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Category: Provenance

Detail of the illuminations in the Giant Bible of Mainz.

A Little Note About A Giant Bible

Posted by: Marianna Stell

Happy Giant Bible Day! On April 4, 1952, philanthropist and bibliophile, Lessing J. Rosenwald (1891-1979) donated the Giant Bible of Mainz to the Library of Congress. He made this gift exactly five hundred years after the manuscript’s scribe first put quill to parchment. In keeping with Rosenwald's commitment to encouraging broad cultural engagement with the history of the illustrated book, the Library’s digitization allows book lovers near and far to encounter every page of this important and evocative manuscript.

Image of title page of Eliot Bible.

Early Owners of an Eliot Algonquian Bible

Posted by: Marianna Stell

A closer look at the Library’s copy of the Eliot Algonquian Bible (1663) reveals a connection to the local history of the greater Washington area. Family birth and death inscriptions within the Bible show that it was once owned by the famous Gaither family of Gaithersburg in Montgomery County, Maryland. How and when did it arrive at the Library? Read this post to learn more.

Ink inscription reading, "Francis Symes Ejus Liber."

Who’s or Whose Book is This? Pronoun Trouble in Early Modern Book Inscriptions

Posted by: Marianna Stell

In Anglophone communities during the 16th - 18th centuries, a common custom was for book owners to add in their book a note of ownership in either English or in Latin. The Rare Book and Special Collections Division holds a number of examples of these notes that offer a curious study for those interested in historical linguistics.

Testament of Survival: An American Bible and the 1814 Burning of Washington

Posted by: Allison Buser

While the British military burned the federal properties of Washington during the War of 1812, some soldiers sought souvenirs to commemorate their conquest of the nascent U.S. capital. Seized by a British officer, one particular American bible in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division bears the marks of its dramatic removal, its captivity, and later its homecoming to the United States.

Image of page of text with small blue initial and distinctive pen flourishes in red.

A Time Capsule : What An Early Printed Book Can Teach Us About “Anchoring Innovation”

Posted by: Marianna Stell

Did the earliest printers know what print was? Book historian Anna Dlabacova, former fellow in the W. Kluge Center and senior university lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society, offers some observations about what a 15th-century book from the Netherlands can teach us about culture and innovation.

Red Library of Congress binding on a book from the Smithsonian Deposit. Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

Binding Two National Libraries: Rare Books from the Smithsonian

Posted by: Marianna Stell

In 1866, the Smithsonian physically transferred its library of over 40,000 works to the Library of Congress. A notable event in the history of both information institutions, the Smithsonian Deposit included a range of materials which today are dispersed throughout the Library’s divisions. Among them are some unexpected and intriguing materials in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division.