Turning Pages in Bach’s Study Bible

In 1935, all of a sudden the personal study Bible of Johann Sebastian Bach in three massive volumes turned up. The immense value of the discovery was that in this Bible edition Bach had annotated several passages, that provided an unprecedented view into Bach’s personal Christian faith. The owner handed the three books of what is officially called the Calov Commentary over to Concordia Seminary in Saint Louis, where the volumes have been kept until today. Some people were allowed to see the books, other ones had to be content with photos made of some of the annotated pages.

After many years of lobbying, the Dutch publisher Van Wijnen managed to persuade the library of Concordia Seminary to allow the three books to be photographed in their entirety. In all likelihood, a complete facsimile of Bach’s copy of the Calov Commentary will be available at the end of 2015. This publication is being overseen by an international team of scholars, who will publish a volume with articles on the Calov Commentary alongside this publication (to be expected in 2016). Dr Marcel S. Zwitser belongs to this scholarly team and will lecture on Bach’s annotations in his study Bible.