Saturday 30 June 2007

British Library, part II


The British Library holds one of the world's greatest collections of Western early printed books: nearly 2.5 million dating from 1454 to 1914. The day after having seen the exhibition "Sacred," our group had our own private exhibition, organized by librarian Adrian Edwards. Unfortunately there is not enough room here to list all of the amazing books we saw that relate to the Reformation. Highlights for me included the Mainz bible of 1462, printed by Fust and Schoeffer; Martin Luther's German New Testament, which first appeared in September, 1522; and bibles owned by Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth.