![[Bible. Latin Vulgate]. Mainz: Peter Schöffer, 1472.](https://www.reedgallery.co.nz/__data/assets/image/0020/1263323/5a.webp)
[Bible. Latin Vulgate]. Mainz: Peter Schöffer, 1472.
The Reed Bible Collection today numbers about 1,300 volumes, including many important editions, and is one of the largest Bible collections held by a public or academic institution in Australasia. The beginnings of the collection, however, were surprisingly modest. Of the substantial gift donated by Reed in 1948, less than twenty items were of a biblical nature.
Reed began collecting Bibles around 1907 and donated his original Bible collection to theological institutions in 1925. He then decided to build up a second collection which he would eventually donate to the Dunedin Public Library.
Imbued with an astute business sense, Reed knew he could not compete with wealthy collectors abroad. His collecting was driven largely by philanthropy, and he typically sought out second-tier copies, intending them not merely to be admired, but to be handled and studied.
The vast majority of ‘high-point’ Bibles in the Reed Collection were acquired by Reed after his original gift – the most fruitful period of acquisition occurring during the 1950s and early 1960s.
Seven years after the production of the Gutenberg Bible, Mainz-based printers Johann Fust and Peter Schoffer produced a Bible that was significant for several reasons. Firstly, it was the first example of a book designed and divided as two volumes. Secondly, it was the first example of a book to have printed the publishing details, giving the names of the printers and the date (14 August 1462). Most copies were printed on vellum and the font used was the new Italian humanistic style, rather than the older Gothic, as in the Gutenberg Bible.
Ten years later, Schoffer issued a second edition printed on paper using the same type and closely agreeing in text and layout with the first. A volume of this second edition is on display here. It is in superb condition, the hand-made 15th century paper looking almost as fresh as when it was made over 500 years ago.
The Reed Collection’s oldest printed book in a complete volume, it is open at the Epistle to Philemon (NT). A.H. Reed purchased it for the Library from Rosenkilde and Bagger of Copenhagen in 1962.