Evening star., 1935-10-06
By T. K. II.
w WASHINGTON is the Bible
M center of the English
w speaking world.

w WASHINGTON is the Bible
M center of the English
w speaking world.
The 400th anniversary of
the first translation Of the scriptures
into the English tongue by Miles
Coverdale In 1885, which is being OBJ
served this month, finds what is prob
ably the richest collection of Bibles
and biblical material on earth gath
cred together In o land Of which
Coverdale never had heard.
Catholic, Protestant and Hebrew
scholars must come here to find some
OF the corner stones Of their faiths.
Some of the richest material, of course.
is to be found elsewhere. But prob
ably in no other city is such a wealth
OF Bible material assembled
There are original manuscripts.
There are rare and even unique edi-
tions. There are Bibles owned by the
great characters of history. There
are Bibles forever associated with NOV
ing events of history. There are
Bibles which reflect, as no other book
could do, the spirits Of their times.
There are Bibles sanctified with the
blood OF martyrs. There are Bibles
containing some of the richest humor
of the ages.
A peculiar feeling comes over one
who enters the locked vault contain
ing the Bibles in the rare book di-
vision Of the Library of Congress.
Here Volta Parma, the custodian, has
assembled the choicest treasures to
be found In America-in the world
with biblical associations. One almost
feels the ghostly hands of the martyrs
upon ones shoulders. The stories of
the individual volumes often are in
tensely colorful.
The two biblical items in Washing {.
ton which eclipse all others are the
Gutenberg Bible at the Library of
Congress and the Bible manuscripts
at the Freer Gallery of Art.
The first, purchased by Congress
five years ago from DR.. Otto F. H.
Vohlbehr, probably is the most valu-
able Bible in the world. It was printed
by Johann Gutenberg-the inventor of
the art of printing from movable type
in Mainz, Germany, between the
years 1850 and 1855. 1t is in Latin
the Vulgate edition. This copy, in
three volumes, is one of the three
perfect vellum copies known to- be
extant. the other two being in the
British Museum in London and the
National Library of France in Paris.
SINCE shortly after its publication
the book has been in the posses
sion of the religious order of Bene-
dictines. The tradition concerning it
with good deal of factual evidence
to support its that it was sold to
the monks by the notorious Johan
Faust, the same who sold his soul to
the Devil, who cheated his customers.
They thought they were buying a
manuscript and probably would have
had nothing to do with it had they
known that it was a product of the
new black art" Today, Of course, 1t
is mcomparably more priceless than
any manuscript.
Until about the year 1874 it was
kept at the Abbey of st. Blasius, in
the southwestern part Of Germany.
In the wars growing out Of the French
Revolution the monks, fearing for the
security of their treasures, took the
great book away from st. Blasius to
other houses of their order-first in
Switzerland, later in upper Austria and
finally, about 1909, to their Abbey of
st. Paul, in the Valley of the Lavant
River, in the eastern part of Carinthia,
Austria.
The order had been hard hit by the
war and the monks sold the Bible to
DR.. Vollbehr for Sl50,000. When the
Austrian government heard about the
purchase it intervened and told the
monastery that the price must be
raised to S250,000 in order to meet
the government tax. DR.. Vollbehr
agreed and paid a considerable de-
posit. When he came to claim his
purchase, in 1880. interest charges, to-
gether with an export tax. had raised
the price to more than 100000.
The text of this Bible is that Of the
"Vulgate," the work OF st. jerome,
greatest scholar of the early church,
who left the comparative luxury of
Rome to spend IS years in a monks
cell in Bethlehem in order to fin
ish the work. For a thousand years
the version existed only in manuscript,
of which about 5000 are still in exist
ence.