Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 309, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1918 — Italian Museum Has Most Valuable Book in World. [ARTICLE]

Italian Museum Has Most Valuable Book in World.

The Mqdlco Laurentian museum of Florence, Italy, has in its possession what is said to be the most valuable book in the world. This book is called the . Codex Amiatinus and is pronounced by some scholars to be perhaps the oldest and by all odds the best ancient Latin manuscript of the Bible. The work is believed to have been copied from the .translation by, St. Jerome, which he made direct from early Greek and Hebrew scripts. Its origin is placed in the ninth century, and is thought to have been the handiwork of English priests. Only recently has the true character of this book become known. For many years it was owned by the Monte Amlati convent, without anyone being aware of its true value. Of course it was known to be of great antiquity, and was highly prized on that account. But it remained for Italian scholars to discover its real significanqje. The work' is now priceless. It can only be examined by virtue of a special permit from the highest Italian authority.