Statistics on the Bible as printed matter can quickly become mind-numbing: the average U.S. home has four copies ... it's a $200-million-per-year retail market in the Uni
ted States ... the complete Bible is available in over 350 languages, portions of it in over 2,200 ... Bible societies have distributed more than 9 billion Bibles since 1947.
The electronic revolution has had its own impact on the Bible: a few clicks on the mouse of a computer linked to the Internet give you the King James version on screen; a few more taps give you a listing, virtually in seconds, of every Bible passage on forgiveness, law, anointing, or any other subject, and even direct electronic links to the same passage in other versions of the Bible.
But there is another facet to the Bible just as impressive as the concept of a 1-million print run of a new edition or a global Bible-study group linked by computer. It is the beauty that can reside in a single treasured copy. This article is devoted to Bibles and other Scripture-based books that rare books and special collections librarians at Jesuit colleges and universities generously share with Company readers.
Many of these books have an obvious beauty of form that complements the beauty of content. Other have a significance not readily apparent: inside Dorothy Day's Bible, which probably cost only a dollar or two, was a prayer card that is evidence of her faith in prayer. Santa Clara's Spanish Bible marks a period of transition in the Church's missionary work in California. But they are all evidence of the importance people throughout the ages have granted to the Word of God.
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Vulgate Bible A dramatic painting decorates the fore-edge of this Vulgate Bible published by the Antwerp printer Joannes Moretus. Though the book dates from the 1600s, the painting was done around 1890. Artists have decorated the fore-edges of books since the Midd le Ages, but most examples date from the last decade of the nineteenth century, and it is still being done today. This scene, titled Evil Tidings: Job, Ch. 1, depicting Job receiving the news of the destruction of his family, is signed by John T. Beer, the most prolific amateur fore-edge painter of his time. Dr. Errol Stevens |
 | Dutch Book of Hours The Ascension of Christ is one of the four full-page illuminations d epicted in this fifteenth-century Book of Hours. Books of Hours are essentially prayer books meant for devotional use (often private) that include Gospel passages, psalms, and prayers read according to the hours of the Divine Office, including matins, la uds, nones, and vespers. Both the liturgical calendar and the office itself are written in Dutch, marking a change from the use of Latin to the vernacular. The illuminations were done by an artist from Utrecht and the text at Amsterdam. Dr. Robert K. O'Neill |
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Untitled liturgical manuscript in Mohawk This book, which dates to ca. 1700, is generally attributed to Fr. Jacques Bruyas, SJ, an early French missionary to the Mohawks and contemporary of Jacques Marquette, SJ. It was probably used to teach Mohawk catechumens in missionary settlements alon g the St. John's and St. Lawrence rivers. This one color illustration in the manuscript harks back to European illuminated manuscripts
George M. Barringer |
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Bible, Vulgate, in Spanish This 1813 Bible, which passed from Franciscan to Jesuit hands in 1851, when Santa Clara Mission did, is from the library of Mission Santa Clara, whose 2 20 volumes became the original college library. Because Franciscans began the mission, many of the books bear the inscription of the College of San Fernando in Mexico City, their home base. The inscription on the title page reads, "Santa Clara College, Society of Jesus, May 1, A.D. 1851," just 42 days after the founding of the college by Fr. John Nobili, SJ, the first Jesuit at Santa Clara. Georgo Carlson |
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Codex Benedictus facsimile To commemorate the 1500th anniversary of St. Benedict's birth (480-1980), the Vatican had produced a facsimile edition of Vaticanus Latinus (renamed Codex Benedictus), created at the monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy about 1070. This lectionary cont ains scriptural references and passages and stories about three saints of the abbey: Benedict; his twin sister, Scholastica; and Maur, Benedict's first disciple. The calligraphy, illustrations, and subject matter of this lectionary, even in facsimile, ma ke it a rich document of mid eleventh-century life. Br. Michael Grace, SJ |  |