Evening star., 1936-11-22

contact with the foibles and failings
and humanness of the men who
walked the earth In that early day.
One such instance was when DR..
Parma, in examination Of an ancient
Bible, found two pages fastened to-
gether by means Of sealing wax. Care
fully he separated the two pages, to
discover that, having been part OF a
monastery library, they had been CEN
sored by some superior who saw flt to
conceal their contents from the eyes
of his brothers. 1t Is amusing to
look today upon those censored pages,
wherein Uriah's wife is pictured tax
ing her bath upon the housetop, with
King David looking down upon her
from the palace roof, smitten, as the
story tells us, with her charms. Since
the naive illustrators of the day pic
tured in their woodcuts all life as they
saw it and not as it may have been
in the time of the text, the bath OF
Bsth-Sheba is no more than foot
bath in which she is dabbling naked
feet, closely swathed to the neck,
meanwhile. in outer garments, while
a handmaiden pours water into the
little tub from pitcher.
Such personal mementos as these
give us a dramatic insight into the
manners and morals of the century
and into the censorship of the times
that not even the printed page could
so graphically reveal.
MUCH has been written about the
A'A most famous book in the collec-
ton of incunabula, the Gutenberg
Bible, so that it will sufflce to say
here that aown through the centuries
this precious book, beautifully lie
Illuminated and fabricated, printed
without help of reed, stylus or pen.
but by the wondrous agreement. pro-
portion and harmony of punches and
types" stands as tribute to the art
that proved no "blacker" than print
er's ink, and was devoutedly pursued
in spite Of charges Of necromancy and
other tremendous difficulties by the
ancient printer of Mainz This de.
voted craftsman had turned out in
Strassburg some experimental work
with an apparatus for casting movable
type from molds, and had made his
molds by carving single letters ON
slaves OF beechwood-an explanation
of the derivation of the German word
''buchstahen" for alphabet letters.
Today the Gutenberg Bible is on dis
play in the Library of Congress in an
especially created cabinet, modelled
after one designed by Michelangelo for
q Florentine library, but other items
of the incunabula collection are on the
shelves of the rare book room stacks,
available to all who wish 70 handle
or consult them.
The collection includes 40 other
early Bibles that knew wide circuls-
ton in Europe the latter half OF the
fifteenth century, including the first
poor mans Bible''-an octave volume
printed in 1491 by a friend OF the
reformer Erasmus for general clrcula-
ton. The remainder of the collection
represents O crOSS-section OF the mind
of Europe in the latter half OF the
fifteenth century at the dawn OF mod
ern thought. During this period the
Old World was breaking away from
medievalism, stirred imaginatively by
the discovery of new worlds. Every
subject under the sun is covered In
these volumes, from the culinary arts
to theology.
One of the most interesting items OF
the incunabula, from an Americans
viewpoint perhaps, Is that little volume
that contains the letter Columbus
wrote to their majesties of Spain, an.
nouncins his discovery Of the New
World. He penned two copies-one
for the secretary Of King Ferdinand
and one for the treasurer Of the
Kingdom Of Aragon, and printers OF
the day were quick to relay the news
In the printed word.
The immortal navigator wrote:
Having now accomplished the under
taking on which I set out. know
It will be agreeable 10 you TO be In.
formed of al have discovered In my
voyage. On the twenty-third day after
I left CadiZ I reached the Indian
Ocean, where I found many islands
peopled by innumerable Inhabitants.
of all of which took possession with
out resistance. These islands abound
in the finest variety Of trees so lofty
(Continued on Eighth Page.l