The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-12-20
GREATEST Bible
COLLECTION
General theological Seminary
Of New York Has II.
MORE THAN 1900 SPECIMENS
A $4,000 Copy of the Gutenberg Bible
the Most Interesting and Valuable.
Curiosities of Some of the Early Edi"
tions-Dean Hoffman's Gifts.


Curiosities of Some of the Early Edi"
tions-Dean Hoffman's Gifts.
In the General Theological seminary,
New York, is to be seen the largest and
most complete collection of Bibles i'll
this country, probably in the world.
The valuable collection originated
with John Pintard, who started it by
purchasing the volumes from his own
funds and from funds he collected for
the purpose. He secured several i'm
portant copies, including one of the ia
nous Jay polyglot edition. but the col
lection remained inadequate in both
numbers and Importance of the Bibles
until 1893, when the COpinger collec-
| ton was announced for sale. The late
Dean Hoffman then interested the late
Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the two men
| purchased the collection and presented
1t to the seminary.
The collection was now the largest in
the world in it's number of editions.
but still many important Bibles were
not represented. Dean Hoffman under
took to make it complete and person
ally visited old bookshops in London
and on the continent, poring over old
folios and following up suggestions
from bibliophiles. He purchased sew
eral valuable editions, among them
copy of the famous Gutenberg Bible of
| 1450, the first book printed from NOV
able metal types. for which he paid
$4,000.
All the Bibles purchased for the col
lection since 1893 have been the gift Of
Dean Hoffman, and since his death his
son, s. V. Hoffman, has continued con-
tributions to add to it. The collection
is not confined to Latin Bibles, but in
cludes representative collection of
English Bibles. valuable collection of
Greek Testaments, copies of the Bible
In Hebrew, Syriac and polyglot and in
most of the modern languages.
1906 Different Editions.
At the last formal enumeration of
the collection, though many valuable
additions have since been made, there
were 1,206 different editions Of Bibles
in 2,373 volumes OF these there were
555 Latin editions in 1,055 volumes, 90
polyglot editions in 527 volumes, 302
editions of the New Testament, chiefly
in Greek; SO editions of the Hexapla,
Goddess, etc.
The most interesting and valuable
book, of course, is the Gutenberg copy,
printed at Mainz, 1450-55, by Johannes
Gutenberg. Two copies of this book
were features of the recent Hoe IL
brary sale, one printed on vellum and
one on paper, but the latter is not con-
sidered equal to the seminary copy,
which is also printed on paper.
There is a Bible of 1862, the first
printed Bible with a date, which is
both an interesting and beautiful
specimen. 1t was printed by Fust &
Schoeffer Of Mainz and is practically
reprint of the first Bible, for Fust,
who was wealthy goldsmith had
loaned Gutenberg money for his enter
prise, and later, when he brought suit
to recover his loan, he got possession
of Gutenberg's types and presses.
In all the early printed Bibles there
are no title pages, the printers i'm
print being affixed at the end, usually
Immediately following the Apocalypse
All editions of the Vulgate have the
prologue of st. Jerome preceding each
book or set of books. In the early
printed editions the commentary of
Nicolas de Lyra was included in the
text of the Bible the text being print
ed in double column in the middle of
the page, with the commentaries ar
ranged all around.
"Poor Mans Bible"
AS is known the art of printing
quickly spread from Mainz through
Germany to Switzerland, France and
Italy, and before the end of the tif-
teenth century there were no fewer
than 124 editions of Bibles in Latin
alone. All the earliest were printed in
Gothic letter in folio size, but in 1491
there was published at Basel an oc-
tavo edition known as the Poor Mans
Bible" The copy of this closely print
ed little book to be seen at the semi
nary is most interesting, for, though
1t looks squeezed up in its effort to be
compact and of smaller cost, so as to
4 be within common reach, it had to be
Illuminated after some fashion, fol-
lowing the custom of the day. So all
the capital letters are marked through
with line of red, put in by hand aft
er the printing.
} Many of the specimens have beauti-
fully illuminated initial letters and
marginal decorations. One interesting
copy, which has been acquired rather
recently, shows on close examination
that the original initial decoration on
he first page has been cut out and a
substitute carefully inserted, employ
ng common gilt instead of gold leaf.
what the motive could have been Is
not clear, as the theft of the gold leaf
would have brought but tride. The
interesting point is that in the numer'
Ous descriptions that have been made
of the book, dated 1880, no mention
has ever been made Of this substitu'
ton. which was first brought to light
after it came into possession Of the
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