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Show A Rare Old Bible. -- There is an old Bible up in the Congressional Library at Washington which is well worth a walk to the Capitol to examine. It is of Italian origin, and is supposed to have been written in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, but the actual date is unknown. It is written in Latin, upon vellum, in clear, bold characters, and extremely uniform. The writing is in two columns, about three inches wide, with a margin of two inches. It is embellished with 146 miniature paintings, and upward of 1,200 smaller illuminations, which are beautifully executed, and are as brilliant to-day as the day they were done. The initials of books and prologues are two and a half inches in height. It is contained in two large volumes, and cost the Government $2,200 in gold, when gold was at a high premium, and was purchased at a sale of the library of Henry Perkins, Hanworth Park, near London, in June 1873. The skins in the first volume have all been repaired except five; in the second volume they are nearly all perfect. |