The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1911-12-26
GREATEST BIBLE
COLLECTION
General Theological Seminary
Of New York Has Il.
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.
In the General Theological seminary.
New York. is to he seen the largest and
most complete collection of Bibles In
this country. probably in the world.
The valuable collection originated
with John Pintard, who started 1t by
purchasing the volumes from bis own
funds and from funds be collected for
the purpose. He secured several i'm
portant copies. including one of the fla.
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
it to the seminary.
The collection was now the Targest In
the world I'm it's number of editions.
but still many important Bibles were
not represented. Dean Hoffman under
took TO make Ii 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 a
copy of the famous Gutenberg Bible of
1850. the first book printed from NOV
able metal types. for which be paid
$4,000.
ALI the Bibles purchased for the col
lection since 1893 have been the gift OF
Dean Hoffman. and since his death bis
son, s. V. Hoffman, has continued con
tributions to add to 1t. the collection
Is not confined to Latin Bibles, but in
cludes a representative collection OF
| English Bibles. valuable collection OF
Greek Testaments, copies ofsxIse Bible
In Hebrew. Syriac and polyglot and In
most of the modern languages.
f,206 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 1866 volumes, 90
polyglot editions In 527 volumes, 302
| editions of the New Testament, chiefly
in Greek; 96 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 Ii
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 q Bible of 1862. the first
printed Bible with a date, which Ii
both an interesting and beautiful
specimen. Ii was printed by Fust &
Schoeffer Of Mainz and is practically
a reprint of the first Bible, for Fust
who was a wealthy goldsmith, had
loaned Gutenberg money for his enter
prise, and later, when be 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 eacl
book or set of books. In the early
printed editions the commentary o.
Nicolas de Lyra was included In thu
text of the Bible, the text being print
ed in double column in the middle o.
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 ant
Italy, and before the end Of the fif
teenth century there were no fewe
than 124 editions of Bibles In Latil
alone. All the earliest were printed II
Gothic letter in folio size, but In 14o
there was published at Basel an oc
tavo edition known as the Poor Man
Bible" The copy of this closely print
ed little book to be seen at the semi
nary is most interesting, for, thougl
1t looks squeezed up In its effort to b.
compact and of smaller cost. SO as Z
be within common reach, 1t had to b
illuminated after some fashion, fol
lowing the custom of the day. So al
the capital letters are marked throug
with line of red, put in by hand aft
er the printing.
| Many Of the specimens have beauti
fully Illuminated initial letters AM
marginal decorations. One interesting
copy, which has been acquired rathe
recently. shows on close examination
that the original initial decoration Of
the first page has been cut out and