If the monopoly of printing the Bible brought its gains it also brought its risks. Christopher Barker in his report goes on to speak of this:
"The whole bible together requireth so great a somme of money to be employed, in the imprinting thereof; as Master Jugge kept the Realme twelve yere withoute, before he Durst adventure to print one impression: but I, considering the great somme I paide to Master Wilkes, Did (as some haue termed it since) gyve a Desperate adventure to imprint fouer sundry impressions for all ages, wherein I employed to the value of three thousande pounde in the term of one yere and a halfe, or thereaboute: in which tyme if I had died, my wife and children had ben vtterlie vndone, and many of my frendes greatlie hindered by disbursing round sommes of money for me, by suertiship and other meanes...."
Robert was not without a like experience. The King, it is claimed, never paid a penny towards the great work. Indeed, William Ball, writing in 1651, says: "I conceive the sole printing of the bible, and testament, with power of restraint in others, to be of right the propriety of one Matthew Barker, citizen and stationer of London, in regard that his father paid for the emended or corrected translation of the bible, 3,500 l.: by reason whereof the translated copy did of right belong to him and his assignes."
Whether the great expense connected with its production ruined him, or whether, as Mr. Plomer suggests, he had been living beyond his means, Barker's last days were involved in financial difficulties, and he died in the King's Bench prison.
Some of the ornament in the book, particularly that used with the coat-of-arms of the King, the genealogical tables, the map, and some few head-bands and initial letters, again recall the work done for Plantin, and lead us to think that that great printer's books had not been without their influence upon the Barkers. The Tudor rose, the thistle, harp and fleur-de-lis are combined in different ways in initials and head-bands; the head-band of the archers, which was afterward used in the folio edition of Shakespeare's works, and is found in many other books, appears; and a large number of unrelated and commonplace initials and type-metal head-bands bring to mind the fact that Barker had come into the possession of material formerly belonging to John Day and Henry Bynneman.
Folio. Black letter. Double columns.
Collation: A, six leaves; B, two leaves; C, one leaf; A2-A6; D, four leaves; A-C, in sixes; two leaves without signatures; A-Ccccc6, in sixes; A-Aa6, in sixes.