San Gabriel Bible

In my wife's quest to visit each of the 21 missions in California before we return to Mexico (and probably visit more, even older missions), we spent the day at the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel in San Gabriel, CA. I would think that when you have seen one mission, you have seen them all, but that is not at all the case.

San Gabriel was mission number four, founded 8 September, 1771. It contains a small museum chock full of items, some dating from the 1500s, including this bible. The explanatory sign said this is a complete bible in six volumes, bound in sheep-skin (vellum), and printed in 1588 in Venice, Italy. I was amazed that a book set of this value was simply sitting in a glass case with no one around (on a Wednesday afternoon we had the place to ourselves). There were dozens of other books in cases throughout the museum, but none had a "brand" like the one shown here.