Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1880-04-23
An Old Bible.

1t was in 1850 that | met. in Mobile,
Ala, the owner of this ,Ok-Dr. j X.
Witherspoon, grandson of President With
erspoon one Of the signers of the Deciara
ton of Independence. Tht doctor was an
educated gentleman, and urged me, if |
ever came in the region of Greensboro,
Ala, to be sure to call on him, and he
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 KIM of book. The hook was
soon brought out from careful keeping,
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 Melancthon with his autograph, l
had never seen any such Bible as this. l
took it in my hand with awe, for it was
written in the days of King Alfred, and
by monk Of Cornwall, England, who
worktd at it forty years-almost life
time-and was evidently on the very finest
of parchment, little inferior to satin. How
such finish could be put upon the skin of
of any beast in the days 80 long ago, when
the binding of the book was in oak boards,
tied with buckskin thongs, was mytery
and almost contradiction. But more
wonderful yet was the writing within.
The pages were all ruled with great accu-
racy, and written as uniformly on the lines
as print, which was not then invented,
for some five hundred years lay between
that old Monk and Faust and Gutenberg.
The style was German text hand, and was
an abbreviation from the Vulgate of Je-
rome, made in the fourth century.
The first chapter of every book was writ
ten with large capital, of inimitable
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 Dore before him of our
age. Each chapter is divided into verses
by dot of red ink, though I do not re-
member when ''the venerable Bede" made
his division of Scriptures into chapters and
verses. This dot of the Bible I speak of
may have been the work of subsequent
age. AS to the size of the book, it was
about that of an old Ainsworth Latin Die
tionary-the kind that was mistaken for a
Bible once by family in Alabama, and
brought out at the request Of colpor-
teur who wished to see their Bible. This
manuscript Bible of Witherspoon's con-
tanned all the books of the Old Testament
except the Psalms and the Apocrypha.
Two chapters. the last of Levitlcus and the
first of Numbers, containing the most
splendid capital letters in the book. had
beer recently wanton1y distracted or cut
out, in the house of DR.. Witherspoon, by
some bblomaniac who did not dare
steal the whole book. 1t contains,
also, the whole of the New Tesla
ment, except the chapter where the
disputed text occurs, about 'the
three who bear record in heaven" In re.
gard to the history Of this Bible. the doc
tor told me that 1t was found bY friend
of his father among a lot of old books
bought at auction for song-some TWEEN
ty shillings-and taken to clergyman
Rev. DR.. McCalla, of South Carolina, as a
book that the purchaser could not make
head nor tail of, and which might be OF
value to some book-learnsd man. The
clergyman readily gave him some half a
dozen books for it from his library, such
as could be easily understood by the PEG
ple.'' and the man was happy In the ex-
change. Dr. McCalla certainly was, for
book that was worth when first written
50 500, and would be worth that now to
any old book worm who desirsth not new
books any more than new wine, sfor be
sayeth the old is better"