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The 'family bible', with tooled leather and ormolu corners, would have been a wedding-present to my maternal grandparents who married 27 March 1888. Their names, and that date, are handwritten inside but, although there are pages for family photos etc, nothing else has been added. The great tome shows little sign of having been in frequent use - not surprising: it weighs 5.2 kilos.
The New Testament weighs a mere 65g. It's dated 1818, and printed mostly in 3-point type (which means upper-case is one twentyfourth of an inch high, or a hairsbreadth more than 1.0 mm). It's virtually unreadable without a magnifier, but an astonishing example of miniature typeface casting.
I've never bought a Bible in my life, yet there are at least eleven in my house. One was a wedding gift from the minister who married Hannah (a church member) and me, the others I must have inherited. Infidel that I am, I wonder why I never threw them out.
Picture added on 21 February 2012 at 09:43
Stromness
