New York City wanderings!!
In 1999 I was working for FFF Enterprises in Temecula California. I was in New York City doing a presentation to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital. They are a large cancer hospital and they were interested in possibly using our clinical research software. We did the meeting decided we would walk over to the Oak Room at the Plaza Hotel for a drink. You undoubtedly have seen pictures of the Plaza in NYC movies.
As we were walking toward the hotel, I looked up at one point and noticed that we were standing in front of the American Bible Society (ABS). I was interested in old books and had heard that the ABS had a Gutenberg Bible. Gutenberg bibles were the first books printed with movable type back in 1450’s. Given my interest books I thought how cool it would be if we could see such a Bible so we went in to check it out.
The security guard at the front desk was our first contact. I asked if it were possible to see the Gutenberg Bible. The man had no idea and looked at me as though I was from Mars. So I asked him if there was someone else we might talk to about the Gutenberg. So he got on the phone and called someone and then told us to wait a moment and someone would be down.
We waited and all of a sudden …… a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see this tiny, older woman looking up at me as she asked whether it was us that were interested in the Gutenberg Bible. She was around 60 years old, very frail and introduced herself “I am Dr. Liana Lunas, the Librarian”
She looked like she had been a nun at some point in her life. I said that I had heard that the ABS had a Gutenberg Bible and asked if we would able to see it. “Well” she said “we don’t actually have a Gutenberg Bible ….. we do have a leaf from a Gutenberg Bible”. Humm? I thought ….. what the heck? ….. “Is it possible to see that leaf ?”. Well something in our manner caught her attention and she looked at us with this inquisitive kind of something ….. a smile or a smirk ….. and she said “Yes of course, follow me”. So we followed her up this staircase and as we climbed we could see the library through these glass walls. As we climbed, Dr. Lupas explained that this library was the Museum of Biblical Art. They had over 22,000 bibles in over 2000 languages and dialects from around the world. The library was behind an airlock door to ensure that the temperature and humidity in the library was accurately controlled. It was chock full of old leather bound books that one only sees in movies. I was in book heaven – LOL.
As we entered through the airlock Dr. Lupas simply pointed over toward a shelf full of books and says “that is the leaf from the Gutenberg Bible”. The table was not unlike any card table that we have in our basements. On the table was a plexiglass, standup page holder approximately 11” X 14“. And ….. Voila, Gutenberg!!!!
I was astounded …… totally underwhelmed ! It could have been the instructions on how to find the library bathroom. The display carried no sense of history or religion or anything else for that matter, I was shocked.
So my partner and I went over to the Gutenberg leaf and actually picked it up and examined it as Dr. Lupas looked on. There was something missing here ….. there was something in the Dr’s eye, a spark that said there was something in this library that inspired her to be the “American Bible Society Librarian”. It could not be this Gutenberg leaf.
So I turned to her and looked her straight in the eye and said “Dr. Lupas, in all these bibles and beautiful books there must be something special that causes you to be excited about your work. Is it possible that you might show us that?” And she said “What do you mean?” And I said “You look like you enjoy your work so much, there has to be something bigger than ….. something that makes you want to come to work in the morning” And she looked thoughtful for a moment and then she said “I’ll show you something follow me”
So we started walking down the aisle of the library, and all of a sudden Dr. Lupas stops and says”Oh! You might find this kind of interesting!” and she pulled this little book off-the-shelf. It was only about 4 inches by 6 inches. She asked “Do you know who William Tyndale was?” No, I said. “William Tyndale was one of the first men to translate the Bible from Latin to English.
There are only three of these Bibles left, because when Mr. Tyndale decided to translate the Bible, the church leaders were not inclined to allow just anyone to “ruin” the Holy Book. All of Mr. Tyndale’s bibles were destroyed and Mr. Tyndale was burned at the stake. “Humm thought I?” Of course everyone had heard about book burning, and we probably heard about witch burning, and I really hadn’t thought too much about burning a man because he had translated a book. And so Dr. Lupas continued “Come along then” she said as we followed her deeper into the shelves loaded with more bibles than you can imagine.
Eventually she stopped and pulled book off a shelf. It was about 10 x 12 inches more or less and it really didn’t look like anything so different than all the other beautiful books. But as she opened it up it was obvious that it was something I had never seen before. “This is a hymnal” said Dr. Lupas “printed around 1540 and it is depicting a different hymn on each double page. You can see that there are five columns, each column is in a different language. Latin, Roman, Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew.” And then she paused! And waited……. as we looked at it. Humm! I thought…. why was she so interested in this? Finally she said “Do you see the margin notes here?” There were margin notes printed in smaller type. “Can you read that?” she asked. I could see that it was in Latin. But then I thought “so what?” then I noticed the words Christopher Columbus but I could not understand any more …. “You see” she said “it says there that Christopher Columbus sailed out of Genoa, Italy. He may have sailed for the Kings of Spain but Columbus was Italian”.
Ahhh! ….. was my first thought and then …. “Well! Out of 22,000 Bibles in 2000 languages and dialects …. what was most important to Dr. Liana Lupas had nothing to do with the Bible …… nothing to do with religion ….. nothing to do with spreading the word of God ……. What was most important was that Christopher Columbus was Italian and not from Spain. Again, I was astounded!
As an aside many years later our family, Mona, Ryan, Alanna and I went to the Huntington Museum in Pasadena California. Mr. Huntington was a great book collector, and his library had a complete Gutenberg Bible. This book is approximately 2 feet tall by 18 inches wide and then opens to two pages and about five or 6 inches thick. I tell you this because it was so different from the leaf in the American Bible Society’s library. There was no resemblance.
The Huntington Bible was bound in leather and had illustrated components ….. absolutely beautiful!!!! I never did find out but my thought was that the leaf in the American Bible Society was likely a very early version of what Gutenberg had done. It is my understanding that there are approximately 37 Gutenberg Bible’s in existence. You can see another electronic picture of a Gutenberg Bible at
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