The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-07-14
Private Libraries in st Paul.
Rev Dr. John 6'rghfs Collection Of Books Embraces Fun
dreds Of Rare and Beautiful Bibles

is one of the finest and most complete
in this country. And surely, if one in
tends to unravel that knot of human
fate he would begin with the book OF
books, the Bible. DR.. Wright has sur
rounded himself with over $50 Of these.
the Bibles of the various centuries, of
the various tongues and-alas, that there
must be sucn division-the Bibles of
different denominations.
In this collection there is a Bible that
royal eyes once pondered over, endeavor-
ing, perhaps, to unite the same knot
that resisted old Omars wine stained
fingers. 1t is a large folio and was
printed at Stockholm in 1902, when
Charles XII. of Sweden was twenty-one
years old. The book was for him. Ger
tainly it is superb enough even for
royalty. The covers are of thick oak
boards, with beYeled edges, OVERLAND
with Variegated calf The edges of the
covers are gold, black and red and on
the covers themselves panels are formed
by borders of gold tooling. The brass
mounts and clasps each display a crown
and nterlaced "C's," forming with the
numerals the royal monogram The
pages are of thick linen paper, printed
IN clear black type. 1t is not what one
would call a well worn Bible
Charles of course, could not spend all
ms time bordering the secret" for
history tells us that much of his time
was devoted to training his soldiers to
shoot down the enemies of their coun-
try.
An old Latin Bible in DR. Wrigbt.s
library is more impressive, for it was
Formerly owned by man who tried
seriously to solve that secret Pnilin
nelanchthon, the German reformer. was
the original possessor of the Bible. On
us tes margins, In Melanchthon's crampe0
put leslple hand, are innumerable com
Inehts. The book was published az
Cologne in 1890 1t is in the original calf
pthuihg' The edges of the leaves are
stained red and on the title page is
WOOD engraving of st. Jerome.
A copy of a rare polyglot known as the
damouTgh Bible is one of the most
valuable books in the collection It was
puolshed In 1886 and is In three Ian
guages, Greek, Latin and German The
GieeK version Is from the Venetian Sen
tuaglnt on l5l5; the Latin from the tyr
Latin versions of the Vulga.e and Pc. =
minus; and the German, that of I11tbnr
papLShed in 1915 A more cornprahenSiI,
polyglot, published by Hutter at NiIrano~
pefs IN 1889, is in eight different Ian
suases' Another polyglot Bible. printed
IN London in 1919, was once OWNED nv
mary Lamb, sister of the essayist. On
ny leaf, in delicate Characters a~e
"4lbleH the words, Robert Harry IngleS
from Mary Lamb, 10th of March. 1927 y
Other Bibles in the collection have still
more famous autographs. One printed
at Oxford, in 1922 has Southey's auto
graph, and the book is accompanied bv
letter from Edith c. Southy, grand
daughter of the poet laureate, testifving
TO the genuineness Of the autograph
Fitz-Green Hallecx's autograph makes
another Bible doubly valuable. The
book is in octave and was published nv
the American Bible society Inserted IN
the binding is a printed poem by Whit
tier on the death of Halleck. Whittier's
signature is attached to the poem.
A new testament in Latin and Greek.
by Erasmus, published in thick folio
volume of 7sS pages by Froben of Basic.
in 1886, has on its title page the auto
graphs of Robert Hall, the great Bap-
fist preacher, and Sir James Macintosh.
| the Scotch philosopher. Still another
/ Bible has the autograph of James Red
! path, the abolitionist. There is an in
terest .ng little story connected with this
Bible 1t was presented to DR.. Wright
by the st. Vincent de Paul society, a
! charitable organization of the Roman
Catholic church. 1t was given to the
! pastor of st. Paufs churca, so it saws
on the fly leaf, "as a 81 ght token of
! their appreciation for his kin assistance
in their work OF charity" The date is
st. Patr:ck's day, 1885. A little Greek