1 Leaf 1480 Incunabula Latin Medieval Bible 2 Red Initials, NT Textual Variant
Item History & Price
First of all, when one hears about a textual difference in the New Testament text, the reaction should not be "I've never heard of that before!" or "That's not in my King James Version of the Bible!" but rather it should be: "What was originally written by John in his gospel?" At John 17:12 the earliest andbest manuscripts support the reading, “While I was with them, I kept them inyour name.” This is strongly supportedby the seventh-century Greek Papyrus #60, the 2...00 A.D. Greek Papyrus #66, theGreek Codex Sinaiticus, the Greek Codex Vaticanus, the original hand of theGreek Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, the Greek Codex Bezae, several other Greekuncials, some Greek minuscules, some Old Latin manuscripts, Jerome’s Latin Vulgate (as seen here, with the wording "cum essem cum eis, ego seruabam eos in nomine tuo"), the Sahidic Coptic, and the Bohairic Coptic. Later some scribe added the phrase “in the world” to make “while I was withthem in the world, ” and this latertext is found in the inferior King James Version, and does not represent theoriginal text as written by the evangelist John.We need to put into context thework of Christian scribes during the 1, 400 years before Gutenberg’s 1455 inventionof printing with movable type. During these centuries scribes developedtwo kinds of abbreviations in the manuscripts that were copied andre-copied. The first kind of abbreviation was the shortening orabbreviation of very common words, so that it was easier and quicker to writesuch frequently occurring words. These do not concern us here. Thesecond kind of abbreviation was for the words held sacred by Christians. In the Latin tradition, and especially in Jerome’s Latin Vulgate text, thesewere called “Nomina Sacra” meaning “Holy Names.” To Christians writingthe New Testament the word “Lord” usually referred to “The Lord Jesus Christ.” This leaf has the Nomina Sacra or Holy Name for the word “Lord, ” in which theLatin word “Domine” is abbreviated to “dns”and a line is placed above the “n” to indicate that this is a Nomina Sacra, which occurs one (1) time on this Latin leaf. Also, the Nomina Sacra for "Christ" (xpm) occurs one time.A very large leaf in Black Letter (Gothic) type from a Latin Vulgate Biblepublished in Cologne in 1480 by the printer, Nicolaus Gotz orGoetz. This is just twenty-five years after Gutenberg's first Bibleof 1455! By definition, an incunabulum (the singular of"incunabula") or "incunable" (French) or"inkunabel" (German) must be printed from 1455 to1500. However, those books printed in the later 1480s and the 1490s, as well as the year 1500 (which is technically the last year of the 15thcentury), had more and more woodcut printed initials. In Latin, theterm "incunabula" means "baby clothes" or "things ofthe cradle, " and can refer to the earliest stages or first traces in thedevelopment of anything. This leaf has red rubrication marksall added by a scribe's own hand, and there are scores of red marks through thefirst letter of each verse, as well as the title listed at the top of eachside of the leaf. The red color is strong andfresh-looking, on both sides of the leaf. Size of the sheet is about8 1/4 in. x 11 1/4 in. The heading in Latin is "IOANNIS, " which means "John." The text contains John 15:14--17:15. This leaf has two (2) initial letters inred ink, which is over 500 years old and has cracked red ink (see the 1stscanned image). There are many memorable passages in thetext, including: 4 instances of "Jesus, " "verily, verily, " "woman, " "born, " "name, " "proverbs, " "God, " "peace, " "manifested, " "I pray, " "holy, " "joy, " "word, " "friends, " "chosen, " "remember, " "spirit, " "synagogues, " "heart, " "truth, " "righteousness, " "father, " "prince, " and "disciples."The winner of the auction will receive the originalleaf from the 1480 Latin Bible, as well as a xerox copy of the Latin text, witheach of these marked (see the last scanned image), with the marksmade by someone who has a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies, received from the University of Birmingham, in Birmingham, England. Also, included is asmall xerox copy of the colophon, which shows the date of 1000 + 400 +80, making 1480. This is an absolutely beautiful leaf of an incunabulaBible. Bibliographic description in Frederick R. Goff, "Incunabula in AmericanLibraries, " as # B-569. Provenance: formerly in the CopingerCollection of the General Theological Library of New York, having beendonated by Dean Hoffman and Cornelius Vanberbilt, and then in the privatelibrary of book collector, Robert R. Dearden, of Oaklane in Philadelphia. The sheet of paper is in very good condition, but does show some light browningdiscoloration, especially around the edges, due to its age and use overthe centuries. A very impressive and extraordinary early incunabulaleaf. Nicolaus Gotz or Goetz of Sletzstat (who died in 1481, just a yearafter this Bible was printed) was a famous printer in Cologne and acontemporary of Ulrich Zell. CIBN (Bibliotheque Nationale) suggests thatthis Bible may have been printed by Nicolaus Gotz's successor, owing to theappearance of a later M letterform. According to the Gesamtkatalog derWiegendrucke, however, the Bible appears to be Gotz's penultimate work. Guarantee of Authenticity. All of theitems we sell (whether handwritten manuscripts or printed texts) are ORIGINALS.We guarantee everything we sell to be original and authentic. Due to their age, some imperfections can be expected, so please read our descriptions and viewour scanned images carefully. We stand behind our inventory and want to makesure that all of our clients are completely satisfied with their purchases.
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