The Radziwill Bible

The Brest Bible or the Radziwill Bible is the first Bible ever printed on the territory of modern Belarus. It was published in the Brest printing house on September 4, 1563, ordered and funded by Mikałaj Radziwill «the Black» — the Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Starosta of Brest. Prince Radziwill considered the Bible the highest authority and the source of truth the society should live according to. Under his rule Berascie (Brest) became a real center of Reformation.

The Radziwill Bible was translated by a group of professionals from Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Brest Bible was the second Bible in the world (preceded only by the French translation by Robert Estienne) where text was divided into numbered verses.

The exact number of copies of the Brest Bible is unknown, however, according to various sources it is estimated at 400-500 copies. The cost of the publication was enourmous — 10,000 ducats! It is likely that the Brest Bible was printed either by Bernard Vayavodka or Cyprian Bazylik.

It was a big and heavy book with an engraved title page. The text was accompanied by beautiful hand-drawn first letters (initials) and lots of images on biblical themes. In total the Brest Bible consisted of 738 pages where the text was divided into two columns.

The Radziwill Bible contained a number of important introductions. For the convenience of readers, it contained a table with biblical reading plan for a year and a subject index which included more than 1,400 Biblical names.

The fact that the Radziwill Bible was reprinted multiple times proves how valuable it was. The New Testament from it was reprinted in Nesvizh (1563 and 1568), Brest (1566), Vilnius (1593) and Nuremberg (1599).