Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-06-18
THE OLD BOOKS OF AnDOvER
LIBRARY TREASURES AS THEY
APPEAR IN REMOVAL.
Manuscripts, Documents, Inscrip-
tons, But Principally Bibles of
Rare Old Age, Resurrected.
From the Boston Transcript.

Rare Old Age, Resurrected.
From the Boston Transcript.
Seldom do the treasures of an old library
come forth to the light of day as did those
of the old library on Andover Hill during
the week Of the theological seminary
centenary. AS If for one last appearance
before leaving the fine old campus to
find new resting place amid strange
gods at Cambridge, ancient Bibles. manu-
scripts and autograph letters rare prints.
interesting texts Of all periods. from the
fourteenth century to the present. men,
orabilia Of the seminary and its people in
the early years at Andover were brought
together this week for a display such as
only Andover could make, perhaps. but
certainly such as Andover hardly woulo
make for anything less than a centennial
and a complete removal In conjunction
Returning alumni have been pleased to
look over the collection; but the towns
folk. too. have prof1ted by the opportunity.
and some few booklovers have made
pilgrimage to the Hill from afar. Now
the exhibition Is over The old black let
tiers have had their airing; and before
long they will return to alcove or gallery
to rest unobserved until they leave the
Hill forever.
Even the casual visitor could not have
failed to note that there were more Bibles
than any other sort Of books. Barely
within the doorway he would have found
himself fairly surrounded with them
There were two table loads Of fine old To-
los, the Oldest of the King James YER
sion. being a black letter, printed by
Barker at London in 1917, but with
printer antedating it by thirty-nine years
There was a small King James version Of
| 1888. notable for a compactness more IN
keeping with present-day methods and
tastes than those of it's own time. and
doubly interesting for its quaint title page.
made up of what might be described as
insignia of the tribes of Israel, and pen
signature on the fly leaf The latter re-
corded that the book was bought in Lon
don in 1908 by John Goldman, when the
volume itself was nearly 10 years old and
when Andover Seminary was just opening
its doors to Students.
Ancient Bibles.
No doubt the atmosphere of Andover
Hill has been conducive to health and
longevity among Bibles, despite their &C
tivity there. Even the oldest books were
notably we'll preserved paper still firm
and tough. bindings unrotted and intact
excepting here and there a missing brass
clasp or a broken hinge Of sheepskin. A
1907 Genevan Bible and prayer book. with
pages sixteen times as large as those of
the tiny copy now commonly carried to
church. seemed sound as If printed
only a decade ago. and great folio
translation by "Herrn Doctor Martin
Luther himself with numerous black
and white illustrations. a plate title-page.
and full-page plate OF that good friend
of Luther. Duke Frederick III of Saxony.
was as sound and disable as family die
tionary of today. although this Bible was
printed in Nuremberg one hundred and
seventy-two years ago. A folio printed
| in 100 served to represent the French
| translation, but the imprint was that OF
! Jacques Lindenberg Of Dutch city. AM
sterdam.
| Nearby. Venice and Leyden. Antwerp
and Nuremberg contributed specimens Of
the work of the printers In the late fif-
| teenth century. Looking over these works
actness with which the early typefound-
ers followed the hand lettering Of the
time. a Nuremberg folio Of 14S1. In
black letter. with illuminated initials,
printed from the type In the koburger
| print ship, was shown side by side with a
| small manuscript volume having the
same lettering and similar Examinations.
The likeness in style and ensemble was
| remarkable. Only the fading brown OF
| the pen strokes gave ready means of dis
| tinguishing the hand work from the other
| Another book, printed in the same city In
the same year, at the Kreusner shop, al
| lowed similar comparison with another
| manuscript volume. in which not the
black letter but the more open Italian
| style was the feature.
Eliot's Indian Bible.
Probably the rarest books in the collec-
ton were the two editions of Eliot's In
| dian Bible. printed by Samuel Green and
Marmaduke Johnson at Cambridge, the
first edition bearing the dates 1881 and
| 1863 for New and Old Testaments. respec-
| lively, and the second edition dated in the
same way 1880 and 1885. DR.. Gates. the
| presiding genius Of the library. to whose
| efforts much of the interest of the display
was attributable. thinks there are no
| more than four or five other copies of
| these editions in existence In an ad-
| joining case DR.. Gates pointed out an
interesting little volume published from
| Basic in 1870 one of the Froben series.
showing the Froben mark of the dove
and serpent. with a title page drawn by
| Hans Holbein, including the famous art
| lists signature in the corners. The book
! illustrated the manner In which the
use the stock border to embellish their
volumes In this instance could be plain
| ly noted the marks where the border
was broken for the sake of crowdng it
into the page, and even then the low er
edge fell outside. Still another book OF
special value was a copy Of the so-called
Comprehension polyglot Bible printed at
| Alcala (Complutum), in Spain in 1902
1917 with Cardinal Ximenes as editor and
published with papal permission in 1922.
Each page in the upper two-thirds show
| ed the Latin of ST. jerome in a medal
column. with the Hebrew parallel on the
left, and the Greek septuaglnt. with Latin
interlineation. on the right. Below. at thu
right. was the Chaldaic. with Latin trans
lation at the left.