Biblia Latina. 1479

Biblia Latina.
Venice: Hieronymus de Paganinis, 7 September 1497.
Call Number: (RARE) BS 75 1497x 
Special Collections, Golda Meir Library

This "pocket" edition of the Bible was never completely finished. This book demonstrates the continuation of manuscript traditions after the innovation of the printing press: The empty spaces left for initial capital letters were intended to be hand illuminated. A few Venetian Bibles of this period were small in size, demonstrating how price decreases facilitated by mass-production allowed the gradual evolution of the Bible from ornate relic to individually owned book for home study.