Ancient, Rare Texts Donated to Bucknell Archives
LEWISBURG, Pa. - A new study-collection donated to the Ellen Clarke Bertrand Library's Special Collections/University Archives by Bart and Joyce De Gregorio, parents of Nick De Gregorio '07, is generating a scholarly buzz at Bucknell.
The study-collection includes "The Thirteenth-Century Bible," an imprint published in 1994 with an original leaf from a French Bible of that era; a leaf from a psalter, or book of psalms, produced for a member of the French court; a linen fragment containing two lines from "The Egyptian Book of the Dead" and a vellum fragment with two lines of Bactrian script from a business contract.
"The Thirteenth-Century Bible" is a bound volume incorporating an explanatory essay, with an original illuminated leaf from a French Bible circa A.D. 1200-1225. "Illuminated" refers to the decoration of the parchment page with color and burnished gold.
The leaf from the psalter, circa A.D. 1200, is on vellum and includes similar illumination in red and blue inks and burnished gold.
The Egyptian fragment with lines from "The Book of the Dead," circa 800 B.C., is a sample of texts commissioned by Egyptians to serve as a guidebook to a happy afterlife.
The Bactrian contract fragment, circa A.D. 467, is a rare example of Bactrian script from a small number of recently discovered documents.
For a more detailed story on the collection, click De Gregorio Study Collection
