From 1641 to 1768, the Endter publishing house in Nuremberg published 14 editions of the Luther Bible, including this copy. The large-format Baroque editions are known as Elector’s Bibles because they contain after the prefaces portraits of the Saxon princes following Elector Ernest of Saxony (1441–1486, Ernestine line). They are among the most widespread Bibles for private use, the so-called family Bibles of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

This edition of the Bible, including its monumental royal appearance, goes back to a large-scale initiative begun in 1635 by Duke Ernest of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1601–1675), known as the Pious. In an effort to strengthen his country from the inside, he had set himself the goal of fundamentally improving moral, ecclesiastical, and educational conditions in line with the approaches of Martin Luther and stabilizing them again after the Thirty Years’ War.

The Elector’s Bible, also known as the “Weimar Bible” or “Ernestine Bible,” was intended by the duke to be used in every congregation in his principality. The fact that the Saxon dukes had their prestigious Bibles printed outside their borders in Nuremberg and distributed from there testifies to the high level of expertise of this printing and trading city.