EARLY BIBLES

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 23, 27 January 1923, Page 12

EARLY BIBLES

EXHIBITED IN NEW YOBK,

Jii An opportunity to inspect a lemarkrt''/ble collection" of Bibles . was ofEered by l'.;!an exhibit in New York Public Library :.,©n 11th December. The exhibition filled .■about fprty showcases. There were es- : ihibited Greek Codexes, Polyglots, beauti-

■ >Jully illuminated manuscript Latin •;■•:', 'Bibles, Hebrew rolls, an early Samaritan r-Pentateuch, .and other ancient Bible • T-inanuscrip-ts, as well.as the first printed .';;Bibles and Testaments in translations of -'■'tthe leading language's of th© world. 1 ,'Many of the exhibits were, the only "copies- in America .arid copies exist in ■ «nly a few of the libraries of Europe. '■'■■■• The group-'of fifteenth-century printed ■;■;. (Latin Bibles filled seven showcases (says "■'Hthe "New York Evening Post"). It ,'i'itarted with the ■ famous Gutenberg '■jjßible (1453-1455), the first real book ever •y'-'iprinted with movable type. The oldest '■'..'.'original manuscript displayed was an >:'Evangeylistary of the end of the ninth •■«'.;«entury, written in gold on a purple -i'jground, a very beautiful Carlovmgian .'^manuscript. .■■■■■« The ten showcases devoted to the

•"fvarious English editions contained an

'.' .unbroken series of the first of each of ■••'■these translations. They began with ■ -'what is, perhaps, the finest of tho eight ['.Jknown manuscripts of John Wycliffe's -New Testament, about the year 1380, and .'-••several of John Purveys revision, 1420 tio 1430.

', Another interesting group consisted of iho English Bibles and New Testaments Jthat were printed.in the United •before 1850, beginning with the" New /.Testament printed by Ait-ken at Philadelphia in .1777, and -his first American■'printed'English Bible, 1782.' The first ■■Bible in any language that was printed "'in America is John Eliot's Indian Bible ?n the Natick, Mass., dialect. ! ; The New'"York -Public Library is the 'owner'of" the 373 : famous' paintings by 'JTisßot illustrating completely the' Old 'Testament, a gift to the Library by the : late. Jacob H. Schiff.'.. The'iull set was liurrg. as' a. background 'to the Bffile ■■■exhibition in the main, exhibition room.