Some textual changes were made in this edition as a result of a comparison of the 1920 text with the remaining fragments 3 of the original manuscript, the printer's manuscript and the 1840 edition among others. Over the years, the Book of Mormon has appeared in many languages. The text here is English. The electronic text here follows the 1981 LDS text, but includes no chapter headnotes. We have not included Joseph Smith's introductory note in the 1830 edition which explains the matter of losing the 116 page manuscript, familiar to most Latter-day Saints.
Preface Includes the testimony of eleven men who saw the golden plates.
In the 1830 edition, the testimony of the witnesses was placed at the end of the book. That is, during the translation, chapter breaks were indicated by Joseph Smith as a part of the text as it was delivered through the Urim and Thummim. Ill. It was not removed from the cornerstone until 1882. The manuscript had suffered considerable moisture damage. Portions of the manuscript were distributed to Nauvoo visitors by the owner of the building.