The Coronation Bible has been commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury and will be published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in advance of the coronation of UK King Charles III, which will take place at Westminster Abbey on May 6 of this year. The crowning Bible, where King Charles III would rest his hand to take the Coronation Oath, is said to have a significant role in the crowning process.

The Bible will be the first and most significant gift given to the King on this historic occasion. The Bible provides direction and light for everyone, and I hope that His Majesty will find strength and encouragement in these live words, said the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, in a statement regarding the development.

The typesetting for the Bible created for Charles III’s coronation will be based on the King James Authorised Version Quatercentenary Edition, which was released by OUP in 2011 to commemorate its 400th anniversary. According to The Bookseller, the Quatercentenary Edition was chosen for the coronation to honour “the significance of the translation” and to draw attention to its “pivotal role” in the histories of the English language and of the United Kingdom.

The new coronation bible will be hand-bound in leather and embellished with gold leaf by a bookbinding business called Shepherds, Sangorski & Sutcliffe. King Charles’ passion for the outdoors and earlier coronation bibles from history served as inspiration for the Bible’s style.

Over the years, OUP has released numerous bibles. King James VI and I commissioned some of the nation’s top biblical academics to translate the King James Authorised Version of the Bible from the original Greek and Hebrew in 1611, and it was given permission to publish that version in 1675. According to a claim by The Bookseller, an Oxford Bible was first used at George III’s coronation in 1761.

OUP will also produce three more copies of the Coronation Bible in addition to the one that will be used at the ceremony. The Archbishop of Canterbury will preserve the bible that will be used during the service. In the interim, one copy of it will be given as a Westminster Abbey archive and OUP’s head office in Oxford, England.