Involving Readers

Book excerpt: This volume explores how and by whom early modern Dutch Bibles were used. Through a detailed analysis of paratextual features and readers’ traces in over 180 surviving Bible copies, Renske Hoff displays how individuals manifested their faith in owning, reading, and personalising the Bible, in a period characterised by religious turmoil. From nuns and countesses to tailors and merchants: Bibles were read by a diverse public. Printer-publishers shaped the contents and paratextual features of their Bible editions to suit the varied wishes of the reading public. Readers themselves added marginalia, corrected the text, or pasted texts and images in their books, displaying their creativity as users as well as stressing the malleability of the material Bible.