The Nevada journal., 1858-10-22
THE JOURNAL.


appeared from time to time in the pa
pers, in regard to old Bibles, have had
the effect to bring to our notice one of
the rarest and most valuable specimens
of biblical literature in the world. This
is volume of six hundred pages, con-
tanning the whole Bible in the Latin
language. 1t belongs to the Rev. DR..
Dufield, of this city. The book is made
entirely of vellum, and the printing is
all done by hand, with pen and ink.
Every letter is perfect in its shape, and
cannot be distinguished, by any imper-
fections of form, from the printed letters
ofthe present day. The shape of the
letters is of course, different from those
now in use, but in no other respect can
they be distinguished from printed
MATER lhe ilil"-e"en amount of labor
may be e-nceived from the fact that
there are two columns On each page,
each of which lacks only about six let
ters of being as wide as the columns of
this paper. They will average sixty
lines to a column. The column num-
bering 200, we have about 72, 900 lines
in the whole book. Nothing short of a
lifetime could accomplish such work.
The date of this book is A D. $50. 1t
was consequently made $50 years be-
fore printing was invented, and is 92S
years old. There is probably nothing
on this continent, in the shape of book
equal to it in age The vellum upon
which it is painted is of the finest kind,
and is made of the skins Of young lambs
and kids, dressed and rubbed with pun
ice stone until it is very thin. 1t is
somewhat thicker than common paper.
being a medium between that and the
drawing paper now in use. The fine
veins of the skin are distinctly visible
in many places. A pencil mark was
made by the operator, to guide the con-
struction of each line. Many pages
have these visible on the whole surface.
no effort having been made to rub them
out. Two lines running up and down
divide the columns with mathematical
accuracy. At the beginning of each
chapter, highly eolored ornamental let
iers are placed. These are the only
marks of the division of chapters
There are no subdivisions into verses,
the chapters running through in one par
agraph to the end, and no descriptive
headings. This Invaluable relic was
presented to DR. Dutheld, by Lewis Cass,
Jr, our minister resident at Rome. He
procured it of a Greek monk, who
brought it from the Greek convent of
ST. Catherine, at the foot of Mount Sinai.
Mr.. Cass befriended this monk, who
was in trouble; and. he, in return, pre-
scented him with the volume which we
have described. According to his story,
it is the work of one of the ancient monk
scribes in the convent above named
When it became known that Mr.. Cass
was parting with it, and that it was go
ing out of the country, the round sum of
$4,000 was offered for it by the monks
of Rome. This was of course refused,
for the pleasure of placing so inestinia-
BILE relic in the hands Of one who can
appreciate its value so we'll as our
learned divine, DR.. Dufield. At the
time of the late fire in the Dr.'s house.
tEis book was thrown into the street,
among others, and came very near being
lost. 1t was picked up on the side
walk, by one who recognized it as one
Of Dr. Dufield's most valuable relics,
and preserved it. This Bible shonld lie
carefully preserved and priced as a ven
erable relic of an age when printing
was Detroit Free Press.