student might uncover amongst the hundreds of curiosities stored there?