Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1880-03-13
An Old Bible,

1t was IN 1909 tnaG met IN monte,
Ala, the owner of this book-Dr. j. r.
WitherspoUn, grandson of President
Witherspoon, one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence. The Doc
tor was an educated gentleman, and
urged me if L ever came in the region
of Greensboro, Ala, to be sure to call
on him and he would show me his won
derful Bible. / was not slow to accept
his invitation, and rode on horseback
some dozen miles out of my way to see
the greatest wonder of the age of this
kind of book.
elegantly on broad acres and with the
slaves about him, for he did not seem
to think there was anything in his BIZ
father signed the declaration that +" all
men are created equal" The book was
soon brought out from a careful keep
ing, and sure enough, though | had
seen for years the great Van Ess library,
with Bibles having chain attached
that once held them to pulpit, and the
Bible of Philip Melanchton, with his
autograph, I had never seen any such
Bible as this.
took it in my hand with awe, for it
was written in the days of King Alfred,
and by monk of Cornwall, England,
who worked at it forty years-almost a
lifetime-and was evidently on the very
finest of parchment, little inferior to
satin. How such a finish could be put
upon the skin of any beast in the days
SO long ago, when the binding of the
book was in oak boards, tied with buck
skin thongs, was a mystery and almost
a contradiction.
But more wonderful yet was the
writing within. The pages were all
ruled with great accuracy, and written
as uniformly in the lines as print,
which was not then invented, for some
500 years lay between that old monk
and Faust and Gutenberg. The style
was German text-hand, and was an alb
breviation from the vulgate of jerome,
made in the fourth century.
The first chapter of every book was
written with a large capital, of inimita-
BILE beauty and splendidly illuminated
with red, blue and black ink, still in
vivid letters, with no two of the capitals
precisely alike. Here was indeed a
Dore before him of our age. Each
chapter is divided into verses by. dot
of red ink, though do not remember
when ssthe venerable Bede'' made his
division of Scriptures into chapters and
verses. This dot of the Bible speak of
may have been the work of subse-
quent age.
As to the size of the book, it was
about that of an old Ainsworth Latin
dictionary-the kind that was mistaken
for a Bible once by a family in Ala
bama, and brought out at the request of
colporteur who wished to see their
Bible! This manuscript Bible of With
erspoon's contained all the books of
the Old Testament except the Psalms
| and the Apocrypha. Two chapters. the
last of Leviticus and the first of Num-
bers, containing the most splendid cap
ital letters in the book, had been re-
Gently wantonly abstracted or cut out,
in the house of DR.. Witherspoon, by
some biblomaniac who did not dare
steal the whole book. It contains, also,
the whole of the New Testament except
the chapters where the disputed text oc-
ours, about Sc the three who bear record
in Heaven"
In regard to the history of this Bible,
the Doctor told me that it was found by
a friend of his father among a lot of old
books bought at auction for a song
some twenty shillings-and taken to a
clergyman, the Rev. DR.. McCalla, of
South Carolina, as book that the pur-
chaser could not make head nor tail
of, and which might be of value
to some book-learned man. The cler-
gyman readily gave him some half a
dozen books for it from his library, such
as could be easily Sc understood by the
people, and the man was happy in
the exchange. DR.. McCalla certainly
was, for he had driven a sharp bargain,
and had book that was worth, when
first written, $1,000, and would be
worth that.now to any old bookworm-
who desireth not new books any more
than new wine, "for he saith the old is
better"
This heirloom barely escaped getting
| out of the family line, for it was once
loaned by DR.. Witherspoon, but he had
the forethought to put the borrower
under written bonds to return it, and,
the man dying, the book was lent by
| his widow to- some third person, and
finally found its way, as a rare treasure,
into some college / think
whence it was recovered under threat
of suit on the bond.
4 left the sight and handling of this
most wonderful Bible of any in exist
enee, perhaps, with many longing,
lingering look, but not till had writ
ten its history very fully at the request
and dictation of the venerable owner.
I-Rochester IN. ~ Erpress.