By Armin Siedlecki, Head of Cataloging and Rare Book Cataloger
Photography by Ann McShane, Digital Asset Librarian
The addition of a 15th century incunable Bible to Pitts’ Special Collections is always a special occasion, one we have fortunately been able to celebrate often in the last few years. In fact, Pitts recently hosted an exhibition of its growing incunable collection (“incunable” is a word bibliographers use to describe books printed in Europe before the year 1501). One recent acquisition, though, warrants particular attention. Pitts recently acquired a Latin Vulgate Bible printed in 1489 by Johann Prüss (1446/7-1510) in Strasbourg. This Bible contains several manuscript inscriptions at the beginning and end of the book, likely written by someone who owned this Bible in the 16th century.
Of particular interest are the mentions on the title page of the year of Martin Luther’s birth (1483), his death (1546), and the year of his “apostasy” (1518). The last of these raises a number of questions, especially since 1518 is an unusual year to identify as Luther’s “apostasy,” presumably his break with the Roman church. Luther posted his 95 Theses in 1517, and he was officially excommunicated by Rome in January 1521. The year 1518, while a significant year in Luther’s developing fight with the church, was still a time of negotiations, marked prominently by Luther’s meeting in Augsburg with the papal legate Thomas Cajetan (1469-1534). The Leipzig Disputation between Luther and the Catholic theologian Johann Eck was held in June and July of 1519. Pope Leo X’s papal bull condemning Luther, Exsurge Domine, was not published until June of 1520. Why does this inscription specify 1518 as the year of “apostasy”? In addition to this question about the odd year mentioned, the inscription also raises the question of the theological position of this previous owner who is inscribing the book. Was the inscriber a fan of Luther? If the inscriber was a supporter of Luther’s reforms, why would he speak of his “apostasy?” If he viewed Luther negatively, however, why would he record Luther’s birth and death dates at the front of his (very nice) Bible? We will, of course, likely never know the true answers to these questions, but the inscription remains a curious remnant, left by a former reader of this Bible who may have been an eye-witness to the events of the Protestant Reformation. We invite you to come see this and other curious incunables in our Special Collections by making an appointment online.
