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It has been made evident that, so long as Bibles continued to be copied by hand, no stability or uniformity of text could be maintained. As with the Greek Bible, so with the Latin, the later copies become progressively worse and worse. Hence the enormous importance of the invention of printing, which made it possible to fix and stereotype a form of text, and secure that it should be handed on without substantial change from one generation to another. The first book printed in Europe, it is pleasant to know, was the Latin Bible - the splendid Mazarin Bible (so called from the fact that the first copy which attracted much attention in later times was that in the library of Cardinal Mazarin) issued by Gutenberg in 1456, of which a copy may be seen exhibited in the British Museum.
This is folio 48 of the 5th and 6th chapters of the book of Isaiah. (Chapter 6 is printed in red with a tick in the margin. (ca vi √)) The chapter begins with a large capital I. Chapter 6 describes the call of the prophet Isaiah:
In anno quo mortuus est rex Ozias, vidi Dominum sedentem super solium excelsum et elevatum; et ea quæ sub ipso erant replebant templum. Seraphim stabant super illud: sex alæ uni, et sex alæ alteri; duabus velabant faciem ejus, et duabus velabant pedes ejus, et duabus volabant. Et clamabant alter ad alterum,
et dicebant:
Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus Dominus, Deus exercituum;
plena est omnis terra gloria ejus.In the year of king Ozias' death. I had a vision. I saw the Lord sitting on a throne that towered high above me, the skirts of his robe filling the temple. Above it rose the figures of the seraphim, each of them six-winged; with two wings they veiled God's face, with two his feet, and the other two kept them poised in flight.
And ever the same cry passed between them,
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts;
all the earth is full of his glory.[Knox version.]
Read more about the first printed Bible HERE and HERE.
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