By Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writer
PRINCETON — Only 21 complete copies of the Gutenberg Bible exist in the world, but a page from one — from the Song of Songs in the Old Testament — is on public display at the Special Collections of the Princeton Theological Seminary Library.
The Gutenberg Bible was first book to be printed by a movable metal type press when it was produced in the mid-15th century in Germany; the copies that exist today are considered the most valuable tomes in the world.
The Gutenberg page — or "leaf" — is among the many treasures the library has gathered over the past two centuries, which are highlighted in the recently published book, “Princeton Theological Seminary Library Special Collections: Journeys of Discovery.”
The Special Collections are held on the 2nd floor of the Henry Luce III Library, located on the Seminary’s campus between Mercer Street and Library Place in Princeton Borough.
It includes 50,000 rare books as well as early American religious pamphlets, artwork, artifacts, rare periodicals and audio recordings. The Special Collections are free and open to the public.
Most of the collection is made up of donations, particularly from the Seminary’s professors who traveled to Europe in the 19th century, according to Kenneth Henke, the library’s reference archivist.
One of the more poignant items in the collection is a Czech-language Bible printed in Prague in 1529. Forbidden to have a Bible in their own language, the followers of reformer Jan Hus, known as Hussites, hid their Bibles in caves, buried them in the ground or even baked them into loaves of bread.
The seminary’s copy is kept in a clear, acid free box to protect its delicate pages, which are curled from age and torn in places. The first few original pages were lost, but the pages were replaced with pages recopied by hand from another Bible.
”It shows you how important that Bible was to them as Protestant Christians,” Mr. Henke said. “It reminds us of the history of how people were willing to suffer for their faith.”
The collection also includes more than 10,000 hymn books, including a hymnal produced at Ephrata Cloister in Pennsylvania in 1754. The religious community founded by German settlers is famed for its hymns, and the book was printed on the community’s own press with locally made paper and ink. Open spaces on the pages are filled with hand-drawn decorations and floral designs.
Also in the collection are examples of one of mankind’s earliest writing systems: Sumerian and Babylonian cuneiform tablets. The library’s 2,750 tablets draw scholars from around the globe looking to learn more about the people who lived over 2,000 years ago.
Also to be found in the collection are artifacts brought back by Christian missionaries trained at the Princeton Theological Seminary who ventured in the 19th century to Hawaii, Korea and other distant locales. On display in a case is a carved whale bone walking stick, a gift from a chief in Hawaii to the missionaries.
A room of the library is dedicated to the study of Swiss theologian Karl Barth, who is considered by some the greatest theologian of the 20th century. The collection includes an unparalleled collection of papers, periodicals, literature and interviews related to his work, according to Librarian Stephen Crocco.
”This is the best place on earth to study Karl Barth,” he said.
The collection draws scholars and researchers from all over the globe, but technology has been saving some the trip.
More than 150,000 digital pages have been scanned and made available online on the library’s website. The library is also a member of Open Content Alliance, and has contributed more than 20,000 books to the initiative to create an online archive of free content.
Researchers who want to see a particular book in the collection can contact the library so that it can be scanned, Mr. Crocco said.
About 15 library employees are hard at work using workstations designed for the archive system, which can include any book published before 1923 under copyright laws.
One page at a time, large V-shaped glass is lowered onto the book and the page is photographed. Each person is able to photograph an estimated 3,000 pages per day into the system, Mr. Crocco said.
The seminary’s contribution to the Open Content Alliance can be freely accessed online at www.archive.org/details/Princeton.
Access to the Special Collections Library will be limited to appointments through the end of August because of construction. The Seminary plans to construct a 92,000-square-foot addition to its existing Luce Library, following the demolition of the 53-year-old Speer Library.
Pending all necessary approvals from the borough, demolition of the Speer Library will begin toward of the end of this year, Mr. Crocco said. It will be cleared out of its materials next couple of months, he said.
For more information on the library, log onto http://libweb.ptsem.edu.
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Staff photo by Phil McAuliffeA page from the rare Gutenberg Bible at the Princeton Theological Seminary.
Staff photos by Phil McAuliffeLeft: Reference archivist Kenneth Henke studies a page of the Gutenberg Bible at the Princeton Theological Seminary. Center: The hand-illustrated title page of an 11th century Eastern Orthodox text. Right: Mr. Henke shows the binding of a bible from the 1500’s.
A 15th century collection of writings by Nicholas of Cusa.

