The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1920-06-05
BIBLES WERE PLENTIFUL BE.
FORE REFORMATION.

The reading public, both cleric and
lay, was supplied with an amazing
multitude of Bibles and parts of the
Bible, handwritten as we'll as printed,
in preReformation times, says Febru-
airy Catholic World. We still have
copies of two hundred and thirty-nine
different editions of the whole Bible
printed in nine different languages be-
tween 1850 and 1920. The number of
editions of portions of the Bible
printed within the same period, runs
into thousands. They are literally
countless. These tens of thousands of
Bibles and parts of the Bible were
printed to be sold to and read by
! Catholics. The Catholic printers of
this great mass of Bibles made a
living by publishing copies of the
Bible, conducting a regular trade on
strict business lines, an important as
pect of the question generally over
looked by writer's on the subject. The
production of those Bibles. like the
book-market in general, was regulated
by the law of supply and demand.
With the exception of Bibles donated
to friends by the printers and copies
destroyed by reckless shipping, all
printed Bibles were eventually bought
by Catholics in pre-Reformation times,
so that there is almost a complete
question between demand and supply,
the cases of over-production having
been quite rare Think you that print
ers would have published so many edi-
tionS of the Bible, if there was no like
lihOod that they would readily be sold?
Would any modern publisher reprint
successfully, year after year, a work
which was not selling? Truly, the
Bible was an open" book in pre-Ref
ormation times: 1t was printed every
where in large numbers.
Several classes of people, however,
made no demand for printed Bibles.
The dignitaries of the Church, the
monks of the large monast cries, the
rich noblemen. and the wealthy burgh-
ers were the happy pOsseSsOrs of Ii
braries we'll stocked in artistic manu-
script Bibles. The quaint Bibles in
handwritten characters had cast per-
sOnal spell upon the Bible-readers SO
that printed Bibles had no attraction
for them. No less than eight thou
sand manuscript copies of the Latin
Bible are still preserved in the public
and private libraries of Europe and
America, small remnant of a large
mass which has persisted by the rs v
of IL thnrp ctill
eXtant two hundred and two manu-
script German Bibles out of total
number of $500 copies of handwritten
Bibles in Germany which had existed
in pre-Reformation times. This is
stated by William Walther, Protes-
tant scholar of unquestionable author
| ity Since the fastidious lovers of SUI
! perbly Illuminated manuscript Bibles
| looked askance at the productions of
| the printers press, a lively trade in
| beautiful manuscript copies of the
Bible was carried on for a long time
after the invention of printing. Even
printed Bibles were rewritten by
| copyists in the time-honored style. An
instructive example of this kind is the
so-called "Stratter Bible" in the Uni
versity library at Gratz. 1t is a verbal
transcript of the German Bible print
ed at Strasburg in 1866, and was eX-
ecuted by Erasmus Stratter by order
of Archbishop Bernhard Rohr of Salz-
burg (died 14S7). So the handwritten
/ Bibles entered into sharp competition
with the printed copies on the market,
and the printers had hard struggle,
at first, with the text writer's, result
ing eventually in a falling-off of the
total output of printed Bibles for the
time being.
The first printed edition of Scrip
ture in the vernacular was issued at
Strasburg in 1866, Bible in High
German. From 1866 till 1920 were
printed forty-seven editions of the YER
nacular Bible: seventeen in German
thirteen Italian, twelve French, two
Bohemian, one Dutch, one Spanish
and one Russian for the Catholic
Ukrainians and Ruthenians. These
numbers do not include the edition OF
the Bible in Bohemian for the Hus
sites, printed at Venice in 1906 These
fOrty-seven editions comprised no less
than $4,000 single copies of the whole
Bible. The number of portions of the
Bible in the vernacular printed from
1852 to 1920 may run up to one hun
dred thousand single copies; they
were never properly estimated.
Not only was the laity supplied will
vernacular Bibles, but the Latin Scrip
lures were more plentiful STILL fac
overlooked quite frequently even b,
Catholic authors. From 1453 till 1922
no less than one hundred and ninet.
editions of the Latin Bible were is
sued comprising sum total of at leas
0,000 single copies, not counting
copies of parts of the Bible. Besides
these, two issues of the Bible in Greel
appeared in print consisting of abou
LOO copies. All in ALL four times al
many complete Bibles were printed il
Latin as in the vernacular Languages
1t is mistake to suppose that thi
mass of Latin Bibles was publishes
exclusively for the clergy.