![\"\"](\"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bookhistory2020\/files\/2020\/02\/IMG_20200225_155254534-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSometimes when we look at the publication date on a book, we assume that what we see is what we get. This often isn’t the case, however. This is most easy to understand when one reads a lot of academic books as I do. If you read an academic book that was published in 2017, the author may note that the research was finished in 2015 or 2014. This is also true of fiction books, where the first draft may have been written years before it was published or where the idea for it was conceived even decades before pen touched paper. The finished product of the book is a bit like the above-ground part of a plant, leafy and flowery and easy to spot. What we often don’t see it the root, the structures and forces in place that pushed the book’s creation in the first place.<\/p>\n
In order to discover how this book began, I had to start by looking at the end. The colophon of the book would contain important information in discovering where and how my book came to be.<\/p>\n
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The colophon was partially transcribed in the library catalog,<\/a> and read:<\/p>\n “Exactum est Nuremberge insigne hoc: ac inusitatum opus Bibliae unacum postillis venerandii viri ordinis minorum fratris Nicolai de Lyra; cumque additionibus per venerabilem episcopum Paulum Burgensem editis; ac replicis magistri Mathiae Dorinck eiusdem ordinis minorum fratris … impensisque Anthonii Kobergers praefatae ciuitatis incolae. Anno incarnatae deitatis M CCCCXCIII, die vero duodecima Aprilis<\/em> ”<\/p>\n When I ran it through a translator, it read something like this:<\/p>\n “Exactor ‘is the Nuremberge of which this honorable: The men of the Order of Minors, and the unusual, in the work of the Bible, together with that of his brother of Nicholas of Lyra postillis venerandii; And when the venerable bishop Paul of Burgos, by the additions issued; … At their expense, and the brother of Antonio replicis the Master of the Order of Minors of Kobergers of Mathias effects of the aforesaid Dorinck of the city of the inhabitants of the same. In 1000 Year of Deity 493, the twelfth day of April” While there are some apparent translation errors,\u00a0 a number of important information is revealed nonetheless. First, the date in which the book was made- the year of our lord 1493- and the location of printing, Nuremberg, Germany.\u00a0 A number of names also appear, including Nicholas de Lyra and Koberger. These people were both involved in the making of this New Testament.<\/p>\n Anton Koberger is cited in the catalog entry as the printer. He was a “printer, book trader, and large-scale entrepreneur,”<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 operating during the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century. Located in Nuremberg, he began his career as a goldsmith but pivoted to printing around the end of the 14th century. Soon he became wildly successful, outstripping other printers who he was in competition with, and before 1500 had produced 200 works<\/a>, including this Vulgate New Testament.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The second name, Nicolai De Lyra<\/a>, was a French doctor of theology who lived from 1270 to 1340. He is significant because he made the first printed political commentary, and was notable because of his extensive commentary on the New Testament. Interestingly, his commentary often focused on literal meaning as opposed to the allegorical. His work was an influence of Martin Luther.<\/p>\n Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n The origins of my book, however, go even farther back than the 14th century. The New Testament I have been looking after had been written in Vulgate Latin. Vulgate Latin<\/a> was a translation of the Bible that came about during the late 4th or early 5th century, a good thousand years or so before my book was made. This version of the Latin Bible was transcribed by Saint Jerome, who had been commissioned by Pope Damascus to update the four gospels from their old Latin. He did so, and after the death of the Pope, he continued to revise the Bible. This version became the most commonly used<\/a> version of the Catholic church from the 13th century to the 16th century.<\/p>\n In tackling the issue of origin for my Pet Book, I discovered a history that was even older than the 500-year-old book itself. Even if we ignore the origins of Christianity, which came into being about 1400 years before my book was printed, the verbal text printed in my book is over a thousand years older than my book. The commentary in my book came over a hundred years before my book was printed. In many ways, although the New Testament has no clear author, the book came from the labor of many individuals separated by time and space- Nicholas de Lyra in France, Saint Jerome in Rome, and Anton Korberger in Germany. The origins of this book are deeply rooted.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sometimes when we look at the publication date on a book, we assume that what we see is what we get. This often isn’t the case, however. This is most easy to understand when one reads a lot of academic books as I do. If you read an academic book that was published in 2017, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9592,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bookhistory2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3604"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bookhistory2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bookhistory2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bookhistory2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9592"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bookhistory2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3604"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bookhistory2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4351,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bookhistory2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3604\/revisions\/4351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bookhistory2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bookhistory2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bookhistory2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bookhistory2020\/files\/2020\/03\/Anton.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bookhistory2020\/files\/2020\/03\/Nick-174x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"