The opening of the Book of Mormon introduces a narrator who identifies himself as Nephi and situates his family at Jerusalem during the reign of Zedekiah. The 1830 edition begins the First Book of Nephi on printed page 5. A reader using a modern edition should notice that the original chapters are longer: the first chapter of 1830 corresponds to what is now commonly divided into First Nephi, chapters 1 through 5. A reference to an early chapter number therefore requires the edition to be identified.
The printed book can be studied alongside the surviving printer’s manuscript. Compare the handwriting with the typeset page; distinguish a correction in the manuscript from punctuation supplied in print and from a change appearing in a later edition. When quoting an early copy, give its publication year and printed page, then add a modern chapter and verse reference if that helps the reader locate the passage. A photograph of an old title page, by itself, cannot establish that every leaf in a volume belongs to that edition. Text, paper, printing, completeness, and binding each have a place in examining the book as an historical object.
