Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1858-08-31
MISCELL AN Y .
The oldest Bible on the Continent.

The Oldest Bible on the Continent.
The articles which have lately appeared from
time to time in the Free Press, in regard to Old
Bibles, have had the effect to bring to our no.
tice one of the rarest and most valuable speci
mems of biblical literature in the world. This is
a volume of six hundred pages, containing 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 let
ter is perfect in its shape and cannot be distin-
guished, by any imperfections in FORM from the
printed letters of the present day. The shape OF
the letter is of course different from those now
in use, but in no other respect can they be dis
tinguished from printed matter. The immense
amount of labor may be conceived from the fact
that there are two columns on each page, each
of which lacks only about six letters of being as
wide as the colums of this paper. They will
average sixty lines to the columns. The col
umns numbering 1900, we have about $4,000
lines in the whole book. Nothing short of a life
time could accomplish such a work.
The date of this book is A. d. $50. 1t was
consequently made $50 years before printing
was invented, and is 997 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 printed is of the finest kind, and is
made of the skin of young lambs and kids, dress
ed and rubbed with pumice stone until it is very
thin. 1t is somewhat thicker than common pa
per, being q medium between that and the draw
ing paper now in use. The fine veins in the
skin are distinctly visible in many places. A
pencil mark was drawn by the operator to guide
the construction of each line. Many pages have
these lines 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 colored ornamental letters
are placed. These are the only marks of the di'
vision of chapters There are no subdivisions
into verses, the chapters running through in one
paragraph to the end, and no descriptive head
ings.
This invaluable relic was presented to DR.
| Dutfield by Lewis Cass Jr., our Minister Resi-
dent at Rome. He procured it OF Greek monk
who brought it from the Greek convent OF st
Catharine at the foot of Mount Sinai. MIR. Gas!
befriended this monk, who was in trouble, ant
he in turn presented him with the volume which
we have described. According to his story il
was the work of one of the ancient monk scribe'
in the convent above named. When it became
known that Mr.. Cass was parting with it, aDc
that it was going out of the country tie rount
sum of s., 900 was offered him for it by th'
monks of the city of Rome. This was of course
refused, for the pleasure of placing so inestima
BILE relic in the hands of one who can appre
ciate its value so well as our learned divine, DR.
Dufield At the time of the late fire in the
Dr's house, this book was thrown into the stree
among others and came very near being lost
1t was picked up on the sidewalk by one who
recognized it as one of DR.. Dufield's most val
liable relics, and preserved it.-Detroit FIRE.
EreSS