Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1897-06-03
5000 BIBLES EVERY DAY.
HOW THE HOLY BOOK IS PRINTED
By THE OXFORD PRESS
sources of the Bible as 1t Appears
Io-day-The Work is Printed In
$50 Different Languages

VERY once in while one reads
r OF the enormous edition Of
some hook, an edition of
100000 or perhaps 100000
and the world marvels at the genius
whose brain evolved such a master
piece. Such a book is reviewed by
literary critics IN every corner of the
world, q tremendous hullabaloo is
Ea1eed snd the universe Is aglow with
enthusiasm.
In the historic university town of
Oxford, England. says letter in the
New Orleans Picavune, there is a print
ing house which turned ont an edition
OF 1870. 439 copies OF book during
1896, and not word was said of it.
For more than 800 years the presses
of this institution have been printing
this same book, and the demand has
steadily increased for. the first year of
its existence to the present time. How
many copies have been turned out in
the past three centuries would be
vexing problem for the brain of a
mathematician to compute. 1t would
run into scores of millions, figures too
magnificent for human realization.
This concern is the University Press,
whose sole business for centuries has
been the printing of Bibles. The place
was established some fifty years after
the German Gutenberg invented NOV
able type, aud the first book turned
out bears the date l46S, but this was a
mistake by ten years; 1t should have
been l47S. For nearly 100 years the
Oxford Press printed books of all
kinds, and then, towards the end of
the sixteenth century, 1t began the
printing of Bibles. From that time
to the present the presses have been
turning out Bibles and Testaments
and nothing else.
1t may be of interest to know the
sources of the Bible as it appears to-
day. In the first place the making of
the Bible did not begin in its modern
aspect until the middle Of the fourth
century after Christ, The Bible is
based upon four great manuscripts.
One of them, the Codex Alexandrinus.
now in the British Museum the Code1
Vaticanus, now in the Vatican, and
[ the Codex S1naiticus and the Codex
q nps:shnaemi. Each Of these is Of. i'm
SaSrs sSSs antiquity.
The Codex Alexandrinus in the Brit
ish Museum is at least 1900 years old,
and it is the most priceless object in
| the vast collection of that famous in
stitution. This document consists OF
773 sheets of dull gray goatskin, the
skin being exceptionally thin and each
sheet measuring II. inches by 10.
| inches. 1t is written on both sides OF
| the sheet in two columns Of faint but
clear Greek characters. 1t once be-
longed to the Patriarchal chamber OF
Alexandria, and was sent as a present
to King Charles the First in 1927.
From manuscripts such as these
from the Latin version Of the fourth
| century from manuscript translations
of the Bible into Ccptic, Syriac and
other languages dating from the sixth
century, and from the writings Of thc
early Christians of the second century
comes the Bible Of to-day
The home of the University Press i
great quadrangular building, ol
series of buildings, erected in 1880
and laid out in the usual college form
with square court If flowers an
grass in the centre.
The composing rooms of this place
are its most wonder eature. Their.
are fonts OF type for the printing o
the Bible IN 32o different languages
comprising all the known tongues o
| Il
for every savage race on the face 0
the globe, and the wonders Of com
position represented by some OF then
would stagger the ordinary printer.
For instance, there is now piece o
type setting going on which was DE
gun in 1868, and it won't be finished
until the twentieth century is vel
under way. it IS little brochure ii
Peshito Syriac for the use OF Ok
manuscript students. The composite
works over case containing 1o0'
boxes, each with its separate char
acter. A single letter requires 81
different pieces OF type, and some o
them require ten. With thousans
boxes before him the compositor can
not work with machlnellke rapiditv
aud his fingers often fall into tn
wrong box. Since this partlcula
task was begun, thirty-three year
ago. think OF the hundreds OF com
positors engaged upon It tha. Lav
passed TO the great bevoni,
The number OF Bibles turned or
daily averages 5000 tie year through
Some are little ana some are big, al
with bindings O. all kinds. Mistake
seldom get into any o. these million
OF Bibles, for there Is a standing ode
Of guinea 10 the person who 'lrs
discovers an error. Toward the ec
of loag edition the constant wear o
the plates sometimes mashes a le:.el
Once the word teaching" was change
into "eacb.nz," and then the letter
vas worn dowa. changing i. u;
aching" Fifty thousand Bibles ~er
|. sen. ont With this !mperfec;ioa, b.
+ taev were a. recalled and the err-
: rectiaed by tie labo,.ous Use 0. Ian