History of the Saints – Joseph Smith Papers, The Printers's Manuscript of the Book of Mormon

Glenn Rawson interviews Royal Skousen and Robin Jensen about Joseph Smith Papers Revelations and Translations, Volume 3. This volume, published in 2015, presents the most complete early text of the Book of Mormon—the printer’s manuscript. For the first time ever, each page of the manuscript is presented as a high-resolution photograph and accompanied by a color-coded transcript that shows which scribe made each change to the manuscript. Because of the length of the printer’s manuscript, this volume has been split into two parts: Part 1 contains introductory and explanatory materials, the copyright and preface pages of the printer’s manuscript, and the text of the Book of Mormon from 1 Nephi through Alma 35. Part 2 contains the text of the Book of Mormon from Alma 36 through Moroni, statements of Book of Mormon witnesses, and reference material, including a chronology, a biographical register, and a table documenting how the printer’s manuscript was used in printing the 1830 and 1837 editions of the Book of Mormon. As in other volumes in the Revelations and Translations series, the volume and document introductions in Part 1 place the printer’s manuscript in its historical context, and the annotation throughout the volume focuses strictly on textual issues, including identifying significant variants between the printer’s manuscript, the original manuscript, and early printed editions.