Page from the "Latin Bible"

The Catholic Bible in Latin compiled by the monk Menard and published by the famous German printer and bookseller Anton Koberger (c. 1440-1513) in Nuremberg, first belonged to the Lithuanian Evangelical Reformed Synod Library in Vilnius, founded in 1557 by Mikalojus “the Black” Radvila. The Bible entered the library as early as the 16th century. It is the only copy, which survived the fires that ravaged the library more than once, as evidenced by the burnt hole in the first eleven pages. In 1880, Julian Biergiel, an Evangelical Reformed priest, teacher at Slutsk Gymnasium and a bibliophile (1819-1885), restored the Bible. At the end of the book, he pasted a leaflet saying: “Zrestaurowana w Słucku przez X [iędza] J. Birgiela 1880 r.”