When an appraiser was asked to evaluate the American Bible Society's rare book collection, he made an alarming discovery. An active mold outbreak was attacking nearly a quarter of the 4,700 irreplaceable volumes. Located at 1865 Broadway in New York City, the American Bible Society's library houses the largest collection of Bibles in North America and includes rare volumes dating back to the 13th century.More than 300 languages are represented in the rare book collection, including early printed Bibles and a small collection of manuscripts. Prominent books include the first edition of the 1611 King James Bible, William Tyndale's Pentateuch of 1530, the Coverdale Bible of 1535 and Martin Luther's German translation of the Bible from 1522 to 1534. The collection also is rich in first translations of Scripture in Native American languages, including the first Bible printed in the New World (Eliot's Indian Bible of1663) and the only Scripture ever published in the Delaware language, dating from 1818.
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