Sometimes, things become valuable and historic because they were mistakes: the Inverted Jenny, for instance, is a postage stamp that’s legendary because the airplane in its center pane is upside down. Similarly, the Vinegar Bible is so named because of numerous typographical errors in its print run that include referring to the “Parable of the Vineyard” as the “Parable of the Vinegar.” The Lunenburg edition that’s making headlines in Canada this weekend was printed in 1717, and is one of seven left of that group, according to an article in the Vancouver Sun.
The reason it’s getting attention is only partially because it’s a rare edition, though. Turns out that the Lunenburg Vinegar Bible went missing for some 200 years:
The Lunenburg Vinegar Bible once belonged to Rev. Robert Vincent, the town’s original schoolmaster and the second Anglican missionary assigned to the fishing town’s fledgling St. John’s Church. Vincent died early, leaving a poverty-stricken widow who sold the Bible to the governor of Nova Scotia at the time, Michael Francklin, in 1766. Francklin brought the book back to England in 1772, where it’s presumed to have remained in his family collection.
But little is known about the volume until it turned up at Cambridge University about 20 years ago.
It is known that Francklin kept notes in the back of the Bible, including births and deaths of family members and where they are buried in Halifax. Historians hope that further study could reveal some clues about the early days of the colony.
“It’s tremendously exciting to get this Bible returned to us,” says historian and St. John’s Anglican Church parishioner George Munroe.
Munroe said the Lunenburg Vinegar Bible is as significant to the historic fishing village southwest of Halifax as the Gutenberg Bibles are to the world of publishing.
“This is extremely valuable for us to have this returned,” Munroe said.
The book was once part of the pulpit of Lunenburg’s historic St. John’s Anglican Church, founded 255 years ago and considered to be one of the finest examples of a style of construction called Carpenter Gothic. The church was destroyed by fire on Nov. 1, 2001, but has been painstakingly restored by local craftsmen after an international fundraising effort.
“Having the Bible back is frosting on the cake,” Munroe said.
You can read the whole thing here.