The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical: A Cabinet for the Curious — John Shaqi
The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical: A Cabinet for the CuriousStauffer, Frank H.
History
The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical: A Cabinet for the Curious
Stauffer, Frank H.
Literary curiosa
The most singular bibliographic curiosity is that which belonged to the
family of the Prince de Ligne, and is now in France. It is neither
written nor printed. All of the letters of the text are cut out of each
folio upon the finest vellum; and, being interlaced with blue paper, it
is read as easily as the best print. The labor and patience bestowed
upon it must have been excessive, especially when the precision and
minuteness of the letters are considered. The general execution is
admirable in every respect, and the vellum is of the most delicate and
costly kind. Rodolphus II., of Germany, offered for it, in 1640, eleven
thousand ducats, which was probably equal to sixty thousand at this day.
The most remarkable circumstance connected with this literary treasure
is that it bears the royal arms of England, but it cannot be shown that
it was ever in that country. The book is entitled: _Liber Passionis
Domini Nostri Jesu Christi cum Characteribus Nulla Materia Compositis_.
_A Long Lost Book Recovered._
The book called "The Ascension of Isaiah the Prophet" had been known to
exist in former ages, but had disappeared after the fifth century.
During the present century Dr. Richard Laurence, the professor of Hebrew
at Oxford, and afterwards Archbishop of Cassel, accidentally met with an
Æthiopic MS. at the shop of a bookseller in Drury Lane, which proved to
be this apocryphal book. There was something remarkable in the
discovery, in a small bookseller's shop, of a book which had been lost
to the learned for more than a thousand years.
_The Bug Bible._
Among the literary curiosities in the Southampton library, England, is
an old Bible known as the "Bug Bible," printed by John Daye, 1551, with
a prologue by Tyndall. It derives its name from the peculiar rendering
of the fifth verse in the 91st Psalm, which reads thus: "So that thou
shalt not need to be afraid for any bugs by night."
_Illuminated Manuscript Bible._
Guido de Jars devoted half a century to the production of a manuscript
copy of the Bible, with illuminated letters. He began it in his fortieth
year, and did not finish it until his ninetieth (1294). It is of
exceeding beauty.
_The Mazarine Bible._
This is so called from its having been found in the Cardinal's library.
It was the first book printed with metal types, and cost $2,500.
_A Book without Words._
A literary curiosity exists in England in the shape of "A Wordless
Book," so called because, after the title page, it contains not a single
word. It is a religious allegory devised by a religious enthusiast, and
the thought is in the symbolic color of its leaves, of which two are
black, two crimson, two pure white, two pure gold. The black symbolizes
the unregenerate heart of man; the crimson, the blessed redemption; the
white, the purity of the soul "washed in the blood of the Lamb;" the
gold, the radiant joy of eternal felicity.
_Wierix's Bible._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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