Friday, September 28, 2018

The Bible comes to Providence





This is a catalogue for an exhibition at the John Carter Brown Library at Providence, Rhode Island, United States. The exhibition included a wide variety of 16th and 17th century Bible manuscripts, and the accompanying catalogue attempts to explain their significance. While the text is perfectly readable, it *can* be confusing to the general reader. A working knowledge of this rather obscure subject probably helps in this case. The author, Robert Mathiesen, mentions the Erasmus Bible edition, the first Biblical texts printed in Ethiopic, and the great Polyglot Bibles, among others. The most fascinating character mentioned is Christophe Plantin, a nominal Catholic book-printer who was really a member of the secret “Family of Love”, a radical Protestant denomination. Not sure how to rate this material. Three stars?

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