TREASURY of OLD BIBLES

Radio Record, 3 June 1938, Page 8

TREASURY of OLD BIBLES

Rare Manuscripts 800 Years Old Are Daily Passed By tin Unbeeding People

Written for the "Record"

by

J. R.

HASTINGS

HE Bible, the world’s best seller, was written by authors who wanted no royalties. In the Middle Ages, it was beautifully copied in Latin by the hands of monks, the ordinary letters in sepia ink made from cuttlefish, but the capitals a wonder of art in scarlet and brilliant olue and beaten gold. ‘Thev worked for the love of it. It was first printed and read in the English mother -ongue by men who risked their lives in doing it. But in 1538, Heury the Eighth ordered a copy of Miles Coyerdale’s English version of the Bible to be chained to a pillar or desk in every church or cathedral, free for all to read, Four Hundred Years To-day, 400 years later, all over the world Englishspeaking people celebrate this victory, and from 2YA on Sunday afternoon, June 5, the Bishop of Wellington reads iu talk on "The Bible in England" for the NBS. In the Bible House of Wellington, among other rare treasures, lies a copy of the Miles Coverdale Bible.

T may be hard to realise that New Zealand is famed overseas for something other than its All Blacks, but footballers are far from the minds vf museum authorities in far-flung corners of the earth when they discuss the famous collection of manuscript prayer books and Bibles, housed ju Wellington. Daily hundreds of people hurry hy the New Zeuland Branch of the British aud Foreign Bible Society's building near the Wellington waterfront without dreaming that, within its walls, is one of the most artistic ealJections in existence, Perhaps the passers-by are not to be blamed for their ignorance of this fact, It is in other lauds that the real value of this collection is estimated. QVERSEAS interests have tried to buy these relies of a bygone age, but have never sueeeeded. The Rev. & Calder, who zealously guards these art treasures, watches over them with a paternal eve. He sees iv them not

a lut of old faded manuscripts, but a collection representing every eventful era in English history. Like others interested in this collection he regrets but one thing-if these works written painstakingly by monks in mediaeval monasteries could only talk! What stories they would have to tell! SHE man responsible for assembling this collection was Mr. A. Clemas, of Masterton. who made a life’s task of searching the world for manuscripts worthy of preserving for all time. Wis father and graudfather had collected before him. Uis agents in various parts of the world were commissioned to purchase books on his behalf. As the years went by he built up a collection that is to-day the envy of museums in every part of the world. Not long‘ago he disposed of his collection to the British and Foreign Bible Society’s New Zealand branch, where it can be show to the public. Book of Hours Qrz of the most beautiful among the many manuscripts in the collection is a five-hundred-year-old Freneh Book of Hours. in an excellent condition despite its grear

age. This work of art is written in a bold, clear handwriting on 162 leaves of vellum, and is decorated by [2 beautifully-exeecuted full-page miniatures in colours and burnished gold painted on with a brush. It is doubtful if any artist of today could produce such work. There is almost a touch of the wonder of Nature in the lovely miniatures. adorued with birds and flowers, esquisitely drawn, shining with ibe gold of the sunset and ihe blac of the sky. @ ¥ books could tall there is at lease one exhibit in this collection that would throw interesting light on fhe reign of that much-discussed mouarch, Henry VIII. The volume is a book of the Psalms, written in Latin by some monk ’way back in the fifteenth century. His clear handwriting graces over two hundred leaves of thin veffum, This particular old book has an evenutful history. Aft one ’ime in the passession of 2 memser (Contd. on p 39}

‘Bible ‘Treasury NOT TO B BE SOLD.

(Continued from page 8.) of the Order of St. Clare of the English Franciscan Order, it contains the inscription that "it must not be solde, lent or given away" to ahyone out side -the Order. Of the only three copies of this book known to be-in existence, this is ‘per~baps the best specimen, — UT. manuscript: prayer books are-not the only exhibits in this ~-collection. There are many specimens of early printing, too; including a copy of the first book printed In New Zealand. .'I‘his, a slim volume encased in a black leather cover, was printed hy i‘ ‘olenso, the missionary, in 18385) at , Paihia, ~ he first prayer book ever brought into the Dominion reposes in this collection. It is a sixteenth century- Book of Common Prayer, and was the reading volume of Richard Davies, the city missionary, THER books in the collection are copies of the famous "Breeches" Rible, printed in 1577, the great "She" Bible, published in 1618, ‘and the "Bugge"’ Bible of 1549. There is even quaint humour in these Bibles. For the "Breeches Bible," over 300 years old, takes its name from the translation of Genesis, ch. 3, verse 7, which says that "Adam and Eve sewed fig-tree leaves together and made themselves breeches," instead of "aprons" as the revised version gives it. The "Bugge" Bible simply says in its translation of a well-known passage: "So that thon shalt not be afrayd for any bugges by night, nor for the arrowe-that flyeth by day.’ Bugge really meaning bug-bear, and later translated as terror. The "She" Bible takes it name from the fact that in verse four of the third chapter of Ruth, "she" is used instead of "he."