New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1858-09-02
The Oldest Bible on the cont1uenf--A Isaoss
Over Wine nmndrea year. OH.


Ihe articles which have lately appeared from time
70 tiEae 70 tle Free Press, hi regard to old Bibles
have had the effect to bring to our notice one of fbe
Tafess a1d most valuable specimens Of biblical teTa
ture ID the world, This ia volume of six hundred
pages, containing the whole Bible III tie latin isu
guage. 1t belongs to the Rev. DR.. DpfieId of thia
city. The book is made entirely Of yelaro and the
printing is all done by hand with a pen and ink
Every letter is perfect Its shape and cannot be ais
tinguished, by any imperfeetions III FORM from the
printed letters Of the present day, The shape Of the
letter ia Of course different from those now in use bu
in no other case can they be distinguished from
printed matter. The immense amount of labor may
be conceived from the fact that there two columns
each page each of which lacks only abeut letters
Of being as wide the columns Of paper, They
will average sixty lines 10 to the eolu3na The col
umns numbering 1900, we have 70,900 Lines in the
whole book. Nothing short Of a life time could ac-
cOmplish such work.
The date Of this book % A. D. $50. It Was eonse-
qaenty made $50 years before printing invented
and - 92s years old. There is probably nothing on
this continent in the shape Of book equal to ii in
age. The yelgm upon which it is printed is Of the
hnest kIHds and is made Of the skin Of young lambs
aud kids, dressed and rubbed with pur1ica stone until
it s very thin II il somewhat thicker than common
paper being medium between that and the drawing
paper now in use. The veins in are distinctly
visible in many places. pencil mark was drawn BY
the operator to guide the construction az each line
Many pages have these lines visible or the whole slf
face, no effort having been made 10 rub them oyf
Two lines running up and down divide the columns
Win naIhehatlcaI accuracy At the beginning aE
each chapter, highly colOFe8 ornamental etlers are
placed. These the only marks Of the division ef
chapters. There are subdivisions into verses tie
chapters running through in one paragraph to the
end, and no descriptive headings.
This invaluable relic was presented To Dir. DafEei6
4 by Lewis Casa, Jr-, Minister Resident al Rome
He procured it Of Greek monk who brought it from
the Greek convent of ST. CathaFfne, at the foot Of
/ Mount Sinai. Mr.. Cass befriended this monk, Whe
was in trouble and he in return, presented him with
/ the volume which we have descrIhed. According Il
his story it is the work of Of the ancient monk
scrbes in the convent above named. When it became
known fhat Mr. Cass was parting with it, and that il
was going ont Of the country, the round sum of 5000
was offered him for it by the monks Of the city b
Rome. This was of course refused, for the pleasure
of placing inestimable relic in the bands of one
who can appreciate its value well learned
divine, DR.. Dnfied. AE the time Of the late fire ID
the Doctors house, this book was thrown into the
street among Others and came very near being lost
| It was picked up the sidewalk by one who recgg
nzed it as one Of DR.. Duiields most valuable relics
and preserved it. detroit Free Press.